Unmuting a student
I love the 'mute all' option, but working with young kids, it is sometimes difficult for them to find the unmute button. It would be helpful as a teacher to be able to unmute a student.

31 comments
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Anonymous commented
I do not appose the idea of an "ask to unmute" button that gives the user a pop-up window, asking if they want to unmute or not, however, the ability to force unmute is a big invasion of privacy. Same case with webcams.
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Peter Micuch commented
It is even hard to find an idea one could upvote when speaking of unmuting topic. If someone from Microsoft would have a look at number of ideas that were opened for this topic and would sum up votes together, this would become the most wanted feature right after possibility to not allow students to mute other students.
If we want to please privacy rules as well as requests coming from many teachers of especially small children, then there could still remain mute/unmute button which is controlled by the attendee and "allow to speak" button, which is controlled by the teacher/meeting organizer. Once parents sign in their child into class, they are able to unmute, but unless teacher allows it, no one could actually hear anything. On the other hand, if the child is muted, even the "allow to speak" request from teacher would not make the child audible.
It could of course be also connected with raising hands, but the possibility to "allow to speak" without raising hand is especially useful when you have class full of 6 years old for whose parents created connection and un-muted them at the beginning of the class.
Without this feature, MS Teams is incomplete for educational purposes of smaller or bigger "kids" and it is really hard to migrate from Zoom where this is supported in its own way. It is no issue for universities and companies, where people already do have (hopefully) some basic habits. Having only possibility to not allow attendees to unmute or mute all button is simply not enough.
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Anonymous commented
Have any of you non-teachers given a test while proctoring via Teams? It would be so effective if the students knew they couldn't talk to their tutor or their mom who is in the room or on the phone feeding them the answers, because I might unmute them at any time during the test. Please add this feature for teachers.
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Anonymous commented
An extremely desired feature of primary grades teachers to unmute all/ unmute a particular student. Once you mute all the participants, you are unable to unmute.
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Maria Bleckur commented
I think it would be a good feature as Tamika Warner commented below, connected to the raised hand function, as the organiser click the raised hand and give word, the hand is taken down and the microphon unmuted, then you does not interfere with anyones privacy. Then you hav solved two problems in one click, you can hear the one who wanted to talk and you don't have to ask if there is a new or an old raised hand!
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Nevaeh Lottig commented
NONONO this is VERY much an invasion of privacy. Children will learn how to unmute eventually, and think about how you would feel if someone could just unmute you and hear what you're up to?
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Anonymous commented
Great info guys!
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Tomas Dolezal commented
I agree it is question of privacy, but it can be handled easily.
New Meeting option "Request remote unmuting" is needed.
If such option is ticked and somebody connects to the meeting, big disclaimer will be presented first:
"Meeting organiser requested possibility of remote un-mute of your microphone"
and user will be able to continue after clicking one of two options
1. "I agree - organiser may unmute my microphone"
2. "I do not agree - Only I can unmute my microphone"
If they choose 2, organiser still can request remote unmute, but it will just present the request on the participant screen and highlight the button for unmute or option to refuse this request.
In both cases, i.e. regardless participant agreed with remote unmute feature at the beginning or refused it, remote unmute will be always indicated by sound and message on the screen. -
Tamika Warner commented
very much so! it doesn't make sense, i can mute them all but I can't unmute 1!? Have you ever been in a classroom??? they all want to talk at once or even be annoying at once but when a student has the floor, they in fact, do not?? You could connect it to the raise hand feature.
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Tomas Vokoun commented
I'm afraid it is a matter of privacy.
Only if the system is able to recognize -who- muted the participant (organizer or himself).
But in general, you cannot force any participant to get his mic on when he don't want to. It will be unlawful in many countries.
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AR commented
The organizer function to unmute all and to unmute individual participant is urgently needed!
Cisco WebEx and Zoom already support this. Please also implement this! THX! -
Anonymous commented
Huge privacy issue if you unmute a students microphone during remote learning.
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Anonymous commented
100%!!
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Manisha Singh commented
Does “mute all” function exists for iOS devices. I have just started using iPad air3, doesn’t seem to have mute all function or include audio with video features which are available in PC.
Please provide these function in the next update. -
samantha bergeron commented
yes! I have first graders & it is difficult for them to do this on some devices. I need to have control of this ability.
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Liz commented
The teachers should have full ability to unmute the children's audio but if there actually is a problem with the child's mic, it should be shown that there is a problem with the mic. This is because sometimes students act like their mic is not working and their turn is skipped. Hence, I request to give teachers full ability not only to mute but also unmute the students in the meeting.
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Anonymous commented
While I can see the use for it, it seems like something that could lead to abuse.
I would recommend having a way for the teacher to highlight the button (which the Teams team seems to like to move around some in the last year) as a safer alternative. -
Caitlin Hale commented
I agree! This can be a very difficult task for our youngest students and it would help if the teacher could unmute them.
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Anonymous commented
Staff can currently mute students, but not unmute them. Younger students need help while they are learning this platform and to ease their frustration.