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Back channeling is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks. This is such a useful way to collaborate with educators and students when introducing new ideas, presenting in front of a large crowd, or even when watching a video.
- Backchannel Chat is a class discussion tool that was designed from the ground up to support teachers.
- Yo Teach! It's a great alternative to the much-loved, but now gone, TodaysMeet. To help more people get started on Yo Teach! tutorial video (freetech4teachers.com)
- Tozzi simple to use
- Tweeter Board Google Form
How does it work?
You will want to visit: http://tammyworcester.com/class-tweeter-template/ to make a copy of the Google Form Template. Once you have made a copy, you will want to begin setting up your form by following the step-by-step instructions found in the Spreadsheet.
Need help? Check out my helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqy_49wbLcAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqy_49wbLcA
The form can be set up so that you can approve and moderate comments or have comments appear on the Tweeter Board tab (tab number 4) at the bottom of your screen.
How can I use it?
Use this as a tool to collect valuable information from your students. Have students summarize today's lesson (in 140 characters or less of course!). Have students give back feedback, make predictions, share what they have learned. - Simple Meet Simple Meet is similar to TodaysMeet. It is an easy to use service that enables you to chat instantly with everyone from within your favourite web browser, without any account or software to install.
- 81 Dash provides a place for teachers to create chat rooms to use with students to host conversations and share files. Once you are registered you can begin creating rooms. In your chat room you can exchange messages and files. As the owner of a room you can delete messages written by your students.
Students join your 81 Dash room by going to the URL that is assigned to your room. When they arrive at your room for the first time they will be asked to register. There are two registration options. Registering as a "guest user" does not require students to enter email addresses. 81 Dash resolves the complaint that teachers have about many backchannel tools. That complaint is not having a way to delete messages or delete a room if students write inappropriate things in the backchannel. - Backchan.nl is an open-source backchannel tool developed at the MIT Media Lab. Using Backchan.nl you can create an online forum through which users can exchange messages in response to a presentation they're watching. There are a lot of free services that do the same thing, but there are a couple of things that make Backchan.nl different. Backchan.nl allows you to select a start and end time for your backchannel. As the administrator of a Backchan.nl account you can create and manage multiple backchannels and schedule them to go live at different times. Backchan.nl also includes voting tools that participants can use to vote messages up or down.
- Draw Chat is a free service that allows anyone to create a video chat over a whiteboard, PDF, image, or map. To use Draw Chat you just have to visit the site and click "Start New Whiteboard." Once your whiteboard launches you will have the option to enable access to your webcam and microphone. You can have people join your whiteboard video conference by sending them the link assigned to your whiteboard.Draw Chat allows you to draw or type on a shared whiteboard. Additionally, you can upload a PDF or an image to annotate on the whiteboard. A fourth option for drawing on Draw Chat is to import the URL for a Google Map and draw on that map. www.freetech4teachers.com
- WebRoom is a free service for hosting online meetings. WebRoom doesn't require you to download any software and you don't need to register in order to use it. WebRoom lets you use your webcam if you want people to see your face during the meeting. A whiteboard space is provided. You can draw on the whiteboard or upload a file to share and discuss on the whiteboard. A text chat space is provided in each WebRoom meeting. It is possible to share your screen with other meeting participants. However, to share your screen you will need to install the WebRoom Chrome extension.
- GoSoapBox allows you to have your audience respond to questions through their laptops, tablets, and phones. The Polls tool allows you to survey your audience by having them select an answer choice in response to a question. The Discussions tool allows you to have audience members reply to open-ended questions. GoSoapBox has a handy option called a Confusion Meter. The Confusion Meter allows members of your audience to simply say, "yes, I get it" or "no, I don't get it." The Confusion Meter, like all of the GoSoapBox survey tools, can accept anonymous feedback.
- Back-Channeling with Socrative | Socrative Garden-
Socrative has class backchannel capabilities.Chatzy: Create a private room and invite people via email or URL; includes advanced features such as the ability to use commands. To use it, simply name your chat area, select your privacy settings (you can password protect it), then send out invitations.Instead of sending out invitations you could just post the link to your chat area. Chatzy is a nice alternative to TodaysMeet because you can password protect your chat area.
Celly members can join a cell by texting or logging in to the web
- ChatWing is a free service that you can use to put a live chatbox into your blog or website. The service actually creates a micro social network that you can use in your blog - that's where the chatbox comes in - or as a stand-alone service. When you sign up for ChatWing you're taken to a screen to create your ChatWing network. On that same page you can customize and test your chatbox. After you have settled on the design of your chatbox you can grab the embed code to install ChatWing on your blog or website. www.freetech4teachers.com
- Cryptocat is an open source project that allows users to create private chat rooms. Cryptocat can be installed in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or as Mac desktop application. After installing Cryptocat open the application, enter a room name and username, then click connect. To have others join you in your chat room they have to know and enter the encryption key provided by Cryptocat.
- Chatterous.com is a free platform for creating your own private or public chat rooms. What makes Chatterous different from TodaysMeet is that Chatterous rooms can be embedded into your blog or website.
- Zipcast is a new service from Slideshare
for conducting online presentations. Using Zipcast you can share your
slides, talk to your audience, respond to your audience, and have your
audience interact with each other in realtime on one page. The best part
is you can do all of this without having to download anything.
video overview
If you're already a Slideshare user, you'll notice that when you're logged-in and looking at one of your presentations there is now a "Zipcast"link at the top of your presentation. Click the Zipcast link to begin giving an online presentation. Using the free version of Zipcast your presentation can be private or public (a small ad is inserted at the bottom of your presentation). The premium version of Zipcast removes ads and allows you to password protect your presentation.
Learn more about Zipcast in the Slideshare presentation belowIntroducing Zipcast - Mister Thread: Creating your forum
(or thread) can be as simple as naming it and clicking "create the
thread." Once you click create Mister Thread
assigns your thread a url. Give that url to the people that you want to
participate in the conversation. If you want to password protect your
thread then choose a password that all visitors to your thread must
enter. You can also enter your email address to give yourself the option
to destroy your thread.
Neat Chat: The easiest site for creating a fast, simple chat room to use as a back channel. Also can print out chats and upload files.
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Vokle a live town hall platform that allows speakers to broadcast their live video and audio to a virtual auditorium of viewers and take live video calls and text questions from the audience. Hosts can assign roles to any attendee in the audience. Whether it be co-host(s) for the event, screener(s) to screen callers privately behind the scenes, or an editor to cut between video streams live. The entire application is a microsite, allowing it to be embedded anywhere as easily as a Youtube video, giving each event the potential for endless access points without ever redirecting the audience from the site they’re on.
- Watch2gether is a neat site through which you can watch YouTube videos and host text chats about them at the same time. It is really quite easy to use Watch2gether. To get started enter a nickname for yourself (it could be your real first name) then search for a video or enter the url of a video that you have previously bookmarked. When you have found the video you want a chat column will be present on the right side of your browser. You can invite others to chat with you by sending them the url assigned to your chat. Together you can watch a video and discuss it.
- Cover It Live: CoveritLive platform gives you an easy way to blog events as they
happen and it also provides tools to interact with your readers during
the event you're covering. As you use CoveritLive's software, your commentary streams live
to your web page or blog. Readers viewing the commentary can ask
questions and participate in polls you create, giving them a reason to
stay online on your website for the duration of the event, instead of
checking in every now and then. Readers viewing the live blog stream
don't have to create user accounts to participate or download any
software.
- Simple Meet Me quickly create an online chat room with anyone you like. To use the service just go to SimpleMeet.Me and click on the link below the chat code. That code appearing when you visit SimpleMeet.me is the code you can give to anyone you want to join your chat. Registration on SimpleMeet.me is not required.
- Urtak simple polling service that can be used on any blog or website. The polls you create can have multiple questions, but they must be "yes or no" questions. But Urtak isn't that limited because visitors to your poll also have the option of writing in their own questions. You can get started using Urtak in seconds by registering with your Twitter or Facebook account. You can also use your email address to create an account with Urtak. Urtak polls can be embedded into your blog or you can direct people to your poll by sharing the unique url Urtak assigns to your poll.
- G-snap. a free website that allows anyone to set up a live blogging event; access to the event can be posted by a link or directly embedded on a web page. There is no registration required, comments can be saved, and the event can run for several days. During the event, questions can be posted and most importantly, participant responses can be moderated before they are shared publicly.
BackNoise: Very user friendly, with the ability to mute and hide a text.
- HootCourse Uses a combination of the most popular social networks (Twitter and Facebook) and blogging platforms to provide a new type of online classroom.
- Google Presentations: Google Presentations has a backchannel for its Powerpoint like tool.
- Show Document - Conduct free Web meetings to share documents, explore Google maps together, share and comment on documents. Includes a whiteboard and live chat.
Ways to Integrate with Presentation
- Have students discuss lecture during lecture, as well as provide them the opportunity to ask questions.
- If showing a video, or listening to a speech, it allows students to ask questions or discuss without interruption.
- Require students to answer questions from lecture, as well a answer other student’s questions.
- Allow students to ask you to repeat information without have to stop lecture. Go back when finished.
- Link to an article and have students discuss it