As the end of my first week of full remote learning came to a close, I found myself anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new tech “toy.” A “toy” I’m hoping will take my full remote teaching to yet another level. That “toy” is the Jabra Pro 9465 Duo Headset. 

SIDE NOTE: This piece of technology is far from being a toy. It is a serious piece of equipment that (while not the cutting edge of headset technology) has many use cases. I’m sure its creators never would have imagined a 4th grade teacher using this headset to work remotely with his students.

That said, my use of the word “toy” is purely meant to be playful. 

I first became aware of this technology from my wife who, like me, has been working from home since this past March. She's on calls all day long and found that she was in need of something to help her communicate and receive audio clearly as she worked. She really liked what her version of the headset, the 9450 Mono afforded her so I thought I'd give it a try. 

The Jabra 9465 Duo Headset is a piece of technology that, most certainly, is, under “normal” circumstances, used by business people to take calls on and off throughout the day on various platforms in situations where there is a lot of noise. I say this because the duo headset does a great job of cutting out background noise. As seen in this first picture, the unit comes with a base that, among other things, keeps the headset charged.

The base also includes a touch screen display that allows the user to adjust base settings, headset settings, as well as phone settings. There is a lot there that I, as a remote classroom teacher, will never use. Suffice it to say, you can get very granular with these settings and if you care to, I encourage you to check them out. For me, I’m happy with the way this headset comes out of the box ready to use.

I've been using my headset for about a week. The main use case, and reason I chose to purchase it, is for the daily, synchronous Zoom sessions I do with my students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adjusting the settings in Zoom, to the Jabra, are very easy…two clicks of the mouse and it’s ready for use. 

The first thing I noticed while using the headset was the lowering of the volume of my voice. Meaning, the first day I used the headset I could actually talk in a “normal,” soft tone to my students versus what felt like shouting into my laptop’s built in microphone. I felt much more calm and relaxed talking to my students with the duo headset on. They reported back to me that my voice was much clearer and could understand what I was saying much better than when I was literally shouting at them before purchasing this unit. Another thing I like is that I can hear the students more clearly through the duo headphones than when I’m listening to them on the laptop’s built in speakers. This is very important…that being that they hear me and I hear them. So much of teaching and learning depends on what is heard both teacher to student and student to teacher. 

The only complaint I have about the headset, so far is that wearing them for an extended period of time takes a bit of a toll on the back of my ears. This is due to the fact that I wear glasses and there is a bit of pressure, as the headset presses slightly on my ears and by default the back portion of my glasses. It’s not much but I felt that I needed to mention it here. I do take them off when we take our brain breaks and I need the students to hear what is coming from my computer. I also take them off when we break for lunch. Like I said…this is a minor issue to deal with and doesn’t really start becoming noticeable until later in the day.

The Jabra 9465 Duo Headset is a great piece of “older” technology that is just fine for someone like me…a teacher trying to make the best of a very unique situation.