Teacher Experiences with Uninvited Students in Meetings!

A few weeks ago students might have heard about random strangers joining Google Meet classes and interrupting them. I asked some teachers who dealt with this to share their experience and thoughts/feelings about the situation here’s what they had to say.

Mrs. DeLuca:
What was your reaction when someone uninvited joined?
I was very surprised when it first happened. I thought that the noise was coming from a student in class, but I soon realized that an interloper had entered our Google Meet. I kept removing the stranger from the Meet, but that person kept returning. My surprise very soon turned into frustration, since I could not teach or get through the material. I think I may have been lucky though, because even though my uninvited guest was loud and distracting, the person did not use foul or vulgar language, which I’ve heard has been a problem with some other drop-ins during Google Meets.

Do you think there was something that could’ve prevented this from happening?
I think that the security controls could have prevented this issue from happening. However, at the time, I was not aware of such features.

Are you taking any new “security” measures so you don’t have this problem again?
Thanks to Mr. Tietjen for sharing the Google Meet security features with the staff. Ever since learning about the security measures, I have used them every Google Meet. Thankfully, so far, no other issues have occurred!

Mr. Rodrigues:
What was your reaction when someone uninvited joined?
Initially I was surprised and it took a second or two to realize what had happened, and to track down which tile music was coming from, so that I could boot the intruder. But I simply removed them and moved on with the lesson.

Do you think there was something that could’ve prevented this from happening?
Students not sharing the “meet” join link, or call in phone number that I used to provide for those having internet issues, would have prevented this.

Are you taking any new “security” measures so you don’t have this problem again?
The only “security” measures that I was able to take on my own are that I no longer provide the call in number for each “meet”, and when I’m prompted to accept or reject someone who is attempting to sign in from a device other than one issued to them by the school, I automatically just reject them.

I also asked Ms. Richardson some questions as well and here is what she had to say about the situation. 

What was your reaction when teachers were telling you about what was going on?
To be honest, I was disappointed. Everyone, students and teachers, are working so hard to make something so difficult a little easier for our students. Teachers take precious time at night when they are with their families to create lesson plans that work in the virtual world. This is no easy task, and to have some students or young adults that are not our students interrupting and disrupting lessons is disappointing.

How are you handling the situation now?
Our tech department tracks the person as best as they can and reports the names to admin. We discipline those people accordingly.

Do you think this is one of the cons of virtual learning?
I don’t necessarily think this is a con. A con would be something out of our students control and our control. If these students could simply understand how hard these teachers, and the students in the class who want to learn, are working, and just stop being disrespectful, then this would not be an issue. We will address one offender at a time and do what we need to do to help them understand that this behavior is distracting and disruptive, and unnecessary.