Brief Zoom glitches didn't mar start of classes, school leaders say
Global partial outages of Zoom videoconferencing services caused some consternation Monday for educators and students in a few suburban districts that began the school year with remote learning.
Yet the disruptions were minimal - from as little as 5 minutes to sporadic connectivity issues in the morning - and teachers were able to pivot swiftly to other videoconferencing and learning platforms, many districts reported.
Zoom announced connectivity issues had been resolved and its service was fully restored by midday.
In Elgin Area School District U-46, where roughly 38,000 students had their first day of remote classes Monday, teachers toggled between Zoom and Google Meet, district spokeswoman Mary Fergus said.
Teachers and students had been warned to brace for glitches with Zoom service after widespread reports of outages and to be prepared to use other learning apps, she added.
"We are primarily relying on Zoom and Google Meet for the live, synchronous two-way instruction," Fergus said.
Students receive 2½ hours of synchronous instruction in a live class and then work on asynchronous learning on their own, including assignments that are monitored, for the remainder of the day. Teachers also keep office hours for one-on-one meetings with students and parents.
"Many thanks to our resilient teachers, staff and families who remained patient and quick to find their way to Google Meet amid the widespread Zoom outage," Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote in a message to families. "I visited a dozen Zoom classrooms this morning and I was impressed with how well everyone handled the situation. Some teachers even led their class from both Zoom and Google Meet."
Grecia Wakeford, fourth-grade dual language teacher at Harriett Gifford Elementary School in Elgin, said there was a little excitement at the start of class.
"In the beginning, everybody was all over the place," Wakeford said. "We were using both (Zoom and Google Meet) because I didn't want to lose any instructional time. I tried to avoid any stress for them and their families. We pushed through. We managed. Tomorrow will be fine."
Districts in Des Plaines, Glenview, Huntley, and Palatine were among those reporting minor technical glitches.
"Those teachers that were unable to utilize Zoom pivoted to offering their classes through the Google Meet platform, or through asynchronous activities that were posted to their Google Classroom portal. Because of our teachers ability to quickly pivot from their scheduled Zoom classes to alternative activities, all students participated in their classes," Glenbrook High School District 225 Assistant Superintendent Raoul Gravel said in a note to families.