Hi all! The first time I tried back channeling, a "writing" discussion instead of a "speaking" discussion, I was blown away by the students who all of a sudden, so to speak, spoke up! I also loved that I had a record of the discussion, and could later on one to one conference with students who in some way weren't getting it. Today's Meet, my tool of choice, is no longer available, but Yo Teach is just as good! To begin, go to Yo Teach and create a room, where the discussion will take place, by giving it a title and description. The title needs to be unique, so you may have to try a few times! Next, I recommend enabling admin features, which allows you to: mute or remove students from a discussion, delete your room, and view student participation statistics. By checking off "hide from search results" access is limited to those with the direct URL. You'll need to create a password to access admin features, however, it's your choice as to whether students will need an entry password to get into the room. If you decide to make your room searchable, I'd recommend enabling an entry password, or you can share room with students via URL or QR code.
There are a variety of ways one might incorporate back channeling; I like to create a Twitter chat type scenario, where I send out discussion prompts as Q's, and students either answer the prompt or address another students post. We review the following expectations before beginning the discussion.
Let me know if you'd like to try it out; I'm here, as always, for your assistance! I added Yo Teach to the Instruction/Assessment Webtools page, under the title, virtual discussions, for later reference.
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