Microsoft Teams has introduced the ‘School Connection’ mobile app to enhance engagement between schools and parents or guardians.
The app enables parents to view assignments, feedback, insights, and a list of contact information for the relevant teaching staff.
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School Connection is now generally available in all regions except Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, although it will be made available in these geographies in due course.
Microsoft said in its article announcing the app:
“School Connection is a secure solution that is easy to deploy and provides guardians with information they need to initiate meaningful conversations with their students about their learning.
“School Connection also saves educators’ time and deepens the partnership between educators and guardians.”
The launch of School Connection comes soon after Google’s updates to Google Classroom, ostensibly vying for shares in the education sector.
Microsoft outlines the key features of the app, which include parents being able to see upcoming, recently completed, and past assignments.
Insights into student’s progress can be viewed across the past month, along with assignment turn-ins, and reading progress.
Parents will also be able to contact various educators involved in their child’s learning via email.
School Connection Requirements
Before committing to using the application, schools will need to use Teams for Education and the Assignments feature “to get the most out of School Connection”, according to Microsoft.
If schools use these, then there will not be any extra work involved to integrate School Connection.
Guardians will need to share their personal email addresses to take part in the app, using most of the major email providers, such as Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, and others. Work emails are not supported, however.
