The days of taking home a note from your teacher to your parents (or vice versa) will soon be over thanks to a new Microsoft Teams update.
The video conferencing service is working on a new feature that will make parent-teacher communication much smarter, allowing users to send email or text messages to set up a Microsoft Teams call.
In an update (opens in a new tab) to the official Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company says the new "Parent Connection" tool will allow teachers to communicate directly with students' tutors.
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"Messaging in an SMS-heavy marketplace makes it easier to connect with parents while keeping the teacher experience simple," Microsoft wrote in the post, titled "Invite parents via SMS for communication."
The company added that messages sent to parents and guardians will be in plain text, with no HTML, formatting, or styles applied.
The tool is still listed as "in development" at this time, with an expected release date of February 2023. When it launches, it will initially only be available to Android users, but will roll out globally.
The news is the latest update to the planned parental login feature, which was first revealed in May 2022, but has remained fairly quiet ever since.
This feature is the latest in a series of education-focused updates released for Microsoft Teams in recent months.
This includes a Class Insights tab that allows teachers to get an overview of their students' performance, including average grades, on-time assignments, average return time, and chat activity over time.
Using data from the Class Insights tab, teachers using Teams will now have a single view to observe both student and class performance, and can make more informed decisions about their schedule, pacing and engagement. alumni.
Microsoft Teams also announced Reading Progress, a new free tool that it says can help students improve their reading skills through real-world practice, but also allows teachers and professors to better meet learning needs. of the students, offering an in-depth analysis, helping their evolution over time.