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What is backchanneling and how can you use it in your classroom?
7 CommentsGood morning everyone,
About a year ago, I blogged about a free service called Chatzy.com – a site that allows you to create secure, private virtual rooms allowing essentially unlimited numbers of students to gather in real time to chat together. Today, thanks to Diigo user Anne Bubnic, I happened across a blog post by Chris Webb entitled Backchanneling in Middle School Social Studies. Before I get into that, here’s a defnition from Wikipedia:
Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks. The term was coined in the field of Linguistics to describe listeners’ behaviours during verbal communication, Victor Yngve 1970.
The term “backchannel” generally refers to online conversation about the topic or the speaker. Occasionally backchannel provides audience members a chance to fact-check the presentation.
First growing in popularity at technology conferences, backchannel is increasingly a factor in education where WiFi connections and laptop computers allow students to use ordinary chat like IRC or AIM to actively communicate during class.
Chris’ blog post talks about the experience of Patrick Gerding, an American History teacher at his school, who used the free Today’s Meet service to create a space for his middle school students to discuss a video he was showing. See the blog entry for the details. In my view, the important bits are that the effort, his first, was a success; the students enjoyed it and were engaged; the teacher managed the entire experience; and the service was free.
I love this idea because it takes the ultimate passive activity, watching videos in school, and turns it into a powerful learning opportunity. When I was a kid, teachers like this guy —> ran noisy filmstrip projectors from the back of a darkened room as kids struggled to stay awake. It’s not much different these days, although I’ve seen teachers in my school use an interactive whiteboard to make the process more engaging (but it’s still a ‘sage on the stage’ experience). The bottom line is that free backchanneling services like Chatzy.com and Today’s Meet give educators the ability to really put the kids in charge of their own learning.Chris reflects that although this was a great first experience for the teacher in question, future sessions could be better focused by integrating guided questions into the mix. You could also make it clear to students that participation is mandatory (there will always be some who hang in the back, whether the room is real or virtual) but in my experience kids are far more comfortable sharing in an IM-style environment, particularly reticent students. It is a sad reality that kids say things “online” they never would face-to-face; this turns that phenomenon into an advantage by focusing the conversation on a school topic. And for those who might fear kids will be inappropriate or rude to each other, remember, everything they say is recorded. So the teacher is always watching. And, since the room is private, the information is never accessible on the public internet.
The big drawback here is access. Every student needs a computer to participate. For districts that have high percentages of households with computers, this even makes sense as a homework activity. I am reminded of my 7th grade daughter watching the presidential debates last year. Imagine how much more powerful the experience could have been if this technology had been used? The possibilities are endless. Now, to find a way to work this into my computer lab!
-kj-
Published on March 23, 2009 · Filed under: Collaboration Tools, Just Too Cool!;
7 Responses to “What is backchanneling and how can you use it in your classroom?”
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Kevin,
I am also experimenting with my elementary school students and the use of a chat room. I am learning that students need the opportunity to work with and be guided to use tools like a chat as a backchannel and collaboration tool in an academic setting.
I blogged about using tinychat.com with my students here and just did a presentation about using chat in the classroom at the International School of Bangkok.
I am looking forward to reading more about your experience with using chat in the classroom as a learning tool. -
Since all chat services are blocked–we have used covertit live and google docs for backchannels.
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Thanks Paul! I especially like the idea of Google Docs as a backchannel. Very effective!
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bridget neves said on December 27th, 2009 at 3:49 am
i recently saw your post on using Google Docs to backchannel in class.
do you have a great resource/link to explain how to do this? sounds really interesting and engaging for the kids.
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Hi Bridget, thanks for the comment, I’m actually planning on a writeup over winter recess about this, stay tuned!
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This is a very progressive approach. Of course, it’s easy to be progressive once you recognize that the sage on stage approach (I love that expression and have never heard it before) is essentially boring for most students. Even with multimedia sages, many students tune out.
The heart of this discussion is taking place at the university level where lectures are routinely chatted about in real time. Most professors hate it. They particularly dislike it when the room breaks out in a spontaneous laugh apparently not in response to anything the prof said. Probably in response to some clever tweet. Does it help in that environment? Many profs feel that the online backchannel detracts from the more traditional one: put up your hand and say something if you have a worthwhile comment or question.
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Hi John,
It’s funny you mention the negative impacts of microblogging in higher ed, did you see this post by danah boyd? http://bit.ly/8Fc4GY – it’s exactly what you are referring to.
That said, I’ve seen microblogging used very effectively in conference sessions by edublogger types who actively embrace the tool as part of the presentation. But it could clearly get out of hand.
-kj-
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