Latest Zoom Discovery
Posted by terrepruitt on May 27, 2020
I am confident that somewhere on the Zoom website it tells me all the information that I keep discovering and sharing with you. But I haven’t looked at everything they have on their site and I haven’t joined any of their training sessions, which I am sure . . . probably would have informed me of my new discovery. Since my students have confirmed that they want to continue taking classes online I figure there might be other people that will be continuing to use Zoom even as areas begin to re-open. Where you live is dictating what phase of re-opening you are experiencing. I live in one of the “strictest” counties in California. So we can’t do what some areas are doing. So . . . as I continue to discover stuff on Zoom I will continue to share it. My latest discovery could be something I just noticed or it could be a change with the latest version of Zoom, I don’t know, but I really appreciate it. And I am sure it has an official name or description, but I’m gonna call it “small screen set-up”.
Some of you are familiar with Zoom and some are not, so I will explain a little bit. When you join a Zoom meeting you have the option to allow your device’s camera to transmit a video. I’ve talked about “non-video participants” before in a post. There are a gazillion reasons why one might not want to have their camera on so it is truly up to the individual. If you choose not to have the video on it can be just a black screen or you can upload a picture so that participants will see that instead of a black screen with your name. I have a picture showing when my video is off.
What I just discovered . . . . so excited . . . is that when I have my video settings screen open I can still see myself even when my video is off. So, this is very important to me because I encourage my students to join a class early – before the actual start time! I want them to be able to say hello to their friends AND be able to set up their device so they can see and be seen if they so choose. But sometimes I am still readying my space so I want them to be able to join the meeting and ready their camera, but I am still getting mine set up. I used to start the meeting and start transmitting and just shuffle around on screen, but now I can have my picture up and still see what the camera sees and what the class will look like.
Could be that I hadn’t noticed this because I only really needed it once or maybe twice. I like to try to sign on and be all set up when students show up but even though there isn’t a lot going on right now, a couple of times I was not able to be that timely so this is cool!
If you use the Zoom application then you have access to your video settings and you can do this. I wasn’t sure if it only worked because I was host, but it works even if you are a meeting participant.
So . . . how do you Zoom?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Sheree said
My husband’s life in lockdown has been transformed by Zoom. He’s even been showing others how to use it.
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terrepruitt said
I am not sure if there is a story there . . . ? But I am glad he is enjoying Zoom. Is he meeting up with a lot of people on Zoom? Is he taking classes? There is a lot happening on Zoom. There s a lot happening on other platforms, too, I had just heard of Zoom first so that is they one I jump on because so many other Nia teachers were using it.
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Sheree said
He’s part of a local business group that meet regularly for dinner or lunch, they’ve been holding their meetings on Zoom. He’s held any meeting where there are more than two people on Zoom, plus he’s been doing webinars. He finds
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terrepruitt said
That is great. I think a lot of people were able to “jump on” Zoom to keep their meetings and trainings going.
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Sheree said
It’s been incredibly useful
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terrepruitt said
Yes, I agree.
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