Discord wants their app/service to be used for educational uses in addition to video game community usage

[Deleted member 3812]

Here's something interesting, Discord wants educators to try out Discord for remote education usage and has actually created a educational Discord server template:

Discord crashes the Microsoft Teams party and waves at teachers and students - OnMSFT.com

The platform that is usually associated with video gaming communities today released a new blog post, showing how teachers can use Discord as a virtual classroom.

www.onmsft.com

Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and Zoom have become the best ways for teachers to continue education during the Coronavirus crisis, but they can now count on Discord, too. The platform that is usually associated with video gaming communities released a new blog post, showing how teachers can use Discord as a virtual classroom.

According to the post, Discord, as a company, recently made the decision to change the user limit on the Go Live feature of its platform from 10 to 50 people. This popular feature allows gamers to stream their screen, and "present" their content to their viewers. The decision was apparently designed to help teachers, as the company was "flooded with requests from educators asking: What can I do with Discord?"

Discord has also created a server template to help teachers get started with using the platform in education. It's worth noting, though, that there is an age limit, as the minimum age to join Discord is 13. This might be problematic for younger students in grade-school; but for older teenagers, it may very well help as they are likely familiar with the platform anyway.

It's quite interesting to see the Discord suddenly push its services for use outside of gaming and in education. But, knowing the dangers of Coronavirus, it's great to see another player join in to help support remote-education.

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Discord on Twitter

“welcome educators new to Discord 👋 you can now create your own pre-organized classroom space with one single click. we wrote up some words on how to best use Discord with your students: https://t.co/Bd64IXBZzA”

twitter.com

Discord Blog

Discover the latest news and app updates, community stories, company insights and plenty more about Discord, all in one place.

blog.discordapp.com

You've been telling us stories of how you're using Discord in all sorts of amazing ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. We've seen classrooms come together, workers without an office find a new place to connect, and tons of surprising uses. To help out where we can, we recently announced that we're temporarily raising the user limit on Go Live from 10 to 50 people.

One of the main reasons we made this change was to help teachers. With schools closing in many parts of the world, more and more of them are turning to Discord to make sure their students don't fall behind and can continue to learn. And we've been flooded with requests from educators asking: What can I do with Discord?

To put it briefly, Discord offers:

• A dedicated, free to use, invite only class space
• Text channels to organize things like lessons, homework, or study groups
• Voice channels for both one-to-one and group discussions, or even office hours
• A real-time teaching environment where lessons can be shared with up to 50 people at a time

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[Ryan.]

I work as a graduate assistant in our library and I overheard one of our student workers talking to a supervisor how an instructor was planning on using Discord on top of everything included in Moodle instead of say WebEx for a lot of their virtual stuff.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

 

[entremet]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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Hmm?

It's channel-based, the quality is based on the channels you are. It's like blaming forum software on forum content.

It's a platform, not a community.

 

[Magneto]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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... Have you any idea of how Discord works ?

 

[Kthulhu]

Hopefully they can figure out a way to make it work. IMO Slack and Teams are better for serious work, but I guess we'll see how it goes.

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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What kind of servers are you joining?

 

[Deleted member 2085]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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lol you should get out of the servers you're in

 

[Brazil]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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Yeah, about that.

 

[Wireframe]

What kind of servers are you joining?

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Asking the real questions.

 

[Komo]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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Yeah that's literally the ones you join. Discord has been and still is a good place to do remote work, and has been as a lot of the people I know are now on Discord working just the same as before.

 

[Primus]

We've been doing this for a couple days now, our computer repair shop has a side business in worker's comp retraining classes, and with so many people asking about remote learning we started doing the classes online via an invite-only Discord server. Took a bit of setting up but works like a charm!

 

[Crossing Eden]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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Content literally depends on the servers you're apart of.... 👀

 

[enzo_gt]

This is great. So many learning management systems are frustrating to deal with and ripe for bigger companies like Microsoft, Slack, and Discord to enter the space to ease a lot of the frustrations.

 

[Einbroch]

Microsoft Teams is horse shit, so I hope Discord takes over.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

lol you should get out of the servers you're in

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Yeah that's literally the ones you join. Discord has been and still is a good place to do remote work, and has been as a lot of the people I know are now on Discord working just the same as before.

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Content literally depends on the servers you're apart of.... 👀

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No shit. But just like reddit.com, should they facilitate their servers and technology for dangerous groups? Discord is being used as a recruitment tool.

What's with all the 'that's with all the servers you're in' posts?????

... Have you any idea of how Discord works ?

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Anyone can make a Discord 'server', but they still use Discord's technology/servers and Discord profits off of them via Nitro. Am I wrong?

Hmm?

It's channel-based, the quality is based on the channels you are. It's like blaming forum software on forum content.

It's a platform, not a community.

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Does it work differently from Reddit then? This isn't IRC - these communities use Discord. And Discord profits off of them.
Do I need to join the controversial subreddits before I can have an issue with them even existing in the first place?

 

[Ryan.]

They need to clean out their service then. It's like the 4chan of chat services.

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So either you're the one that needs to clean out the servers you use, or you don't use Discord at all.

 

[Magneto]

No shit. But just like reddit.com, should they facilitate their servers and technology for dangerous groups? Discord is being used as a recruitment tool.

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Yeah, just like websites, forums, social networks... So i guess educational services should stop until all the Internet is cleaned ?

 

[lmcfigs]

Yeah. Blackboard and Canvas have the collaborator tools that already closely resemble discord.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

So either you're the one that needs to clean out the servers you use, or you don't use Discord at all.

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Again, please explain your rhetoric.

Yeah, just like websites, forums, social networks... So i guess educational services should stop until all the Internet is cleaned ?

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So you think Reddit should not have shut down its most problematic subreddits? Or Facebook can just allow any hate group to use its technologies for profit/recruitment?

People can use the internet for anything they want. But we should hold these companies accountable.

I'm talking about this by the way, this was worldwide news: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/660642531/right-wing-hate-groups-are-recruiting-video-gamers

 

[Kthulhu]

No shit. But just like reddit.com, should they facilitate their servers and technology for dangerous groups? Discord is being used as a recruitment tool.

What's with all the 'that'

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Unlike Reddit there isn't total transparency though. Discord has to be made aware of the servers existence and unlike Reddit you aren't likely to just randomly stubble across that type of content unless you seek it out.

 

[Ryan.]

Again, please explain your rhetoric.



So you think Reddit should not have shut down its most problematic subreddits? Or Facebook can just allow any hate group to use its technologies for profit/recruitment?

People can use the internet for anything they want. But we should hold these companies accountable.

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How easy do you it is to access those types of servers compared to Discord? I'm not saying people shouldn't be held accountable with what's hosted but most if not all people that are going to sign up for a Discord account to use a virtual classroom are not going to be anywhere near those kind of communities.

Even the search function for Discord servers is filtered to only contain approved partners and affiliates, while those services you list literally throw them at your face if you're not too careful.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

Unlike Reddit there isn't total transparency though. Discord has to be made aware of the servers existence and unlike Reddit you aren't likely to just randomly stubble across that type of content unless you seek it out.

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I can not fathom that Discord has no idea what kind of groups they are hosting.

How easy do you it is to access those types of servers compared to Discord? I'm not saying people shouldn't be held accountable with what's hosted but most if not all people that are going to sign up for a Discord account to use a virtual classroom are not going to be anywhere near those kind of communities.

Even the search function for Discord servers is filtered to only contain approved partners and affiliates, while those services you list literally throw them at your face if you're not too careful.

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Isn't it as easy as a link on a website, or an invite through discord itself?

 

[jotun?]

Anyone can make a Discord 'server', but they still use Discord's technology/servers and Discord profits off of them via Nitro. Am I wrong?



Does it work differently from Reddit then? This isn't IRC - these communities use Discord. And Discord profits off of them.
Do I need to join the controversial subreddits before I can have an issue with them even existing in the first place?

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I think the issue here is that your first post didn't really sound like this was your complaint. All you said was that it was like 4chan, which could have meant many things, and most took it to mean that when you log on to discord you're seeing a bunch of garbage

 

[Komo]

No shit. But just like reddit.com, should they facilitate their servers and technology for dangerous groups? Discord is being used as a recruitment tool.

What's with all the 'that's with all the servers you're in' posts?????

Anyone can make a Discord 'server', but they still use Discord's technology/servers and Discord profits off of them via Nitro. Am I wrong?

Does it work differently from Reddit then? This isn't IRC - these communities use Discord. And Discord profits off of them.
Do I need to join the controversial subreddits before I can have an issue with them even existing in the first place?

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Reddit can see directly who buys gold, who is getting it, and in what sub. Discord sees literal message ID's and numbers for the server names. Also a insanely massive majority of discord users don't Nitro.

Sure Discord can try to find them, but half of their service is legitimately encrypted. Images they can see, but they cannot pin point where it came from or what channels it could have originated from. They also can't just search "credit card stealing group" and then boom that's done their service is just not like that. They also cannot actually tell you whats in a lot of the messages as discord would need you or someone else to be in it to give the server/message/channel id's they need to see those messages you see.

The people are saying that's all the servers your in, because your experience with discord can vary quite a lot just based off of servers you join.

 

[Paches]

My work is using this while we are all working from home instead of Slack. We enjoy it more.

 

[NESpowerhouse]

Again, please explain your rhetoric.



So you think Reddit should not have shut down its most problematic subreddits? Or Facebook can just allow any hate group to use its technologies for profit/recruitment?

People can use the internet for anything they want. But we should hold these companies accountable.

I'm talking about this by the way, this was worldwide news: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/660642531/right-wing-hate-groups-are-recruiting-video-gamers

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Dude, anybody can access those subreddits. That's why that matters more. Discord servers require invites, meaning it would be on you to actively seek them out.

 

[Ryan.]

I can not fathom that Discord has no idea what kind of groups they are hosting.



Isn't it as easy as a link on a website, or an invite through discord itself?

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They still have to go out of their way to find those links and communities. And I have no doubt that Discord is aware when reports come in.

 

[exodus]

My company just booted up a Teams instance for us but my team has been using Discord. Teams feels bloated and archaic.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

Now Discord needs to get rid of those stupid meme messages in their UI. They already caused security issues with the QR login feature because the app told you about magic keys to a kingdom instead of what's actually happening.

 

[Komo]

I can not fathom that Discord has no idea what kind of groups they are hosting.

Isn't it as easy as a link on a website, or an invite through discord itself?

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Yes, and no. There's no way to search a user or a server name on discord. It requires direct invites to them. If there's a drug trading discord and invites are not allowed to be generated by anyone then you'll most likely never hear about it.

 

[texhnolyze]

When the outbreak started in my country last week, there are Discord tutorials for teachers and lecturers so that they can use it for remote education.

 

[Kthulhu]

I can not fathom that Discord has no idea what kind of groups they are hosting

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They are aware when it's reported but it's a game of wack a mole and they can only do so much as a small start up vs the likes of Facebook and YouTube.

Obviously it's a problem but there are reasons as to why they can't tackle it with the same ease as most companies.

 

[Crossing Eden]

No shit. But just like reddit.com, should they facilitate their servers and technology for dangerous groups? Discord is being used as a recruitment tool.

What's with all the 'that's with all the servers you're in' posts?????

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Discord polices content appropriately. When it's properly reported.

Isn't it as easy as a link on a website, or an invite through discord itself?

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You need an inv to get into a discord server, which yes, can come in the form of a link. However, it's not as easy as something like a subreddit where everything is public. Discord servers are private by default. You're talking about something you're seemingly quite misinformed about. It's places like reddit where the mods just throw up their hands and say "well we really can't do anything about that even though we could" when it comes to hateful content. Discord is the opposite. Reports about white supremacists servers and such= the server getting 🔨

 

[lmcfigs]

Now Discord needs to get rid of those stupid meme messages in their UI. They already caused security issues with the QR login feature because the app told you about magic keys to a kingdom instead of what's actually happening.

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Is that a real concern? Do you really need to know what they're doing?