Backchanneling. Can we hear them all?

Delivering personalised learning through online teaching. part 2

In the previous post, we discussed why we should not silence our students. But we didn’t discuss the dangers of allowing all students to speak in a face-to-face classroom. If pictures could speak, here’s one!  

 

This is a good example where technology scores over face-to-face classes; where technology does what a teacher cannot do - backchanneling. 

Backchanneling gives us feedback on our classes. Take a look at my previous post for backchanneling where we discussed how backchanneling can be built into live lectures.

In this post, we’re going to look at how additional web 2.0 tools can be used to facilitate backchanneling, or allowing all students to speak in the classroom. 

In a typical classroom, the teacher stands in front of the class and teaches. She/he goes on and on. She/he looks out for backchanneling – some students nod, some nod off 😉 some smile, some doodle, some stare, some keep looking at you earnestly, some fidget, some look surprised,…

At some point, the teacher pauses, and poses a question. She/he calls students who raise their hands. They respond. Satisfied, the teacher continues. Or, not satisfied, the teacher makes a course correction. 

But is this enough? Does this mean we heard from all students? 

I’d like us to think about the students who are shy to speak, who take time to understand, who are intimidated, who don’t have the language to speak, who understood it differently, as well as students with disabilities.  

And, many times, as teachers we cannot let everyone speak, due to lack of time.

By using backchannel tools in your lectures, you collect feedback from all students. You let all students speak; give everyone a voice. 

Whenever they are ready. And about anything that crosses their minds. 

This helps you modify and strengthen your lectures. This is a clear example for what I've earlier referred to as "what the teacher cannot do, technology does".

Backchanneling tools can be used in face-to-face classrooms too. However, here we'll talk about web 2.0 tools that can be used along with live video classes to facilitate backchanneling. Every time you chunk your lecture, use these tools to give your students an activity to complete. Or a question to answer.

Tool type 1: The first type are tools that allow you to ask students quick questions. You ask short questions or multiple-choice questions, and expect a quick and short response from your students. Examples are Mentimeter and Kahoot. Both these allow your students to respond to multiple-choice questions using their mobile phones and you can view the results immediately.

Once you create a question on Kahoot and present it to the class, this is what you see on your screen:

 

Students are asked to log into kahoot.it and enter the pin. They see this on their phone screens

 

So, they read the question and options on your scree and answer by choosing the right box on their phones. 

Mentimeter works along the same lines. 

Now, if you don’t want to move out of the videoconferencing tool you use, Zoom and Google Meet have poll functions. Use them. PowerPoint allows you to embed polls through PollEverywhere. These can also be answered using students’ mobile phones.   

 

 An example for a poll I conducted while presenting using PowerPoint during a webinar 

Interspersing your lecture with polls helps you “keep an eye” on student learning.

Tool type 2: These tools admit longer answers from students. They can also be used for other tasks in addition to answering teacher’s questions.

My first tool is the Padlet. We discussed Padlet in an earlier post. Please visit for an example.

For example, after a 15 – 20 minutes talk, ask each student to jot down what they understood on Padlet. Or pose a question on Padlet and ask them to answer it. Ask students to look at each other’s responses and comment. Ask students to share digital resources related to your lesson on Padlet. Padlet also allows anonymous responses. As you can see, there’s a lot you can do with Padlet.

Take a look at another tool, answergarden Like they say, plant an answer and watch the garden grow.

Click on the link above, go to the site and search for 1278762 on the search icon on the top right-hand corner. The question you see there was created for a lesson on G B Shaw. The answers you see are in word clouds, submitted by a group of webinar participants. The ones in the largest font are the most-repeated responses. The size of the word tells us how frequently it appeared in participant responses. 

You see the benefit?  Quick visualisation of student comprehension. 

                                                       A sample word cloud Source

Tool type 3: These have more and varied functionalities than the other two. You can use these tools to do what tool types 1 and 2 do, and more. Tools like backchannelchat, gosoapbox and dotstorming students are multi-purpose backchanneling tools. Through these, students can ask the teacher questions, convey confusion or comprehension, take part in polls, answer quizzes, participate in discussions, etc.  

Here's an example for a simple backchanneling option. 

Here's another one. Go to app.gosoapbox.com and enter the following Event Access Code: 116-038-853. You'll see how multiple tasks can be created for each lecture that you deliver. 

How to use backchanneling tools

Backchanneling tools are best possible in a 1:1 (one device per student) or BYOD (bring your own device) environment. They help us optimise student communication preferences for chatting and texting. Don't they always say, "please text me?" In my house, I notice it's easier to text my sons if I need their help in the kitchen, or if it's time for dinner. And we're just rooms apart.  😠  

                                Help in the kitchen is jamming up hallongrottas😄

While these tools ensure increased and motivated participation, it requires a lot of zig-zag-zig-zag between the lecture tool and other web tools. What I do is, I share the kahoot/ mentimeter/ padlet/ voicethread etc. links on the chat box. Then I open the tool on my system and share my screen so everyone can see what the class is doing. Once the activity is completed, we get back to the live class.   

If this causes confusion or disorientation, start with simpler alternatives.  

If you’re familiar with Google Classroom, use the Stream function for backchanneling.  Or the class WhatsApp group, Kaizala or Facebook page. 

An advantage is, students who are unable to access your live lectures can still access whole-class discussions on these class pages once they listen to the lecture. 

Backchannels don't just replace class discussions; they extend and augment them. Encouraging backchanneling/ discussion/ feedback of any sort, gives all students an outlet to: 

• express their understanding
• work at their own pace 
• “speak” in the class
• share ideas
• share questions
• express curiosity
• share enthusiasm

And if utilised well, backchanneling can spark richer discussions. 

Like I said somewhere, everything is techable. All you need to have is an idea, there’s a tool that helps you implement it.

The bottom line is, do not let your live video lecture be a 50 minutes uninterrupted standalone teaching strategy.

1. Chunk your lectures (and if they can't be chunked, pause every 10 - 15 minutes) 
2. Intersperse lecture chunks with activities 
3. Run concurrent backchanneling or encourage post-lecture feedback 

Tech that! Slay it!