Education is a social process.  Education is growth.  Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.  John Dewey
  Education is a social process.  Education is growth.  Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.  John Dewey
  • Welcome
  • Educational Technology
    • Connect
    • Create
    • Listen
    • Organize
    • Visualize
    • Write
  • Professional Development
    • Operation vs. Application
  • Blog
  • Work Examples
    • Ethics of the Atomic Bomb
    • History of Communication Learning Model
    • Mashups
    • TPACK Teaching Case
    • Visual of Production Cycle
  • Contact
  • Welcome
  • Educational Technology
    • Connect
    • Create
    • Listen
    • Organize
    • Visualize
    • Write
  • Professional Development
    • Operation vs. Application
  • Blog
  • Work Examples
    • Ethics of the Atomic Bomb
    • History of Communication Learning Model
    • Mashups
    • TPACK Teaching Case
    • Visual of Production Cycle
  • Contact

Tech Tip Tuesday: Using Backchannels in the Classroom

4/18/2017

0 Comments

 
What is a backchannel?
A backchannel is a digital conversation running concurrently with a class activity.  It creates an outlet for students to engage in class discussions in a variety of ways.  A backchannel does not replace classroom discussions but enhances them for all students.

Why use a backchannel?
​You can use a backchannel to capture your students' curiosity.  Use a backchannel to ask your students what they are curious about, what makes them skeptical, or if they have a burning question about the content.  You could even use the information your students provide to help guide personalized projects based on students' interests, resulting in authentic learning opportunities

Use a backchannel to connect the conversation.  Students become more engaged when they have to monitor the backchannel while in class.  You can keep it running at all times, or you could consider pausing in class to check in with the backchannel as a group.  Encourage students to answer other students' questions; once they are teaching something, you know they know the concept!

Use a backchannel to create ubiquitous opportunities.  When students are asked to communicate over multiple modalities, they are able to develop their thoughts over time and engage in authentic learning.  Learning is then no longer tied to a desk in a brick and mortar classroom; students can learn and contribute at any time.

What tools can I use to start a backchannel?
There are so many tools out there that you can use to create your own backchannel.  I'm only going to highlight a few below and link you to them directly.  These are tools I've used to create a backchannel in my classes, plus they are free!

*click on the images below to visit the websites directly
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Below is also a great infographic from the Langwitches Blog explaining backchannels in even more detail as well as some helpful websites for your own reference.  

So, how do you use backchannels in your classroom?  Please leave a comment below!

Resources:
10 Ways to Use Backchannels in Your Classroom
The Backchannel: Giving Every Student a Voice
Five Platforms for a Classroom Backchannel Chat
Picture
0 Comments

Ways to Engage Students Inside and Outside the Classroom

3/28/2017

0 Comments

 
It is important for educators to support students in taking ownership of their own learning.  When students are empowered in their learning, they are more engaged.  It helps when we design learning activities that are original, relevant, and creative.  Here are three recommendations to help engage your students: make learning authentic, make learning connect to students' environments and communities, and breathe life into learning.  
Picture
Picture
Time to Get Real
Role playing with your students can be a great way to get them to use their critical thinking skills and start to problem solve.  You can be the one acting out scenarios, or you could invite your colleagues to "visit" your class in character for your students to interact with them.  You could even take it a step further and have your students fill roles and act out cases.  Students should be responsible for assessing the situation, determining possible solutions, and creating a way to address the situation.  
Time to Connect
It is important to help students connect to their own environments and communities.  Sometimes lectures cannot engage students in making these connections.  Instead, consider taking a field trip!  Look in your community for shows, plays, and exhibits that can reinforce your content.  Visit as a class or encourage your students to go on their own time and then connect and reflect on the visits during class.  Can't organize a field trip?  Go on a virtual field trip!  You can organize virtual field trips yourself, or you can see if others have created ones you can access.  
Picture
Picture
Time to Breathe
Students remember stories.  When explaining concepts, especially difficult ones, tell them a story from your own life or practice.  Ask them to share stories they find connect to certain concepts.  Breathe life into your lessons.  They are more likely to remember the stories than their notes.
Consider how you are engaging your students both in and out of the classroom.  These three recommendations are only a few of the variety of ways you can support your students' ownership of their own learning.  Do you have ways that you engage your students that you have found successful?  Please share them below in the comments!
0 Comments

Tech Tip Tuesday: Revisiting the SAMR Model

2/21/2017

0 Comments

 
This week's Tech Tip Tuesday is coming back around to the concept of SAMR.  You'll recall we had a discussion about SAMR a few weeks ago.  You can revisit that discussion here, and you can review the levels with the image below.  
Picture
While SAMR is a great model to explore the integration of educational technology in the classroom, there are still some issues that we should consider.  For instance, the model tends to privilege the two levels of redefinition and modification.  This privilege can have the unintended consequence of marginalizing good, quality teaching that does not employ digital technology.  There are still great lessons that use non-digital (re: paper and pen!) technology.  Also, by placing substitution at the bottom of the model, it can negatively impact teachers who are otherwise willing to try new technologies in their classroom.  By creating this hierachy, it can feel like a long way to climb up the ladder in order to "effectively" integrate technology.  It is also important to point out that SAMR tends to focus on the task instead of the people in the classroom.  It seems to still rely heavily on a teacher-focused classroom instead of a student-focused one.  So what if we focused on the people instead of solely on the task at hand?  Kathy Schrock expanded on a model created by Jen Roberts in order to explore the combination of Bloom's, SAMR, and the integration of technology.  You can see the image below.
Picture
As you can see by including Bloom's, the instructor can focus on higher-order cognitive skills.  By then building on SAMR but focusing more on people over tasks, the instructor can move away from a teacher-centered classroom and more to a student-centered, tech-integrated classroom.  This shift allows for more choice and more student autonomy while addressing students' needs and interests and focusing on authentic learning.  
Want to learn more?  Check out How to Integrate Google Apps with the SAMR Model
0 Comments

Tech Tip Tuesday: Using EdTech to Create a Backchannel

11/15/2016

0 Comments

 
Many educators today are doing their best to move away from the traditional lecture format in their classrooms.  This shift is a positive one in order to support student-centered learning.  However, there are still times when it is necessary to focus the attention back to the front of the room, whether for a video or a traditional lecture.  How do we make sure our students are still engaged even when they are asked to sit and listen?  You can create a backchannel in your classroom to ensure their engagement and regularly monitor their formative learning.

Creating a backchannel is easy using educational technology.  There are a number of tools you can use to create a backchannel, and I offer links to a handful below.

So, really, why use a backchannel?  Won't that just distract my students?  Well, no.  Your students are already using a backchannel in your classrooms, whether it is whispering, texting, passing notes, or even jumping on social media.  So why not offer them a structured backchannel to refocus the conversation on the content information and give them productive ways to collaborate?

Backchannels offer ways to have a more organic conversation with your students.  Instead of having students raise their hand and interrupt lecture, they can type their questions in the backchannel.  The conversation becomes more relevant and happens more organically.  The answers to the questions also become more relevant because you can encourage students to collaborate and help each other out by answering other students' questions.  This takes some of the work load off the instructor and puts the onus of learning back on the students, where it really should be anyway.  

You can use a backchannel on most devices that connect to the Internet, so you can encourage your students to bring their own devices or technology (BYOD/BYOT).  As a secondary form of classroom communication, the backchannel is a way for the instructor and other students to clarify and collaborate simultaneously with class instruction.  Students are constantly engaged and encouraged to take part in an active discussion.  It gives students different options for their voices to be heard.

Backchannels are a great use of formative assessment because the instructor is able to immediately see if students understand the content, or if it is necessary to go back over material that students don't seem to understand.  Students can also go back to the backchannel after class and use that conversation as part of their class notes, providing another way for them to review the content material.  

Finally, if you are flipping your classroom, you can create a backchannel that is used asynchronously by your students to continue the conversation.  Students are encouraged to challenge one another and answer each other's questions.  The instructor can jump in when necessary to clarify any misunderstandings, but the learning and active discussion really falls to the students.  

Below is a list of popular tools you can use to create a backchannel in your classroom.  Many of these tools allow the instructor to monitor and delete responses in real time, allow for class privacy, and can easily be shared as links for the students to access.  You can click on the links below and explore each tool individually to get an idea of what would work the best for you and your students.
  • TodaysMeet is probably the most popular tool for creating backchannels in the classroom.  You can watch a tutorial video at the bottom of this post.
  • Verso is a great way to create class-specific backchannels for your students.  Read more about Verso here.  
  • Google slides is a way to present your content material while students type questions in the slide note area.  This captures the conversation, and students can use the backchannel within the slides as class notes for studying.
  • Socrative is a great way to visualize student understanding.
  • Padlet can be used to organize information around a specific concept.
  • Poll Everywhere could be used to set up synchronous or asynchronous polls.  You could use the Q&A feature to find out what students are unsure about, and then students can upvote items they need clarified.  For a Poll Everywhere tutorial, go to this page and click on the logo.
  • Twitter is another way to create a backchannel.  The one caution here is that your discussions can be seen by the public.  This is a great way to connect with others in your content area though.  So create a class hashtag and ask that students use the hashtag in their tweets.  Encourage students to tag other people outside of their class as well as organizations and institutions involved in what they are learning to broaden the scope of the discussion.  

So how do you use backchannels in your classroom?  Please leave a comment and let us know!
0 Comments

    Archives

    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    17 Challenges For Teachers In 2017
    Backchannel
    Banning Technology
    Bloom's Taxonomy
    BYOD/BYOT
    Chatzy
    Edmodo
    Education
    Educational Apps
    Educational Technology
    Flipped Classroom
    Go Green
    Google+
    Google Drive
    Google Expedition
    HootCourse
    Jedi
    Learning Objectives
    Mind Tricks
    Mission Statement
    OER
    Open Education
    Organization
    Padlet
    Pedagogy
    Poll Everywhere
    Print Friendly
    Printing
    Quickwrite
    SAMR
    Screencastomatic
    Shake Up Learning
    Socrative
    Student Centered Learning
    Student-centered Learning
    Student Engagement
    Student Success
    Tech Tip Tuesday
    The Knight Lab
    TodaysMeet
    TPACK
    Twitter
    Verso
    Virtual Reality

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.