using a second external camera with microsoft teams

This is *exactly* what is wrong with Microsoft. We ask for a feature, and your response is "No, you don't that feature. Use THIS feature instead!" Are you an educator? Have you ever tried giving a lecture on continuum mechanics using a digital whiteboard?  Zoom already has the second camera, which is why I'm switching to zoom even though my university doesn't have a subscription.

Thank you for your suggestion.  At the moment, the whiteboard feature allows everyone to write on it at the same time and you cannot tell who wrote what.  As a middle school teacher, this option is a bit too dangerous, lol.  I do appreciate your reply, however.

Hello Betsy,

Thanks for your post here.

Regarding to your requirement, it is not feasible to use both external camera and primary camera at the same time. From your description, if you'd like to share something while have a video meeting with others, you can save the image as a file in your computer and use the screen sharing feature to share it with others. For more information about it, here is an article for your reference: Share content in a meeting in Teams.

If you still want to use two cameras at the same time, we recommend you kindly give your feedback and share your experience via our UserVoice Service. Every customer’s voice is important to us. The related engineers will design or upgrade features referring to customers’ feedback and your ideas will help us to make our product and features better for you. We sincerely appreciate your continued support for our products and services.

Regards,

Seven

Yes, PLEASE add the second camera (or even a third) We want to be professional!

Carol,

I see your predicament, but there are two things you can do to eliminate your concern.  

1. Limit participant access to "Read-only" from the whiteboard app.
   • It works much smoother if you do not use the whiteboard app within teams and instead open the app outside of teams.
   • Participants can only view the whiteboard and cannot do anything to the whiteboard
   • You can change individual participants ability to interact with the whiteboard when you'd like them to participate.
     • Here's a video that does a decent job of explaining the features... Microsoft Whiteboard for Education - Full Feature Overview (April 2020)
     • Skip to 12:54 mark to see how to limit "Read-only" access
2. Share the "Whiteboard" app window similarly to how you would share a PowerPoint or PDF
   • This is maybe simpler to manage, but does not allow you the control to allow any participants to interact with the whiteboard
   • Some people do not realize that when you "share" you can share a single application or your desktop and therefore get nervous sharing in case something pops up they don't want the participants to see.  Teams (IMO) has made this much easier to manage than other virtual meeting platforms.
   • Here's a decent video on how to share specific apps in case you are not comfortable... How to Share your screen in Microsoft Teams Meeting

Please know two things; I am not a "Teams" expert by any means, however I may or may not work for the company that made this product and use these features every single day.  I come from a family of teachers and have personally taught most of them how to utilize this feature with their classes.  With a little practice is works very well.  Best of luck.