Using Microsoft Teams for shared department resources is a bit of a no brainer if you’re confident in how to use the tools involved. So many areas can be accessed and collaborated on from meetings to calendars and sharing in the creation of and setting of assignments for students. It is a great opportunity for both professional development and helping schools to become digital practioners. Obstacles to this would most likely be lack of enthusiasm from staff members which I think generally comes from lack of knowledge and fear of technology. This could easily be overcome through CPD. In the beginning it would be time consuming but I think over time the benefits would outweigh this.
Using Teams for classroom resources would mean making much of the curriculum accessible to our learners in a digital form which as so many benefits for all children but especially those with additional needs. Being able to deliver a lesson with visual and auditory components would be hugely beneficial in regards to this. I think a challenge here would be convincing staff to get on board with Teams as a digital means of communication after spending the past couple of years getting on board with Seesaw and Padlet as well as using Aladdin for our day to day digital communication. However, seeing as our school has a Microsoft 365 subscription and we are planning to use the Teams calendar from September for all staff communication, I think it would be worthwhile taking small steps to fully immerse ourselves into the tools available to us through Microsoft, e.g. forms, sway, powerpoint recordings, assignments and assessments etc.