Hello and welcome to Mr Tompkins edtech. This series of videos are to help you get to grips
with online learning and your virtual classroom in Microsoft Teams. If you still need a hand
getting started with Teams, check out these other videos first which will help you install
the app and find your class. In this video we’ll be taking a look at live online lessons
delivered through Microsoft Teams. I’ll show you how to find and join the lesson,
we’ll look at the rules and etiquette of online learning, and I’ll share some tips
and strategies to help you get the most out of these learning opportunities.
So first up, how do you know you have a live lesson that you need to attend? Well, firstly
you should receive an email sent to your school email account with the date and time of the
meeting. In that mail there should be buttons you can press to indicate to the teacher whether
you will be attending or not. It is good practice to reply, but not essential. If you do accept,
your teacher will be able to see that you have received the invite and you have indicated
that you are going to be attending. You should also get an event appearing in
your calendar within outlook. Now notice when you tap on this, you have a “join” button
on it, which, if you click on it, will actually take you into the meeting within Teams. Now
you are likely to get this invite long before the start time for the lesson, so no need
to press it just yet. It’s just good to know it’s there when you do want to join.
You’ll see this same event appearing in the Calendar tab within Teams too, and that
also has a “join” button when you click on it. There will also be a post created in
the Teams class group, for the live lesson, plus if you’ve allowed notifications for
Teams on your device, you should get a pop up or notification just before the meeting
to remind you to join. So that loads of different ways you’ll be notified, and it’s going
to be hard to argue that you didn’t know about it!
Ok, so you know you have a live lesson and you are ready to join – what happens now?
Well, once you press the “join” button, on any one of the places that it appears,
you will be taken into what’s called the “lobby”. If you’ve played any online
games you will be familiar with this concept - its kind of a staging area where you can
set everything up as you want it before actually entering the lesson itself. You can turn your
camera on or off, and also your microphone. Most schools ask you to join with your microphone
switched off, and they will tell you if you need to have your camera on or off. Once you
have things set up the way you want them, click on the join button to indicate that
you are ready to enter the virtual lesson. Now the teacher will know you are waiting
in the lobby and will let you into the lesson once they are ready for you. You might have
to be patient, and wait a little while before you’ll be let in. Especially if you are
a little bit early, as the teacher might not have joined themselves yet or got things set
up, or if you are a little bit late, as the teacher may have already begun the lesson
and they don’t want to interrupt the flow of things by letting you in straight away.
So just wait a while until you are invited in and the lesson starts for you.
During the lesson, you should be able to see and hear your teacher, and depending on your
school’s rules around cameras, you may or may not be able to see the other students
too. Teams can show up to 49 participants , and
so in a big class this might mean that the teacher’s video feed ends up being pretty
small Now you can tap on someone’s video feed and “pin” them, which will make their
video feed much bigger, and everyone else will be squished down to the bottom of the
screen or disappear altogether. Pinning someone like this is not going to change anyone else’s
view – it’s just how the lesson will be shown on your own screen. It is a great way
to just focus on the teacher and what they are saying and not get distracted by the other
students. Now if the teacher is giving a PowerPoint
presentation or something like that, this will be shown full screen for everyone. Whilst
presenting the lesson they may give you tasks to do, just as they would in a lesson in a
normal classroom. They might post instructions, links or extra information in the chat window,
so its good to know that you can view that inside the meeting by pressing this little
speech bubble on the meeting toolbar.
If you want to ask or answer a question during the lesson, there is also a “hands up”
button on the toolbar that you can tap and which will indicate to the teacher that you
have something to say. Depending on your class’s rules, the teacher
might then either invite you to turn on your microphone and ask your question, or they
might tell you to open the chat box and type in your question in there. If you do come
on to microphone, don’t forget to mute it again once you have finished asking your question.
Once the lesson is over, you can simply press the “hang up” button, to leave the class,
or the teacher might end the lesson for everyone and you will be automatically removed. Most
schools are recording these lessons so that students can watch them again, or catch up
if they missed them for one reason or another. Normally you’ll see a banner at the top
of the meeting if this is the case. It usually takes a little bit of time for the video of
the lesson to process, but generally you should find it becomes available within an hour of
the lesson finishing. You’ll find a link to the video in the same
post thread that announced the lesson, along with any comments that were made in chat.
Alternatively, you can go to Microsoft Stream by clicking on the waffle – you can see
mine is pinned here, but you might need to go down and click on “all apps” before
you see it. Once you get to stream, click on the “my content” menu and select “meetings”,
and it will show you all the videos of all the live lessons you have attended. On mobile,
you might be better installing the “Microsoft stream” app from the app store or play store
and finding them through the app. Your teacher is going to give you some very
specific rules that you will need to follow during these lesson, but here is some good
general advice for live lessons in Teams: • Find a quiet spot in your house to sit
and work during the live lesson. This should be in a family room and not your bedroom,
with enough space for you and your device and a bit of extra desk space to work on.
• If you are going to turn the camera on, make sure you are dressed appropriately.
• Make sure you have something to write with and also to write on in case you want
to take notes or participate in a paper based activity, and that you have any other equipment
or books or resources that you normally need for that lesson with you, such as your calculator.
You don’t want to be rushing around collecting these things during the lesson.
• Be on time for the start of the lesson. If you are late, you’ll miss the start and
you might have to wait in the lobby until the teacher notices you and lets you in.
• Don’t eat or drink during the lesson. No-one wants to watch you chewing in full
HD or listen to you munching in dolby stereo. • Make sure you are fully focused on the
lesson and don’t have other distractions around you – put your phone out of reach,
turn your music and tv off. Close your other apps and browser tabs and turn off notifications
if you can. It is really easy for these things to intrude on your learning and for you to
lose focus. • Headphones sometimes help if there are
other noises you cant control around you. • Try to participate fully in whatever activities
the teacher is asking the class to do. Learning is pro-active and you will learn better and
retain much more information if you get more involved.
• Finally - be positive – we all know that the situation at the moment is not ideal,
but its important that we all make the most of the opportunities we have and do the best
job we can with what we are given. Be patient, helpful, kind and understanding if things
don’t go quite to plan or the teacher is having some technical difficulties. This is
new for everyone, and we are all learning together.
Live lessons in Teams can be really great and are definitely much more engaging than
just having to work everything out yourself alone at home. I wish you a great start to
the new term and hope you quickly settle in to this new way of working. I’ll be looking
at assignments next and how to complete these and hand them in, so see you on the next video!