What should I know about Microsoft Teams?

[Opti]

Tomorrow I have a video call with a potential employer and who knows how many potential employees. My understanding is we will be muted except possibly at the end of the video call. What should I know? Anything I should try to learn or set up prior to the video call?

I have never used MS Teams. I use Zoom for virtual church and have yet to use FaceTime or similar.

[chiver78]

Teams operates pretty similarly to Zoom, for the average attendee. the host will still be able to mute large groups of attendees, but I think you can override that in Teams unlike Zoom (I could be wrong). there's a chat feature, etc. 

the only thing I'd worry about ahead of time is making sure you can access the meeting. I've had some issues recently where I can't log in to recurring meetings with the meeting code. but I also have to call in separately b/c my laptop mic is hosed. if you're going to use the built-in mic/camera, it will all automatically sync up when you join the meeting. 

[tractor]

Like zoom, if you turn on your camera, everyone can see you. I'm amazed at how many people forget that and start eating, or walk away, or yell at their kids/dog etc. it's very annoying to the other participants.

I like teams better than zoom, I find it easier to navigate and turn on/off mute, I have two-three teams meeting a day... it's second nature now. You can make your background fuzzy if you don't want anyone to see your messy house, it's also easy to turn on different backgrounds.

[tractor]

I should add, if they send you a meeting invite, all you have to do is click the link to connect. If you haven't used it before, allow a few minutes to load the program before you start. You can also turn on the camera and see how you will look to others before you join the meeting in case you want to adjust your camera (I often put my laptop on a box for a better angle).

There are several adjustments you can make before you have to click the "join meeting" button

[Opti]

I ended up joining the call by browser instead of downloading the Client to the desktop. (Maintenance stopped by to do the fix at too close to the call time so I started accessing 5- minutes instead of in the 5 to 10 minute range as originally planned.

It was a very useful meeting and turns out NJ DOL does host these types of meetings regularly as do some employers scheduled through them. Anything else I should know about installing the client? Backgrounds, settings?

I'll probably see if the library has a book on MS Teams to cut down my screen time. Thanks for all the help so far!

[Opti]

Does anyone know if you can or should download multiple types of MS teams?

I see one download for Work and School and then two options for Home and Small Business based on Windows version.

[tractor]

I don't think it really matters which version you use. I doubt there's much difference, maybe an extra add on or something. Stick with the business one and you will be fine. I suspect the school one might be simpler, with more animated options.

I don't believe you can install two versions at once without having operational errors.

[Spellbound454]

I have been teaching on microsoft teams

Its great:.... they arrive, I take the register, put them all on mute... and then plough through my lesson.
They can ask questions by putting their hand up and typing in the chat..... they like to have their names mentioned, so I'll ask individually for responses.

Everything I want to teach is on slides so I'll just bring up the power point, talk through it and give them timed activities.
They then send me their work for marking.

One thing I have noticed is that its not easy to show videos..... not all of them can see it from my computer....So I just send them a link and tell them to meet me back here in 5 minutes.

I don't have my camera on unless its a parents evening.... just a privacy thing (don't want to end up on youtube)

[formerroomate99]

Teams is way less of a bandwidth hog than WebEx teams is. And it has a lot of cool features, like letting you share documents. It even works well on my iPhone.