Posted by Stephen Woicik on March 31, 2020

We wanted to share some updates from the Technology Department after having some time with distance learning.

It is amazing to see how quickly and efficiently the district has made the adjustment to distance learning. It’s very encouraging to see how supportive and flexible, staff, teachers, students, and parents have been. We are off to a great start with more to do.

Google Meet

Many teachers have been using Google Meet to host their virtual classrooms. To help, we have put together a tips and tricks page. We hope you find this useful and will be adding more as we can.

A couple more useful things to remember:

• At this time, attendance in a virtual meeting is still optional for the students.
• The student can not be required to activate their video or audio in the meeting.

And one last useful extension for teachers to use when dealing with a large group of students, Google Meet Grid View.

Google Meet Recording

You may have noticed Google Meet has the ability to record sessions. The recording is then uploaded automatically to your Google Drive for distribution. This is a great tool, but there are a few restrictions to keep in mind.

Recording are best used for recording yourself. Start a Google Meet, share you Google Slide or other presentation, and record yourself giving a lesson. The video created can then be shared through Google Drive or Google Classroom for your students.

Recording can not be used to record student’s audio or video. Student should not be in the recoding in any way.

Call Out with Google Meet

This has been asked several times in meetings and on the Support Portal, how can I call parents or students without sharing my phone number?

This is possible through Google Meet:

• Start a Google Meet with just yourself
• In the top right, click the People icon
• Click Add People
• Select the Dial Tab
• Enter the phone number of the parent or student
• Click Call

More information can be found on Google Support

Student Data Privacy Policies

Many of you have submitted request for additional software to use with students. We have been keeping a list of these requests and are working to get agreements in place with the vendors. This does take time and every vendor is being flooded with requests.

Please be patient and understand we are doing what we can.

Library Resources

If you are looking for new software and resources that are already available to you, the library page of each school is a great resource.

The librarians have done a great job of compiling online resources and software you can use with your classroom today.

Parent and Student Questions

There is a lot of support needed for parents and students with the new technology. Many will reach out to teachers directly, since that is who they are comfortable with.

If this happens, we ask that teachers direct the parent or student to contact support@agawamed.org directly. This will allow us to support them better and communicate any follow up questions.

If the email is simply forwarded from a teacher’s email, often important information is not included.