Our Zoom Teacher Keeps Her Camera Off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this normal? She showed her face the first two days and then stopped. My kid is 9/4th grade. And no, nothing is wrong with our computer, teacher is alive and well, blah blah blah.

Our does the same to conceal she's drinking pina coladas at the beach!!! Teachers have it sooooo good!

[Anonymous]

Is she doing it while she’s presenting slides or something? I could see that, to reduce distractions and so she could lean into the screen and use the mouse or whatever without looking weird.

[Anonymous]

My students didn’t see me when I was presenting slides, or sharing my screen in any way, like using the whiteboard function to demonstrate problems. Is this not normal? If I knew there was a way to show my face as well as sharing my screen I would have, but was unaware there was a way. Most of my zoom classes were using the whiteboard, so my students saw me at the beginning and the end but that was it. I tried switching back and forth at the beginning, but it got confusing because students could see what I was talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My students didn’t see me when I was presenting slides, or sharing my screen in any way, like using the whiteboard function to demonstrate problems. Is this not normal? If I knew there was a way to show my face as well as sharing my screen I would have, but was unaware there was a way. Most of my zoom classes were using the whiteboard, so my students saw me at the beginning and the end but that was it. I tried switching back and forth at the beginning, but it got confusing because students could see what I was talking about.

Sorry, COULDN’T see what I was talking about

[Anonymous]

Same here. My students see me at the beginning and end of classes but most of class is me sharing slides, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it helps with bandwidth issues. We do this at work all the time for that reason.

Yes, this is likely the issue. While working with students on Zoom, there have been days where I've had to turn off cameras because otherwise we'd not make it through the session. The tech issues can be significant. I am hardwired, but most students are on wifi.

[Anonymous]

Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem because MCPS is providing internet for the those who don't have it.

DD's teacher is doing this in summer school too. Parents are very annoyed and it's unprofessional. I understand if she needs to do it sometimes due to her having her own kids at home or some other issue that comes up but to do it as a matter of policy is pretty lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same here. My students see me at the beginning and end of classes but most of class is me sharing slides, etc.

This isn't what we are talking about. The teacher has the camera off the whole time and she rarely uses slides. It is just her talking 90% of the time.

[Anonymous]

I asked about this and my child said the teacher is not sharing slides or screens. She’s just literally talking and has turned her video off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it helps with bandwidth issues. We do this at work all the time for that reason.

There’s a difference between attendees and basically listeners having their camera off and presenters, moron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I asked about this and my child said the teacher is not sharing slides or screens. She’s just literally talking and has turned her video off.

Not ok.

[Anonymous]

As an elem teacher, I know there is a 0% I’d keep the kids’ attention with my camera off. How do you even teach like that? And I’m not talking about the cam not being visible because of sharing slides. But to have the camera off the whole time?? Wtf? It would be like hiding under your desk and using a mic and teaching in the classroom. Lazy and unprofessional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it helps with bandwidth issues. We do this at work all the time for that reason.

Oh, yes! I’m the teacher above and I forgot about this! If she’s on her chromebook the quality significantly decreases when more participants join. Keeping the camera off improves the audio and general quality of the meeting.
I still stand by my previous response though. Email and ask. If she responds that it’s a bandwidth issue, ask her who you should contact at the school to help make sure that all teachers have the appropriate equipment to fix this problem by the fall.
Hint: we need something other than chromebooks or to find a platform that performs better with it.

I second this.
We had to do live teaching for an hour per each special. When I had more than 50 students logged on (out if 129), the sound quality was very unstable . Admins have access to strong and fast Dell laptops while teachers have to
use the same Chromebooks as students. Turning the video off was very helpful in restoring quality especially while sharing the screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it helps with bandwidth issues. We do this at work all the time for that reason.

There’s a difference between attendees and basically listeners having their camera off and presenters, moron.

Wtf? Listen idiot, sometimes the presenter doesn’t have enough bandwidth and both video and audio get garbled. In that case, it is helpful if the presenter turns off their video, because then at least the audio is clear. Capiche?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem because MCPS is providing internet for the those who don't have it.

DD's teacher is doing this in summer school too. Parents are very annoyed and it's unprofessional. I understand if she needs to do it sometimes due to her having her own kids at home or some other issue that comes up but to do it as a matter of policy is pretty lazy.

It’s like no one here understands technology. It doesn’t matter who’s paying for the internet service at someone’s house, there are simply going to be times when the available bandwidth will vary and the connection can become unstable. In those circumstances, it makes sense for a teacher to turn of their video, with the idea that the audio will work better and is the more important of the two.