To be SO CROSS about fecking Microsoft Teams? RANT warning!

[HerselfIndoors]

It doesn't work! It's complicated, confusing and all over the place, then when you finally find some actual content from school, an actual assignment for your child to do or video to watch, it doesn't download or open - presumably because the system is overloaded. It's also not designed for Mac users so there's a whole load more dicking about to get that to work (if it's working at all).

I have my own work to do but just like last time, I'm going to be spending hours struggling with this stupid software. WHY don't school just make up a simple word or PDF document with reading and worksheets/assignments for the week, and email it to us? Then we could email back the completed work once a week. I could organise that myself, it doesn't take a genius. Instead everyone - teachers, parents and kids - is spending vast amounts of time trying to use an unnecessarily complex system.

I mean it's not as if losing hours of my work time every day MATTERS, it's only earning a fucking living in a pandemic! Oh and what a great idea to add a layer of extra stress and hassle to the kids' homeschooling day. FFS.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I'm so pissed off. I emailed school (politely) last time to suggest doing it a simpler way - totally ignored.

Is it just me? It's not that I've done it wrong - both techie ex and techie teen DS cant make it work this morning. But I need to calm down so having a rant here....

Teams allows teachers to set work and for students to upload it into a relevant team rather than getting hundreds of emails.

I know what it's meant to do, but if the net result is that it's wasting vast amounts of parents' and kids' time, I don't think that's good enough.

If (at least at primary) the teacher sent one document with the week's work in it and got that one document back by email once a week to mark, that wouldn't be hundreds of emails.

I agree Teams is v difficult and the assignments not editable. We’re using Oak Academy a lot instead, much more user friendly.

Teams is a modular product - so you get some elements for free like on line meetings, but once you want eg dial in phone numbers , they start to charge you. Might be the organiser is using the basic version.

You could try Xbox or PlayStation to access online learning.

Teams (in my experience) is SO much better than Google classroom the way my child’s school uses it anyway. I use MS Teams for work all day, every day and find it pretty straightforward but Google Classroom is just a giant jumble of stuff on a page. Finding anything they actually need to do takes half an hour and don’t get me started on submitting completed work. I share your pain (even if it’s a bit early on Mondays morning )

As a teacher, I honestly can't cope with students emailing work to me. I already get outlook pinging all day every day when I'm teaching from home, add to that what could be 100 assignments submitted every day, all with confusing subjects, work in all sorts of random formats, links that don't work. Teams shows me who has submitted, I know where it is, feedback is in the same place and and I can easily keep track of who is getting behind and who I've returned work to.

Email is a nightmare for submitting and returning work.

No issues here. Upload homework/ work to Satchel one and live lesson through teams. I haven't had to look at my kids laptop once, they get it. Yr7 and 9.

Downdetector is reporting widespread problems with Teams this morning.

Our school use Google Classroom. We've been unable to log in. DH & I, several hours each, both tried all our devices. No luck. Absolutely infuriating.

@GravityFalls why don't you give your pupils a subject title for the homework. Be firm - it must be under subject "blah blah" or it may be missed and not marked.

I would be so annoyed if all we got were PDF worksheets!

I'm glad you aren't a parent at my school. You sound extremely negative and like unless something is done the way that you like it, it isn't right. Your teen needs to contact his teachers and sort it out. If all the kids were struggling, the school would be doing something about it so it is clearly tech issues/capability your end.

Schools are using these platforms because they are designed for online learning. They allow interaction, organisation and quick sharing. If they were emailing out work the logistics would be a nightmare (all feedback on all the work you email back over a weekend and can't adapt their teaching depending on how the children are doing as they don't see the work).

Agree the way some teachers put the work on can be a pain
If they all put it in 'assignments' it would be so much easier! (rather than hiding it on class files, documents, pages...)

Saying that, it has been ok this morning and it is flexible for using on laptops, ipads, phones etc. as we are all juggling devices. Quizlet definitely better in the App, Oak learning easy on all, Powerpoints on laptop etc.

Agree the emailing would be a nightmare - but mine are in comp so teachers would be getting hundreds. Uploading everything in one area by just taking pics on their phones is much easier and when they 'hand in' it moves from 'assigned' to 'completed' so easier to keep track of whats due. I like that it comes up in due date order too.

Keep going - it can work well

DP uses Teams for work and said the issue is with how the teachers are uploading/organising stuff and not the app itself.

And I was suggesting returning a simple document once a week containing all the work. Obviously if you are getting hundreds of random emails a day that would be bad, but I'm talking about setting up a regular, simple system for the week's assignments.

Or if not email just use a simple web page that documents can be copied from and to.

Teams is intuitive and functional

i offer you Class Dojo as the most useless platform

We teach Y2 children live lessons on Teams. Yes, many need help but some of them can even log on independently .

I agree that it's glitchy though. And if you're frustrated, imagine how bloody frustrating it is for the teachers constantly having to deal with technical issues.

Thing is, originally some schools did exactly what you suggested & sent worksheets out. Lots of parents then complained that they wanted live lessons so that's what schools did. Now lots of parents are complaining about that....you can't win!!

DP uses Teams for work and said the issue is with how the teachers are uploading/organising stuff and not the app itself.

That makes sense. I use complex software in my own work and it's easy once you've learned it and got your head round it, but it would also be easy to mess up.

Could be wrong but wonder if it''s configuration or something regarding the instance as Mac and Ms Teams here seems OK, touch wood.

Good luck.

I hear you!

I think any system has its flaws. My work installed teams in 2019 but only really started using it with the first lockdown. I hated it initially and do think there needs to be improvements with where and how files are stored and workplaces need to put in rules/procedures but I do think it is improving and actually it has improved some of our working practices.

It's not just you and its not just mac. Our school seems to have set it up quite badly.

Both myself and DH have been using Teams for ages and it isnt the software it is a very good way of having both face to face meetings, messaging and storing documents and is linked (as it is microsoft) to outlook.

They can easily put work in folders etc and it is easy to open up as a word document and print it - teams can be a simple and safe way of doing

Does it depend on your technology? We aren't an Apple household and have no issue with Teams.

Is it because many Apple users aren't as used to Microsoft software?

I'm glad you aren't a parent at my school. You sound extremely negative and like unless something is done the way that you like it, it isn't right.

Oh where to start. I'm not a negative person, I am supportive of the school generally. Yes I feel negative this morning, as would you if your time was wasted. I don't want things to be done "the way I like it", I just want then to be done simply and effectively - not something my school is strong on but I usually try to go with it. As a teacher, your attitude is not great though - no sympathy whatsoever for parents who have anything to do other than support learning 24/7.

Your teen needs to contact his teachers and sort it out. If all the kids were struggling, the school would be doing something about it so it is clearly tech issues/capability your end.

As has been explained, Teams was overloaded this morning. It wasn't working and my DS was correct about that.

Schools are using these platforms because they are designed for online learning.

That doesn't mean they are good. Schools and other organisations use loads of terrible software, tight up to government level - it's a well known problem.