This paper will explore how LAUSD Zoom used the tool, the advantages and disadvantages of its application, and how this impacted education in the district. Online learning is fast becoming an integral component of education. In a matter of days, schools all over the globe shifted to remote teaching. One of the largest public school districts in the US, Los Angeles Unified School District, had to adjust themselves overnight onto the digital platform of teaching to ensure that education was not disrupted for the students due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Zoom is one of the most widely used applications in video conferencing today.

What is Zoom?

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that enables virtual connection with video, voice, and chat. Initially built for business meetings it became necessary for schools to teach as soon as the pandemic shifted learning online. It provides lots of features from screen sharing to breakout rooms and recording: it’s pretty useful for all kinds of meetings and online classes.

LAUSD Zoom and Remote Learning: Leap into a Quick Transition

The COVID-19 pandemic forced LAUSD to look for alternatives in ensuring that students could continue learning from their homes. The district settled on Zoom as their e-learning platform, through which teachers could link up with their students for virtual classroom experiences. This drastic change presented various challenges, but it showed that technology is very important in modern education.

Why Did LAUSD Choose Zoom?

The reasons LAUSD selected Zoom as its remote learning platform of choice include: every coeducational institution in the United States; user-friendly, making it easy for teachers and students alike to adapt with minimal turnaround time. Ability to accommodate large numbers of participants in a session. LAUSD has in excess of 600,000 students. However, the beauty of Zoom means it can hold hundreds of participants in one session, making it perfect for large classes, assemblies, or meetings.

Interactive Features: With its interactive features, such as screen sharing, whiteboards, and breakout rooms, Zoom made teaching possible for engaging lessons. Since these features would have replicated the training of a physical classroom, engagement was assured, so it sparked participation among students.

Accessibility: This fact proved to be crucial for LAUSD students because those who didn’t have computers could conveniently participate in classes.

Key Features of Zoom for LAUSD Students and Teachers

Most of the LAUSD features were used with the help of Zoom, that include:

Virtual Classrooms

The teachers could create virtual classrooms. In these virtual classrooms, students could log in, interact and start discussions on topics given within a particular classroom setting. They are also able to interact with the teacher and their peers in real-time, and therefore daily lessons continued to be learned and there was much structure to remote learning.

Breakout Rooms

Breakout rooms enabled instructors to split students into smaller groups for discussions or projects. That feature is quite close to breaking students into small groups in a traditional classroom whereby more and better work can be achieved in collaboration with others.

 Screen Sharing

The teachers used the screen-sharing feature during the lessons and presentations, slideshows, videos, and all other educational materials. The student was also able to share screens for presenting their work or demonstrating on how well they understood a topic.

 Recording Lessons

With Zoom’s recording facility, this would mean that the educator could take classes and make them available for any students who were not present in the live sessions. This would then mean that all students would have covered the material even if some had technical issues or schedule conflicts.

Chat Function

The chat function allowed the student the opportunity to ask a question or contribute to class discussions without breaking the rhythm of the lesson while providing space for quieter students to share in class.

Benefits of Using Zoom in LAUSD

Its use brought many LAUSD students and teachers many benefits toward bridging a gap amidst unprecedented times in education.

Continuity of Education

This flexibility allowed students to continue with their education as physical schools were closed. The teachers could continue to instruct, give homework assignments, and provide feedback as if nothing had changed for the student.

Flexibility

One of the main strengths of Zoom is its flexibility. Therefore, it is possible to have live classes and recording for later viewing, as well as private support to individual students. This flexibility would be of great importance in reaching out to students with different schedules, learning styles, and access to technology.

Accessibility

Since Zoom supported a wide range of devices, students across all socio-economic backgrounds could attend lessons. LAUSD further armed the students with Chromebooks and internet whenever required to get as many students as possible to participate in online learning.

Disadvantages of Implementing Zoom in LAUSD

However effective it was, the implementation of online learning was a tremendous challenge for LAUSD.

Technical issues

Not all students had reliable internet and devices capable of adequately running Zoom. Despite efforts by LAUSD to distribute technology, many students suffered connectivity challenges and could not engage in live classes to the fullest.

Digital Literacy

The instructors and the learners both needed time to become familiar with the Zoom interface. The instructors had to learn the features of how to use the application effectively for instructional purposes, while the students had to adjust to a new method of learning, which sometimes led to frustration and confusion.

Classroom Management

A virtual class is quite different from the traditional one. It requires teachers to monitor the student’s focused attention, particularly those living at home where some types of distractions could be present.

It was harder to monitor the behaviors of a student online as the teacher could not see all the time what he or she was doing off-screen.

Concern over Privacy and Security

This led to “Zoom-bombing,” wherein persons not invited might access a meeting and cause commotion during the session. LAUSD had to implement strict measures to make meetings and waiting rooms password protected.

Conclusion: The Future of Zoom in LAUSD

While the world slowly recovers from a universally forced pandemic, LAUSD is thinking deeply on what place Zoom and other such tools will have in it’s future. Even when the schools go back to the face-to-face learning experience, the flexibility and accessibility that virtual platforms provide have already proven their worth.

LAUSD will no doubt use Zoom for many different activities such as virtual parent-teacher conferences, professional development of the faculty, and a hybrid model where students can mix classroom and blended models of online learning.

Conclusion

Among many factors, this choice by LAUSD to use the services offered by Zoom turned out to be a very important gateway towards maintaining educational continuity during the pandemic period. It would allow students to enjoy flexibility and accessibility despite problems in trying to understand the technicalities and adapting to novel spaces for their learning environment. With education evolving and turning into changing forms, such technology, as provided by Zoom or similar technologies, will most probably become part of the modern classroom, giving students more chances for personalized learning experiences in an endlessly flexible way.