Backchanneling

Have you ever been to a professional development activity (conference, grad class, etc.) where the presenter asked the audience to log into a site and ask questions or have a discussion while the presenter was presenting? If so, the presenter was asking you to backchannel.

Backchanneling is a way to extend the discussion and the learning that is taking place. It allows participants the opportunity to discuss among themselves, ask and answer questions in a non-threatening and non-disruptive way.

In your classroom, backchanneling can do the same things. It can also be a great way to engage students who might not be comfortable speaking up in class. They can still participate in a discussion without having to have all eyes on them while they speak. It is also great for you as a teacher to have an archive of the discussion and questions asked; you can go back and review the transcript of the backcahnnel to see what insights kids had or what questions they need answered.

Some ideas for using backchanneling:

• Ask kids to generate questions they want answers to when introducing a new topic.
• Ask kids to discuss a movie while they are watching it.
• Use the backchannel during Socratic seminars.
• Use a backchannel discussion while reading a story or a novel.

The backchannel I like to use the most is Today's Meet, which is free and gives you lots of control. You can keep chat discussions open or closed for as long as you want. You can archive discussions and print out transcripts, too.

Here's a short video that will give a nice overview of backchanneling. 

Let me know if you'd like to get started using this technique in your class -- I'd be thrilled to come help you with it! This can be an especially powerful method next year in particular once we are 1:1!