Zoom Free Education and the 40 minute limit?

[Rob_D]

Teachers here have really gotten into Zoom, but now the lock-down is starting to be lifted I'm wondering how long until they put 40 limit back on free (education) accounts.

Has anyone heard anything about Zoom putting things "back to normal"? I can't see anything about a potential timescale on their website. I just hope we get plenty of notice to ween the staff back off Zoom.

 

Thanks!

[mavhc]

Tell them Microsoft Zoom and Google Zoom don't have time limits. Although subjecting children to >40 min video conference seems inhumane

[Rob_D]

We tried pushing Teams at the start but got some really hard push-back, mostly regarding not being able to see everyone, and now there's a pretty common conception among the staff that Teams is unstable with larger (whole class) groups.

Now I'm worried the first I'll know that Zoom has turned the limit back on is when the head gets kicked out of a meeting half way through.

[LeMarchand]

Now I'm worried the first I'll know that Zoom has turned the limit back on is when the head gets kicked out of a meeting half way through.

 

Point at the emails you sent recommending Teams or Meet and feel smug?

[Chaniel]

As per this KB article, it says to monitor this blog post for any changes to the program but no update yet. Wouldn't hurt to email them to try to get clarification.

 

We're in the same boat, but we'll be moving to Google Meet, currently up in the air what things will look like from September so we're making all the training available now so that staff can move across at their own pace.

 

My recommendation is get your training material together for Google Meet/Teams and start to teach staff how to use it now with the expectation that from September you won't be using Zoom at all. Show your BM the pricing for Zoom education and you should be able to get them on-side to encourage staff to use the (free!) alternatives.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Chaniel

[keyboards]

Just use meet or teams, just because the use it at home doesn't make it suitable for work and also if you're a Microsoft or Google school they should be using them products.

 

From playing with zoom I found lots of faults, like being able to draw on the screen but it doesn't show who it is, Zoom is a great business product but not needed at all for far simpler needs in education

 

Also I know how to use Meet to a degree, Zoom i don't have a clue, who is going to administer it, who is going to support it? Have you had training in Zoom? Whose going to review the settings to make them safeguarding appropriate? This sort of stuff needs to stop in schools,

Edited June 24, 2020 by keyboards

[DGardiner]

now there's a pretty common conception among the staff that Teams is unstable with larger (whole class) groups.

We had this, apparently google meet doesnt work with over so many users... and has nothing to do with the users wifi/4g and the audio feedback of 20+ people with the audio on speakers causing a feedbackloop.

 

 

We blocked all zoom emails/invites coming in at the start, people shouldnt be using unsanctioned services for anything let alone anything remotely confidential - We had people from the local authorities trying to conduct child protection meetings over it the week when all the zoom drama kicked off, wether this was approved by the authorities or not i have no idea but we noped out of tha - Had a bit of hastle from some staff who just dont accept they cant have their own way.

 

 

I do however wish google would pull out their finger and incorporated a few more features...

[paulkerton]

Teachers here have really gotten into Zoom, but now the lock-down is starting to be lifted I'm wondering how long until they put 40 limit back on free (education) accounts.

Has anyone heard anything about Zoom putting things "back to normal"? I can't see anything about a potential timescale on their website. I just hope we get plenty of notice to ween the staff back off Zoom.

 

Thanks!

Google and Microsoft committed the paid features of Meet and Teams respectively for 6 months, so I would assume Zoom will move when Google and Microsoft do, towards the end of September.

Though things may still change and they might do regional switching on and off of free offers depending on second waves and things like that.

 

I'd definitely move towards Meet and Teams in the future though, dependent on whether you're a Google or Microsoft school.

[paulkerton]

Had a bit of hastle from some staff who just dont accept they cant have their own way.

Happens a lot in Education. Especially with teachers who've done it their entire career. Those who've come in a bit later from other industries seem to be far more realistic, I've found.

 

I do however wish google would pull out their finger and incorporated a few more features...

 

Moderation, break out rooms, background blur/replace, noise cancellation, raising hands, polling, Q&A and jamboard integration are all on the roadmap.

 

No ETA's on them though, and they're not declaring which will be in Edu and which will be in Enterprise for Edu yet, but I would personally assume that moderation, raising hands, background blur/replace and jamboard integration will be likely available to everyone at least.

Edited June 24, 2020 by paulkerton

[keyboards]

Happens a lot in Education. Especially with teachers who've done it their entire career. Those who've come in a bit later from other industries seem to be far more realistic, I've found.

 

 

 

Moderation, break out rooms, background blur/replace, noise cancellation, raising hands, polling, Q&A and jamboard integration are all on the roadmap.

 

No ETA's on them though, and they're not declaring which will be in Edu and which will be in Enterprise for Edu yet, but I would personally assume that moderation, raising hands, background blur/replace and jamboard integration will be likely available to everyone at least.

There's an extension we're using for breakout rooms that works fine.

[paulkerton]

There's an extension we're using for breakout rooms that works fine.

I go by the general rule that if there's an extension that'll do it for free or a competitor that offers the feature for free, Google will likely make it free in the official version too.

[jthompson]

There's an extension we're using for breakout rooms that works fine.

 

Interesting. I was asked about using extensions for hand-raising amongst other things, but said no to using any extensions. We can't enforce it for users as some may be using apps or non-Chrome browsers, so bascially don't rely on extensions for any features.

 

How does the breakout rooms extension work? Is it just needed for the teacher, or do all clients need it too?

[keyboards]

Interesting. I was asked about using extensions for hand-raising amongst other things, but said no to using any extensions. We can't enforce it for users as some may be using apps or non-Chrome browsers, so bascially don't rely on extensions for any features.

 

How does the breakout rooms extension work? Is it just needed for the teacher, or do all clients need it too?

 

We've got it just enabled for teachers, I haven't used it much myself but it gives you a list of participants and you can create rooms from it, I think it even has a random feature where it will split the class into x amount of groups etc

 

We try and get all our staff to sign into chrome really, makes deploying everything like extensions far easier

Edited June 24, 2020 by keyboards

[ITGuyNW]

We tried pushing Teams at the start but got some really hard push-back, mostly regarding not being able to see everyone, and now there's a pretty common conception among the staff that Teams is unstable with larger (whole class) groups.

Now I'm worried the first I'll know that Zoom has turned the limit back on is when the head gets kicked out of a meeting half way through.

 

Teams are launching 7x7 screens soon

 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/education-blog/20-updates-for-microsoft-teams-for-education-including-7x7-video/ba-p/1457748

[DGardiner]

Happens a lot in Education. Especially with teachers who've done it their entire career. Those who've come in a bit later from other industries seem to be far more realistic, I've found.

Moderation, break out rooms, background blur/replace, noise cancellation, raising hands, polling, Q&A and jamboard integration are all on the roadmap.

No ETA's on them though, and they're not declaring which will be in Edu and which will be in Enterprise for Edu yet, but I would personally assume that moderation, raising hands, background blur/replace and jamboard integration will be likely available to everyone at least.

hopefully its quick, one thing i like about the situation is its kind of forced alot of people to move into this century techwise.

 

sending an army of staff to a school 50 miles away with expenses/wasted travel time etc out of old habit can hopefully be stopped and these things used in their place!

[KK20]

the main issue with teams is that private chat from student to teacher is not possible whilst blocking student to student. I know this "feature" is in preview but that is almost a deal breaker. Meetings that dont expire for 30 days (or is it 60?) is also iffy. I would love to start weaning people off zoom. I'll probably simply block it from september and pretend only "microsoft zoom" is available.

[nathan]

Am i the only one who has banned the use of Zoom due to it's security issues? They may have rectified some but lets be honest, a company that operates with glaring issues for so long is really to be trusted?

 

i usually just send them this news article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52391531

[LeMarchand]

Am i the only one who has banned the use of Zoom due to it's security issues? They may have rectified some but lets be honest, a company that operates with glaring issues for so long is really to be trusted?

 

i usually just send them this news article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52391531

 

I think most of us have tried to stop its use, but have been overridden. My schools are now using Meet/Teams "internally", but the crusade against Zoom isn't helped by people in the council/various agencies/training peeps insisting on using Zoom.

 

Gonna send that article around now!

[paulkerton]

Am i the only one who has banned the use of Zoom due to it's security issues?

Nope. We did the same. If you're asked to join someone else's from an external body we allow that or if you're using it personally (like a staff quiz night) then we can't stop that but all business functions are specifically not going through Zoom.

We've also had organisations insist we use other platforms as the lead partner in a meeting, platforms we don't use, haven't got setup and have no intention of doing so. We've but a stop to that too. If the organisation insists on using something that we don't, the organisation can arrange it.

[jthompson]

We haven't banned its use as some meetings with external orgs are done using Zoom, but staff have been instructed to not use it for lessons. The security of those external meetings won't be my responsibility, and the meetings are fairly critical things (child protection cases, etc,) so it's not my place to tell them what they should use. The software client can't be run on our machines (security policies), so people are forced to use the web app. Similarly with external meetings run using Teams, which we're not really using internally either.

 

As for meetings being hijacked by trolls, etc. I expect that's more likely to be down to user mistakes around meeting settings or compromised client devices rather Zoom themselves. When you're dealing with participants from all sorts of different organisations, who's to say that there aren't a few compromised email accounts or compromised Zoom accounts or malware-ridden home laptops in play there?

Edited June 25, 2020 by jthompson

[LeMarchand]

As for meetings being hijacked by trolls, etc. I expect that's more likely to be down to user mistakes around meeting settings or compromised client devices rather Zoom themselves. When you're dealing with participants from all sorts of different organisations, who's to say that there aren't a few compromised email accounts or compromised Zoom accounts or malware-ridden home laptops in play there?

 

I believe things have improved since that article, but apparently it was possible to have an "anyone with the link is in" meeting that people would publicly post the links to. I think the links may now be somewhat hidden, so that Uncle Fred would have to search for it.

 

Never used Zoom, so don't take the above as gospel.

[Arthur]

I believe things have improved since that article

Zoom has improved, although there's still room for further improvement.

 

• Best Practices for Securing Your Virtual Classroom
  
• Secure Your Meetings with Zoom Waiting Rooms
  
• Zoom for K-12 Schools & Districts Privacy Policy
  

My school uses Google Meet, but I wish Google would implement some of Zoom's features. Meet is really basic.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Arthur

[paulkerton]

My school uses Google Meet, but I wish Google would implement some of Zoom's features. Meet is really basic.

Breakout rooms, Q&A, Polls, Background blur/replace, noise cancellation, digital whiteboarding using Jamboard integration, raising hands and meeting moderation controls are all on the roadmap for Google Meet. In a mix of Edu and Enterprise Edu tiers (but which go into which hasn't been announced yet)

[nathan]

I believe things have improved since that article, but apparently it was possible to have an "anyone with the link is in" meeting that people would publicly post the links to. I think the links may now be somewhat hidden, so that Uncle Fred would have to search for it.

 

Never used Zoom, so don't take the above as gospel.

 

They have definitely improved it, but what sort of company runs its service with such big gaping holes for so long.

[jthompson]

They have definitely improved it, but what sort of company runs its service with such big gaping holes for so long.

 

One focused on growth. It worked, too!