BACKCHANNELING…and how it can be used in the classroom

Janice Schmidt

DEFINITION OF BACKCHANNELING

On usingenglish.com, backchanneling is defined as "a way of showing a speaker that you are

following what they are saying and understand , often through interjections like “I see”, “yes”,

“ok”.

This is a very old fashioned definition.

Wikipedia.com defines it as “the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation along live spoken remarks”. It is a relatively new term not found in most common dictionaries.

So why use backchanneling?

FOR TEACHERS:

*It increases participation*Can be used as an informal assessment*Teacher controls all aspects of the chat*Teacher can change topic or direction of the chat

FOR STUDENTS:

*No pressure to raise hand in class*Student doesn’t have to speak to a whole class *No waiting for a turn to speak*Dominant students can’t hog the floor *It’s collaborative-students can ask as well as answer questions

OVERALL BENEFITS:

*The discussion is in real time*Can be used for homework assignments*Builds community*Usable in all disciplines*Each contribution is name/date/time stamped

Backchanneling is like using Twitter or hashtags and therefore it is often more positively accepted by students. They are also very good at multi-tasking, and backchannelingis just that! Reading, viewing, thinking, responding, all at thesame time!

A FEW REPUTABLE SCHOOL-BASED SITES INCLUDE:

*Backchannel Chat

*Chatwing

*Edmodo

*Todays Meet

I will show you how to use Today’s Meet, easy to sign up for and so easy to use!

Log into todaysmeet.com

USING TODAYS MEET

*Create an account and a title

for your room

*Select Signed-in users

*Have your students sign in using

the name of the room to access the

chat.

*Open the room and start chatting!

YOUR HOME PAGE

Managing the chat is easy!

Your home page gives you the ability to see all of yourprevious chat information.The icons can help you openand close a room, select who has access to the chat, and it even creates and printsa transcript of the session.

THIS IS THE PAGE YOU AND THE STUDENTS SEE

A FULL RUNNING DIALOGUE LOOKS LIKE THIS

CLICK THE ICON SHOWN BELOW TO CREATE A TRANSCRIPT OF THE CHAT

THIS IS A COPY OF A TRANSCRIPT

The name of the students and the times they posted their

comments are stamped right below their contribution.

It can be printed out for further perusal and grading.

In the library, backchanneling can be used when a class is brought in to work on research. A room can be opened and the students can ask the teacher and each other questions about sources, citing, requirements for the paper etc. They can share information if they have topics that overlap. A whole class can be busily working and sharing with very little out-loud conversation, allowing other activities to go on in the library simultaneously without disruption.

Using a backchanneling website like Todays Meet is an easy fun way to engage your students! It focuses them on a question or topic, while allowing them to use their multi-tasking capabilities. They can also help each other instead of Students can ask each other questions and help each other Answer those questions instead of relying on the teacher andtherefore it is a collaborative tool that helps develop community in the classroom.

I hope that you found this tutorial easy and helpful. Thanks for watching!

WORK CITED

• Classroom.mineslaisd.net

• Clipartpanda.com

• ct4me.net

• Dcgmiddleschoollibrary.blogspot.com

• Dreamstime.com

• Fallout.wikia.com

• Nemu-nemu.com

• Oshup.com

• Playinghistory.org

• Slate.com

• Techedupteacher.com

• Today’smeet.com

• Usnews.com

• Usingenglish.com

• Wikipedia.com