3 Is Teams for Me?
What is it?
Microsoft Teams can be a very powerful educational tool for interactive and collaborative courses. It was built, as the title implies, to allow people to work in teams while remaining within the Microsoft infrastructure (Word, Excel, One Drive etc…). While it is possible to give people different roles and to maintain central control over your course, that is not the easiest way to use this platform. While Microsoft is building new tools every month to make Teams more of an ‘education platform’, that is not its strength.
When should I use it?
- If you’re looking for lots of interaction between you and your students, and to allow students to have a ready made platform for collaboration
- If you want your learning environment to feel more like a “team” rather than a clear separation between teacher and student
- If you are looking for a collaborative learning platform that helps foster strong student-teacher and student-student relationships
- If you want a platform that better simulates a professional workforce environment
When should I not use it?
- If you want a system that is ‘plug and play’, you should probably use your LMS (Learning Management System)
- If you want a very structured, linear teaching experience
- If you want tools like quizzes and assignments built into your environment
- If you want a transactional, top down classroom
Feedback/Errata