Now read the comments thread underneath. Here's some of the highlights
"If you have a child abusing chat, what are your options? You can try to put them in a breakout room, but the child has to accept. If not, it doesn't work. And if you want to disable chat for the problem student only, you can't. You have to turn it off for everyone.
Not only are teachers having to learn new technology, that technology is ####### garbage and not suited to classroom use at all.
Edit: it seems auto breakout rooms exist. Thank you to those who suggested it."
"You can mute kids so they can't comment. Go to delete the comment and then click mute student."
"There we go, a solution to the problem. Teachers need a forum with resources to get this info out there"
"I've been IT for schools... The vast majority of educators refuse to learn how to use the tools they are given. They will blame the IT staff and pass their frustration off onto the students.
I've sat through the classes that are supposed to teach them the tools... They ignore them and just chat away with their friends. I have long since lost count of the tickets I fielded that were answered in the seminars introducing the teachers to the tools."
"there is tech that is helpful and actually can improve instruction but that has nothing to do with our IT staff. They are responsible for the network and the hardware. They have nothing to do with software based Ed tech that could be helpful and aren't asked to be. We have other teachers who take care of that because how are IT folks, who have never been in a classroom, be well versed in educational software? And when teaching computer science I found out they don't know anything about what is needed to get kids programing on our restrictive school network. I spent an entire year trying to get what I needed and ended up having to use all web based crap because they didn't do a thing.
So yeah, some teachers refuse to try tech but let's not assume we know why or even if that's a bad thing. Now that we are teaching remotely, there's a lot to learn and it's not just technology. Teaching remotely is a totally different ballgame."
Granted, this is about grade school, not university level, but it's the same kind of problems that educators are facing everywhere. The learning curve last spring helped, but this fall is still going to be a huge challenge. Teachers have tools, they don't fully know how to use them, or how to use them to handle real life issues, they aren't always well supported, the kids learn how to use those tools faster than they do...
It's a huge undertaking to implement something like this on a small scale with proper investment and time to plan. They are being asked to implement it on the fly because the pandemic and school year are dictating the timeline and the investment is still in the very early stages.