I finally shelled out my $10 and sat for my Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam so I now have basic certification in Google to go along with my Microsoft MIEE credentials. A fellow MIEE recently posted in one of our GroupMe conversations about his frustrations posting in Google Classroom after using Teams, so I thought I’d take a look at the two. I’d never really thought of comparing the features of something as basic as how can I post in each platform. So here’s (sort of) Day 101 of 365 Ideas for Office 365– comparing posts in Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams.
The Stream Tab in Google Classroom
I often say what’s great about Google is the simplicity, how quick and easy it is to learn to use it. But I also often say part of the way they keep it simple is to limit features. I had no idea how true that is for conversation posts. In Google Classroom, you have chat-like conversations in the Stream, one of the 4 tabs in Classroom.
You make a post or reply to a post. If you edit a post, it refers to it as an announcement, but that’s not a different type, just another name for the same thing.
You can type or copy/paste in text.
You can add some things to your text. You can add a link to a file in your Google Drive, or upload a file from your device to add as an attachment. You can add a url or a link to a YouTube video, both of which which automatically add a thumbnail and title for the video or website. You can share this post with multiple classes, or everyone in one class, or specific individuals in the class you are posting in.
You can save it as a draft or even schedule it to post at a later time.
All of these options are for creating a new post. The only thing you can reply with is text. In both posts and replies, that text will be Helevtica size 10. Those italics and bold print I just used? Not an option.
Posts in Microsoft Teams
In Teams the conversation tab is called Posts. There are posts and replies to posts. Posts can also be formatted as an announcement, which in Teams is something different.
Announcements
Announcements have a banner, which you can fill with a color, one of many preset themes, or even upload with your own image.
Text Fonts and Styles in Teams Posts
You can make your font small, medium or large in 10 colors besides black. You have bold print, italics, underlining and strikethrough. There is a highlighter in 10 colors.
There’s even a few styles to choose from, including 3 levels of headings.
There’s indents, bulleted and numbered lists, offset quotes, code snippets, inserting horizontal dividers, mark as important, and even insert table.
You can also insert hyperlinks and edit how the text appears, like this link.
There are 8 icons plus ellipses under the text area of a Post. So far, we have only covered the first one!
Attachments in Teams Posts
The next one is the paper clip icon for attachments. Like Classroom, Teams allows you to upload attachments from your device or add a link to a file in OneDrive. There isn’t a separate icon for urls or YouTube videos (also a url) because we already covered those.
Teams also lets you select from recent files, which is often exactly what you need without needing to search for it, and to add files from any other team or any channel is this or another team. But also notice that Microsoft plays nicer. You can add files to your Microsoft Team posts from your Google Drive.
Posting in Teams is more fun!
The next few options are fun and motivational, and who doesn’t need that, especially in today’s disconnected world of remote schooling? You can add emojis, GIFs and stickers, and a special set of customizable stickers called “Praise”. They are addressed to individuals but posted publicly. The last icon below is the ability to create a poll. The results show up in the feed as your students answer the poll.
Right in the middle, I skipped over the Stream icon. Microsoft Stream is a video curation tool within your organization. You can add any video from your organization’s Stream library right here as well.
Apps for Microsoft Teams
Finally we get to the ellipses. There are dozens of other apps that can be incorporated into a Post in Teams. A few are suggested when you click on the ellipses, but when you then click on “More apps”, there are 100s to choose from.
There are 50 just under the education category, including Nearpod, Peardeck, Quizlet, Thinglink, Buncee and Lifeliqe.
Replies to Posts in Google Classroom
So those are the options for what you can add to a Post. As limited as the options are for adding to or customizing a Post in Google Classrooms is, it’s still better than how you can customize a reply in Classroom, because you can’t. The only way you can reply to a post in Google Classroom is with plain text.
Replies to Posts in Microsoft Teams
So, how does Teams compare? You have all the same options for replies as you do for posts! With one exception, because when you create a post in Teams, you also have the option of allowing anyone to respond to your post, or only moderators. If you reply to a post, whatever rule applies to the post applies to the replies.
Both Classroom and Teams allow the team/class owner to set rules for whether or not whole classes and/or individual members can post and/or reply, so those settings of course determine who can or can’t do any of the options described throughout this article.
Summary of features for Posts In Classroom and Teams
There’s nothing more to say about posts in Google Classroom. But there is more to add about Posts in Microsoft Teams; however, all the features in Teams has already made this article pretty long, so Teams is going to need an additional post tomorrow!
Looking for more? How about the
Remote Learning with Microsoft Teams Course
Sign up to learn how to go from a complete novice in Teams to using Teams for your complete solution for remote learning.
If you like this style of directions and screenshots, walking you through ideas for using Microsoft tools in your classroom, check out my book,
All the Microsoft Tools You Need to Transform Your Classroom: 50 Ideas for using Microsoft Office 365 for Education available on amazon in both Kindle and paperback.