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In my first post in this series - Getting students' attention - I mentioned the use of backchannels. This post should give you more information about the use of backchannels within the classroom. If you are working in a classroom where your students have internet connected devices, either through wifi or their mobile phone, using a backchannel can have a transformative impact on the way you can use technology with your students...

Rumbletalk bills itself as a "boutique" backchannel chat tool for live events, Facebook events. etc. They are marketing themselves for integration into Facebook pages and events but it can be put in other places. Lots of backchannel capabilities are emerging as many educators and event planners see the value of providing, managing and leading in the backchannel chats that WILL and DO occur whether you wish they did or not. 

A new website that many are discussing. I love using BAckchannels in my classroom and thus far have used Chatzy and Ning chat, however, this website is designed for real time chat for classrooms. You can mute and remove comments, it has a profanity filter and also a full transcript so you can go back and assess participation and weaknesses. You can set the chat to discontinue when you leave. When I review for tests, I always like to use a backchannel because I can ask questions and we can document answers and the students can save as notes. This is a great tool. I'll be testing the free chat room this week. I've heard from some of our Flat Classroom(r) certified teachers that this is a create tool.

Basic Backchannel chat room netiquette. I use this generic slideshow to share and teach about backchannel.

Backchannels in the classroom - this is a fantastic guide by Jerry Blumengarten @cybraryman1 of just about everything about backchannels.

As some say that all students should be required to "speak up" in class, I say "let them type." If you run a backchannel, that should count as classroom contribution. I've found that quieter students will float an idea in the classroom and are willing to express it verbally if the teacher notices and speaks about the topic. Sometimes students want a low-threat way to suggest and interject, and I've personally found the backchannel to be a powerful way to do this.

This Free Technology for Teachers posting provides links to teacher blogs discussion how they use backchannels in their elementary classroom.

Mike Gwaltney shares how he uses Twitter to make a backchannel.

Research shared by Dr. Leigh Zeitz on backchannel research.

The real question is whether a secondary stream would be a learning advantage to your students. To find out, I checked with a couple of experienced backchannel wranglers to find out what worked well in class and what didn't.

I blogged on this yesterday, but this is a post to read and share with college level and higher who are following Web 2.0 and specifically the use of backchannels.

Socrative has class backchannel capabilities.

One 8th grade class's experience with backchanneling while watching a video. Great ideas here!

Backchannel chat, great for class discussionis 

So we decided to add a backchannel to the reading. While one of us reads, the kids in both classrooms and the other teacher chat in a today's meet room, discussing the text, asking questions, making predictions and dropping in great pieces of the text as it is read aloud over skype.

make a private chat room.

Backchannel chat

BackNoise lets you create conversations on the fly, in meetings, watching TV, during class, on the train, anywhere and anytime. Talk about what you want, when you want, where you want, and how you want.