As we kick off the new school year, we will also be launching a new chat platform: Microsoft Teams!  Skype is being mothballed by Microsoft this fall, and after carefully evaluating our alternatives, we will be replacing it with Microsoft Teams.  New staff was trained on it last week, and you should already see an icon for it on your desktop. (If you do not see it on your desktop, you can download it and login online.)  An account has already been created for you, so simply login using your regular credentials!  

The sooner you get acquainted with Teams, the better, as Skype will no longer be available after Wednesday, July 31.  This cutover date was chosen to give all staff a chance to get familiar with Teams before school starts on August 15. 

We expect the transition from Skype to Teams to be relatively straightforward, as Teams basically replicates all of Skype’s functionality in a fairly similar fashion. But the functionality of Teams goes well beyond that of Skype, so the bigger opportunity is to maximize its full potential. This will be an ongoing process, as we are still learning about all of its great features and the best way to use them. Check out this FAQ that explains how to use Teams--this will be a living document that we will update with insights about how to harness the new functionality Teams provides.   

Reach out to the helpdesk@scienceandtech.org if you have any questions or difficulty getting access to or using Teams! And stay tuned for more updates and guidance on how we can take advantage of its new capabilities! 

See you on Teams!