The coronavirus pandemic has transformed people’s way of living entirely. Before the pandemic, we used to have classroom lessons with blackboards, but now we have Zoom classes. Zoom has become a crucial part of many kids’ experiences. With Zoom classes, children and other people have to stare at the screen for a better part of the day. However, it is difficult for children to focus with several distractions around. Even adults find it hard to concentrate with the distractions.
Children and grown-ups can lose focus by hearing what is playing on the television screen or looking at dogs or other kids playing outside the window. To help individuals, especially children pay full attention to the instructor, the cloud meeting company, Zoom, has introduced Focus mode to its video conferencing tool. They did this in a blog post with back-to-school tips for guardians and parents. The new feature aims to improve the teaching environments like classes.
The cloud meeting company releases the Focus mode as the new school year is about to begin. The COVID-19 threat, especially the Delta version, could potentially keep children out of schools
Importance of Zoom’s Focus Mode
The Focus mode on Zoom will help kids focus as well as working people. Anybody who uses the video conferencing application can use the mode. However, it is beneficial for teachers that want to grab their student’s attention fully. Kids often have a short attention span, and studying from home has made things worse. So, when the educator enables Focus mode, students will only see the teacher and not their classmates. On the other hand, students can only see the names of their classmates in the available windows. Zoom notes that the new feature allows the instructor to supervise the class, but children cannot be distracted by the other student’s video feeds or feel the need to turn on their cameras.
Zoom has designed Focus mode to enhance the digital learning environment. It allows students to be fully attentive and work on projects while being supervised without getting distracted by fellow kids and their tasks. In addition, focus mode offers control like that in Webinar mode, but the good news is that it is flexible and less complex.
The mode functions the same as when educators enable screen sharing. It will allow the teacher to share a learner’s screen during class when it is appropriate, for example, when sharing tasks or other ideas of the student to the rest of the participants.
According to Zoom, accounts, individual users, or groups can enable the Focus mode. To enable the new addition, you click on the more button. What’s more, the feature can be useful when you are hosting a talk show or webinar. During webinars or online talk shows, individuals tend to get distracted by looking at other participants. In such cases, you will want your audience to focus only on the speaker. Therefore, the Focus mode will help direct their attention towards the speaker.
But if you are using zoom for a team meeting where people need to interact with other team members, it would not be productive if people cannot see each other. Therefore, do not enable the feature for a Zoom meeting with several speakers. Nevertheless, the Focus mode is useful in setups with a single speaker.
Anybody who wants to use Focus mode should start the meeting as the host. Furthermore, they need to be running the latest version of Zoom, which is v5.7.3 or higher on Mac or Windows. Enabling or dis-enabling Focus mode is possible by going to Account Management then Account Settings to access the meeting tab. In the Meeting Advanced settings, you will see a toggle for the mode. The teleconferencing host can turn Focus mode on or off as it deems appropriate.
Besides the new feature, Zoom has given parents detailed tips to make distance learning better. They have suggested checking for a proper internet connection, creating a distraction-free learning environment at home, and learning about lighting and other critical application features.
Moreover, the company has stated that designating schoolwork space at home will help children have the proper mindset when learning remotely. Zoom has recommended that parents help their kids set up a studying spot at home to join Zoom sessions.
The location should be quiet with minimal or no distractions. If your child’s learning space is communal, you can help them organize a box to store their school materials after class sessions. Doing this will help reduce clutter, and it creates a separation between school and home.
Zoom’s Additional Features for an Incredible Experience
Due to American’s reliance on the tool to navigate schooling and work remotely, Zoom has strived to improve its video conferencing platform. Recently, the platform introduced applications merging entertainment services like games and popular productivity. Additionally, Zoom released an Events tool that will allow conference and hybrid meetings to be hosted directly within the tool.
The platform has also launched a new Zoom for Chrome progressive web application (PWA).
Chromebook users will have a fantastic experience with PWA as it allows them to access extra Zoom features on Chrome Operating System devices. Users interested in the feature can download it from the Google Play store and install it on their Chrome Operating System.
The cloud meeting company’s feature should not be confused with the iOS 15 feature of a similar name.
The aim of Zoom’s Focus mode is to reduce distractions for children while learning. On the other hand, the iOS feature is designed to improve the Do Not Disturb Functionality to assist individuals in focusing on play, work, and other activities.
Although we may be getting back to the new normal where it is safe to go outside and hold gatherings, plenty of children will still receive education remotely via video conferencing. And with Zoom’s latest feature, Focus mode, children can stay focused on their instructor. As a result, it will make remote schooling to be more effective.
