Remote control access

[brandi2]

Hi everyone! I am having a problem and I'm at a loss as to how to solve it. I tutor students online, and Zoom is an important tool I use. I also use Google Drive, and I'm trying to let a young student use Google Drive during the Zoom call. Here's what's happening:

This particular student is very young, and has limited technical skills. He has trouble switching between tabs or going to the next slide in Google Slides, or finding his cursor in Docs. I've tried sharing documents and work with him directly, but he can't remember how to get back to the Zoom call's main screen, and he has to get a parent to help every time. He doesn't have a particularly long attention span, even for his age, so we're changing activities frequently. He was getting a parent to help him switch activities, and unfortunately, that was taking a lot of time from our sessions.

Next, I tried offering him remote control access, so that I could open up the appropriate file, share my screen with him, then give him control in order to complete the activity. This works great initially! He is able to access materials and complete work! It's wonderful! We run into problems when he finishes the work. He continues to edit the files, basically just playing around with adding shapes and colors, which would be fine for a few minutes, but he does not stop when I ask him to, and I've realized I have a very hard time enforcing a time limit on the play time. All he has to do to avoid the next task is not let go of the mouse. He just has access to my computer indefinitely. Nobody wants a small child to have unlimited access to their computer indefinitely! I cannot reach the "end remote control" button. Sometimes it takes me several minutes to convince him to let go of the mouse, which is really enforcing poor behavior in sessions, and sometimes he gives up because he thinks it's broken when I try to move it for long enough and it twitches around on the screen. None of this is ideal.

I found a shortcut online to end remote control access from my keyboard, and I thought I'd found the answer! I thought I'd give him remote control access, and when he was done, after I'd given him a few minutes to play, I'd end it with the shortcut, and not have to wrest the mouse from a small child. I don't know why, but the shortcut did not do anything. He still had remote control access to my computer, and I'm still looking at the options of not giving him access to interactive activities (bad educational practice), having him go get his mom 5-7 times in a 30 minute session (wasteful of our time, and I'm sure annoying to her by, say, time 3), or having him take over my computer and not give back control (also a waste of time, plus stressful for me!)

Does anybody have any tips? Does anyone know how to end remote control access if the other person is not willingly giving it up? Does anyone know a way to create activities where he can move pictures (because that's where we're having the biggest issue, when we're sorting pictures into groups to demonstrate some principle) within Zoom, without having to change windows? I know he can draw on the whiteboard, but I don't think I can move images onto it, and so I guess if there's an application where he can do that within Zoom, that would also be a great solution

Sorry, I know this is a weird question. I haven't had any problems with other students, because all of my other kids have enough technical know-how to know how to switch tabs, at least. I'm confident he'll get there, but he'd get there faster if we could spend our time learning rather than problem-solving how to access materials.

[brandi2]

So, I ended the last "Oh no, a small child has control of my computer" about ten minutes ago, and about five minutes ago, my Zoom updated, and I once again thought I had my solution, because I could upload images to a whiteboard! Unfortunately, the tutoring I'm doing is through a company, and they schedule the zoom meetings for you and give you a link to launch them, so you don't have to have access to student information. The version of Zoom that opens when you click these links seems to be much older than the version I get when I open the desktop application. There's no "upload" button, and several other features are missing. Still looking for a way around this!

[RN]

Hi @brandi2 welcome to the community! I believe I understand your issue here and maybe have some information that will help you out! 

You say the tutoring company gives you the Zoom links to start meeting. How I am envisioning this, is that someone on the account within your tutoring company was given scheduling privileges, which someone is able to schedule a meeting for you on their behalf; which should grant you to be Host of that meeting. So I am trying to envision your role in the meeting in-order to have Host abilities which will give you full access as to the In-meeting security options. Here is also more info on Roles in a meeting to determine your role in the meeting.

First, lets start with giving remote control to your students. I was able to replicate giving control and utilizing hot keys to revoke remote control. You will need to ensure that you have the Zoom window activated, basically clicking into the Zoom window and doing the following to either being or remove remote control permission. 

MacOS

• Ctrl+Shift+R: Begin remote control
• Ctrl+Shift+G: Revoke/give up the remote control permission

Windows

• Alt+Shift+R: Begin remote control
• Alt+Shift+G: Revoke/give up remote control permission

Secondly, you do mention the whiteboard feature when sharing screen, I was able to upload images to the whiteboard; which in your use-case, this is what I believe you're attempting to accomplish. You did mention that you're running older versions of Zoom; I'd advise updating if possible, however, if your organization is limited on the Zoom version that you're running I'd recommend trying to Update Zoom

 

Another work around is instead of using classic whiteboard from share screen, you could also use Zoom Whiteboard where you can share with your student and collaborate there without sharing screen and using the classic whiteboard. 

[Odiadadi]

Hello everyone!

I'm a teacher of young learners myself. I have the very same problem @brandi2 explicitly explained. I cannot use the hotkeys either. The hotkeys for giving remote control won't simply work, and those for revoking (which is way more critical here) won't work either.

A kid with the remote control without any opportunity to have the remote control revoked is like a monkey with a grenade. Some of them enjoy you being helpless. It's not the feeling any of us want to experience. 

I understand and value the idea of using the new whiteboard (I learnt something new for myself), but it isn't an option sometimes. More importantly, something that is supposed to work must work. By something I mean hotkeys (I'm not computer-challenged by any means).

Your ideas and solutions are much appreciated.