Collaboration and Communication Apps Review for Educators and Parents
There are many collaboration and communication apps used in professional, educational, and social settings. In this blog post, I will review a total of five apps. This is just a sample of the many apps that are used for collaboration and communication. I will start with the two that I use the most for personal, pedagogical, and professional use and provide examples of how I use them. Afterwards, we will examine the list of five apps with special emphasis on risks, including warnings and safeguards for parents and educators when using the app for teaching and learning, as well as the perceived benefits.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is the app that I use daily for collaboration and communication with businesses and different teams that I am part of. It is part of the Microsoft 365/Office 365 suite of products. Some of the teams that I am part of are cross-functional, managers-only, a mix of managers and employees, and some are just individuals that report to me or only assigned to a specific project regardless of who they report to. I frequently use Teams for direct conversations, post-style team collaboration, video conferencing, screen-sharing, and other uses. Here are two screenshots that show a direct technical conversation with a direct report and a team post/response style conversation with a team that I am part of.
Slack
Slack is widely used by developers and although many development teams that use Microsoft products have switched to Microsoft Teams, many teams that do not use the Microsoft stack or are more technology agnostic prefer Slack. Some specific applications have Slack groups that are very active and informative, such as the DevOps Kansas City and HubSpot Developers groups that I belong to.
App # 1-Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams provides collaboration and communication with individuals and groups directly, team conversations in a post/reply format, video conferencing, and screen-sharing. It also integrates with many apps made my Microsoft and others.
Teams provides one of the most secure collaboration and communication experiences. Specifically in education, Teams is more efficient than Zoom, providing more built-in security features. (Datalink Networks Migrates Large Los Angeles High School To Microsoft Teams From Zoom, 2020) A possible criticism of Teams due to its enhanced security is the difficulty in collaborating with people outside of the organization.
An important safeguard to put in place for many of these applications is two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA). This will greatly reduce the likelihood of an account being compromised or accessed by someone that should not have access to it. (Creative Consultants Group, 2020) In my many years of working in cybersecurity, this is the number one action that would have prevented the most issues and would have required the least amount of effort to implement.
App # 2-Slack
Slack is a channel-based messaging platform. In fact, it was the first channel-based messaging platform that implemented this functionality well and since then it has been copied by other applications, including Microsoft Teams. It was also one of the first communication and collaboration applications to really excel at integrating with other applications. This last point is still one of the major selling points that make it better than similar apps.
According to Vela (2018), medical students at Washington State University use Slack to communicate with the library, in addition to using Twitter and Facebook. The downside for them is that all general announcements are sent using Slack. Approximately 10% of the students in this library Slack channel leave the channel. This makes it very difficult for all of the students to receive the communication.
For implementation in a classroom setting or implementing application safeguards by parents, I would caution the ability to integrate Slack with many different applications. It is a selling point of the application, but it could also lead to issues with introducing applications and integrations to applications that you do not want in the classroom. Anderson (2016) discusses how easy it is to integrate and how many integrations are available and being added on a continuous basis.
App # 3-Zoom
Zoom is great for video conferencing and presentations. This is where it really excels and what it does best. During the first pandemic spike, I did see issues with Zoom not being able to scale its servers up to handle demand and large video conferences with thousands of people connected did experience issues, but since then they have corrected many of the problems. This app also seems to be the favorite for virtual classrooms even when a school primarily uses Google products. It provides a great video conference virtual classroom.
Although enhancements have been made to security and default settings have been changed to require a password to enter a Zoom call, Zoombombing was very popular in 2020 and continues to happen now. Antonelli (2020) explains that people were able to gain access to calls that they should not have been able to and “wreak havoc.”
Take extra precautions and ensure that safeguards are in place such as calls being password-protected by default and add a waiting room function that requires individuals trying to join to be allowed in by an administrator or teacher. (Antonelli, 2020) Another item of note to consider that can be a benefit or a potential issue to keep in mind is that you do not need to download an app to be able to access a call, since this application can work from within a browser. This has huge benefits in some settings, including professional telehealth or working with people that are not technically savvy. (Fang et al., 2020)
App # 4-Google Meet/Hangouts
Google Meet is the new branding for what used to be called Hangouts, but the two terms are mostly used interchangeably. In our hybrid-classroom and virtual world I see some classes using Google Meet, however, the majority are using Zoom. Where I see Google Meet being used the most by K-12 learners is to communicate with each other on group projects or just friends and classmates working on assignments together.
The warning and safeguards for Google Meet are very similar to those for Zoom. De Looper & Cohen (2020) conducted a side-by-side comparison of Google Meet and Zoom and found Google Meet to be a very similar application with fewer features. Teachers and parents has many of the same concerns that they had with Zoom and while Zoom became the application of choice between the two, there were still licensing/cost considerations.
With more students having access to Google Meet due to G Suite for Education customers having access to Gooogle Meet at no additional cost, I strongly recommend monitoring usage. (Soltero, 2020) Many students are using this as a tool to copy off of each other in small groups in order to get their homework done quickly.
App # 5-WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a direct message application that claims to be one of the most secure applications. It does not have very rich functionality and requires the application to run on your mobile phone even if you are using it from your computer.
The high level of encryption and security provided by WhatsApp has resulted in it being used for unscrupulous activity that can make it very difficult to monitor. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) made the following statement: “It has been observed that sometimes this can lead to security-related issues such as no trace of the user or the interception of the content of communication in case of misuse. Further, this may help miscreants to exploit OTT (telecom) services for spreading rumours without getting traced. Security agencies may feel helpless to control such situations.” (TRAI, 2018)
As a safeguard for parents and teachers to implement, at this time, I can not recommend allowing WhatsApp for use in education and learning. The app is used frequently to engage in illegal activity. Even with its high level of security, the government in India (TRAI, 2018) and Australia will not allow the app to be used for sensitive communications. They simply do not trust it. (Keany, 2016)
References
Anderson, K. E. (2016). Getting acquainted with social networks and apps: picking up the Slack in communication and collaboration. Library Hi Tech News, 33(9), 6–9. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1108/LHTN-10-2016-0049
Antonelli, W. (2020, May 11). What is Zoom? A comprehensive guide to the wildly popular video-chatting service for computers and smartphones. Business Insider http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fnewspapers%2Fwhat-is-zoom-comprehensive-guide-wildly-popular%2Fdocview%2F2400717962%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Creative Consultants Group: How to get the most out of Microsoft Teams. (2020, Dec 12). News Bites — Private Companies http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fwire-feeds%2Fcreative-consultants-group-how-get-most-out%2Fdocview%2F2469484975%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Datalink Networks Migrates Large Los Angeles High School To Microsoft Teams From Zoom: Datalink Networks received another large contract for a Microsoft Teams integration. COVID-19 has forced educational institutions of all sizes to optimize their digital learning platforms. Communication and collaboration platforms, like Microsoft Teams, are now playing a much larger role in overall educational strategy. (2020, Sep 10). PR Newswire http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fwire-feeds%2Fdatalink-networks-migrates-large-los-angeles-high%2Fdocview%2F2441241822%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
de Looper, C., & Cohen, S. (2020, Jul 30). We compared Google Meet and Zoom to see which is better for remote working and learning — and Zoom is the more comprehensive video conferencing tool. Business Insider http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fnewspapers%2Fwe-compared-google-meet-zoom-see-which-is-better%2Fdocview%2F2428715336%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Fang, J., Liu, Y. T., Lee, E. Y., & Yadav, K. (2020). Telehealth Solutions for In-hospital Communication with Patients Under Isolation During COVID-19. The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 21(4)http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.5811/westjem.2020.5.4778910.5811/westjem.2020.5.47789
Keany, F. (2016, Oct 17). WhatsApp not approved for sensitive government communications, says Malcolm Turnbull’s adviser: The Prime Minister’s cyber security advisor says the use of smartphone communication apps such as WhatsApp have not been approved for transmitting sensitive information. ABC Premium News http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fwire-feeds%2Fwhatsapp-not-approved-sensitive-government%2Fdocview%2F2121707868%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Soltero, J. (2020). Google Cloud Blog — Google: How Google Meet supports two million new users each day. Newstex.
TRAI to see if communication apps like Whatsapp, Google Duo should be placed under regulations? (2018). Voice & Data, http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Ftrai-see-if-communication-apps-like-whatsapp%2Fdocview%2F2138490943%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Vela, Kathryn,M.L.I.S., A.H.I.P. (2018). Using Slack to communicate with medical students. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 106(4), 504–507. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.5195/jmla.2018.482
