The best laid plans…lead to new Zoom knowledge. Don’t ever assume what worked yesterday will work today. Always, always, always, open the meeting early, prepare your desktop to contain exactly what you need, and ensure that every tool is available and working. Then have a back-up plan.
Where was my breakout room button? I blamed it on Zoom changing meeting settings to foil zoom-bombers (yes, it’s a real thing) but I have since learned that wasn’t the correct answer. I am lucky to have an embedded tutor from the Teaching and Learning Center in my class. She has co-host rights and monitors the chat, raised hands, and helps out with breakout rooms. It is truly a blessing to have this kind of help because let’s face it— I am not as good at multitasking as I’d like to believe. Apparently, she logged into the Zoom meeting first and was assigned “host rights.” It was only after she left the meeting that I reclaimed true power and the breakout room button reappeared in my options.
We adapted and you can be sure I won’t make this particular mistake again. Even though it was only the second day meeting this class in the Spring quarter, there was something gratifying to have the students chatting with each other “why can’t we do breakout rooms like last time?” Believe me, that was my intention. They want and need community in their isolation, as much as we do.
Math in the Time of Corona 