Technology is becoming more infused in student’s lives, with more paper assignments being transferred online every day. The decision to enact Microsoft Teams as the primary online platform for schools has only advanced this change. However, this decision has put the district under heavy scrutiny, with certain aspects continually brought up. For example, the site has had technical glitches with submitting assignments, and days when the site has completely crashed, leaving students unable to access work.

These are all issues freshman Dakota Geiger has faced this year. However, she still has found several benefits in the site such, as the organization and how all classes can be easily located.

“Online you can’t lose a paper at the bottom of your backpack,” Geiger said. “It’s just up to the students to find their work.”

English teacher Rebekah Mileo agrees that Microsoft Teams is moving schools towards a more individually focused learning environment. She thinks one of the biggest challenges with Teams is the difficulty in locating or submitting assignments. This is made even harder as teacher’s Microsoft Teams pages look different than students, causing difficulties when providing help to students. However, Mileo does think Microsoft Teams will help students become more efficient in problem solving.

“It seems that now, our culture needs to really push that students themselves are in charge of their education,” Mileo said. “What effort they put out is very important, and it is through their ability to manage their own time and ask for help and problem solve when needed that will lead to [their] success.”

Mileo is also using other programs in addition to Microsoft Teams, specifically Flipgrid, which is a video recording app, and Turnitin.com, another place to submit work. She says she has been using Turnitin.com for a while, though she just recently picked up Flipgrid, enjoying the program for its versatility and finding it a good replacement for in class presentations.

Chemistry teacher Michael Meinert has somewhat of a differing opinion on how well Microsoft Teams replaces in class learning. He finds that students in class would normally work through labs and assignments together, allowing them to enhance each other’s learning. Because of restriction imposed on sharing items between individuals, they have not been able to do this.

“[Work] is a lot more fun when you’re doing stuff together,” Meinert said.

He finds that some students are using Teams as a ‘group chat’ and are then able to communicate on work. Meinert does think that any platform would limit social interactions between students, and the school district is doing the best it can by employing Teams.