My first animated video thanks to Xtranormal.

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Read Scott’s post here.  Read Karl’s post here. Read the comments on both pages. But, here’s the video…

I have been in a number of forums where the subject of backchanneling for learning in the classroom has been mentioned. I personally use it all the time in exactly the same way Dana Boyd does. It has dramatically increased my learning power. See the excerpt from her blog post below. I also Scott Snyder’s presentation at K12OnlineConference.org 2008. Hope this helps you move beyond confusion.

Backchannel

Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks. The term was coined in the field of Linguistics to describe listeners’ behaviours during verbal communication, Victor Yngve 1970.
The term “backchannel” generally refers to online conversation about the topic or the speaker. Occasionally backchannel provides audience members a chance to fact-check the presentation.
First growing in popularity at technology conferences, backchannel is increasingly a factor in education where WiFi connections and laptop computers allow students to use ordinary chat like IRC or AIM to actively communicate during class.

Blog Post on Backchanneling

Dana Boyd’s Blog apophenia :: making connections where none previously existed

I want my cyborg life
Excerpt: There’s no doubt that I barely understood what the speaker was talking about. But during the talk, I had looked up six different concepts he had introduced (thank you Wikipedia), scanned two of the speakers’ papers to try to grok what on earth he was talking about, and used Babelfish to translate the Italian conversations taking place on Twitter and FriendFeed in attempt to understand what was being said. Of course, I had also looked up half the people in the room (including the condescending man next to me) and posted a tweet of my own.
But, of course, the attack was not actually about the reality of my internet habits but the perception of them. There’s no doubt that, when given a laptop in a lecture setting, most people surf the web, check email, or play video games. Their attention is lost and they’ve checked out. Of course, there’s an assumption that technology is to blame. The only thing that I really blame said technology for is limiting doodling practice for the potential future artist (and for those of us who still can’t sketch to save our lives). Y’see – I don’t think that people were paying that much attention before. Daydreaming and sketching (aka “taking notes”) are not particularly new practices. Now the daydreamer might just be blogging instead.

K12OnlineConference.org 2008 Presentation

Back-channels in the Classroom

Scott H. Snyder Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, USA
Blog: http://thespian70.blogspot.com/
Bio: http://k12online08presenters.wikispaces.com/Scott+Snyder
Bio: Scott, a graduate of Bowling Green State University (Ohio) with a B.S. in Education, has been teaching for 15 years. A member of the English
Department at Cedar Cliff High School, Camp Hill, PA, USA, Scott teaches Theater, American Literature, and AP Language and Composition.
Presentation Description: Backchanneling, traditionally an online discussion running alongside a live presentation, is a way to engage all students in classroom activities, including students who are normally non-participants. Issues and student needs that lead me to the technique, the educational
relevance of the process, backchanneling services (including possibilities and limitations of several), and example activities will all be addressed in this presentation.
Post By Dean Shareski ⋅ on K12OnlineConference.org 2008 October 29, 2008

Looking to improve my authority. I’ve written 106 posts (this is 107). And there are a total of 103 comments. Seems to me my ranking on somebody’s list will drop in proportion to the PCR (posts/comments ratio). So I’m looking for lots of one word comments to boost my authority. Comments like Funny! or Awesome! maybe Humorous! Of course, if you want to write different words or phrases or more, go for it. To encourage engagement, I thought I’d present something light and funny. So here goes…  Don’t forget to comment.

Thanks to Dilbert.com for the comic.

This (from Space.com) should help us keep it all in perspective. Don’t sweat the small stuff? It’s all small stuff compared to this.

What does it bring to your mind? NCLB? Standardized testing?

The newly repaired Hubble Telescope gathered light from 5 billion light-years away to resolve intricate details in the galaxy cluster Abell 37.

Like most people I use the phrase, “back to school.” I mean back to learning in school, but don’t say it that way. And in reality, until we shake ourselves out of the paradigm we live, we will continue to use the language of the past and act accordingly. What do we need to learn to talk and act for learning? Here are my reflections written while I was participating in a live blogging session of John Seely Brown’s keynote, Re-Imaging Dewey for the 21st Century: Learning in/for the Digital Age, from Alberta, Canada’s Banff Centre.

Thank you to “two Texas tech chicks,” Helen and Anna for live blogging with CoverItLive today. They were covering John Seely Brown’s keynote from the Emerge 2010: One-to-One Laptop Learning Summit. More on Alberta’s Emerge Laptop Learning Project can be found here.  John Seely Brown’s talk covered concepts similar to those he discusses in the video below and in a PDF of an earlier presentation, which can be found here.

More on the Homo Ludens reference can be found here. Not sure if JSB intended the connection, but it seems plausible.

P.S. I learned of this event minutes before it began. I live 2,667 miles from the Banff Centre, but techchick94 is in my Twitter community, and I noticed this tweet from her.

I think I have found a new vision, a new paradigm, a new story of learning in the 21st Century. It is creative and innovative. It is passionate and kind. It is natural and real. It leads me down a path to the truth and beauty of learning and the beauty and truth of humanity. It describes for me how we can learn to know, do, be, and live together. You will find all this in a book written by Stephanie Pace Marshall, The Power to Transform. Dr. Marshall is Founding President and President Emerita of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy®.

Dr. Marshall’s language is so powerful and universal that is it not a story for educators only. It is a story that invites conversations, conversations among educators and people from every discipline and field of inquiry or human pursuit. The more perspectives the better.

So this post is a little different. It presents you with a digital tool called a VoiceThread. Many people, including students, teachers and other educators, are using this platform to invite participation. You have to register to use the VoiceThread, but that is easy and although using it is fairly intuitive, their tutorials on the website.

In the VoiceThread I’ve created below, you’ll find seven quotes from the book, The Power to Transform. One quote per VoiceThread page, or “slide,” is presented for you to read. Here’s an example of what it looks like.

The 1st arrow points to the button you click to add your comment (text, audio, video, or file uploaded to the page). The 2nd arrow points to where you click to “turn the page” forward or backward.

You can participate in this “New Story of Learning” conversation by

• reading this VoiceThread,
• commenting on one or more pages,
• visiting Dr. Marshall’s website for more information about the book and her work, and
• reading The Power to Transform.

David Weinberger Keynote Podcast