Backchannelling - Re-tooling Classroom Discussion?
August 1st, 2007 by DianeAs I mentioned earlier in my “Uber-blogging” post, I’m taking the time to really process the implications of backchannelling for both my own professional learning and its relevance to the way we structure learning opportunities for our students. I have quickly come to the conclusion that I must develop some new skills myself and re-think some social norms before I can get a clearer picture as to how backchannelling can work in the classroom.
I think a little historical perspective is called for first as background to what has become my own social norm for classroom behaviour. I spent 20 years teaching French as a Second Language (FSL). I used a communication problem-solving approach wherever possible and trained students to use all possible clues to make meaning of what was being said. Of course that includes social norms such as context, facial expression, body language, gestures and tone of voice. These clues are most effectively deciphered through attentive listening. I have come to expect that attentive listening includes eye contact; therefore making eye contact became a social norm in my classroom. Even when I moved out of FSL and taught special education, language arts and computers, I still hung on to my predisposition for eye contact. It was one of my preferred strategies for engaging students with ADD. When students came into my computer lab, they were expected to take a seat at a workstation and then face the center of the room where I would give my short preamble setting up the tasks to be accomplished that period. I did not want to hear the tap, tap, tap of the keyboard at that time - I expected full attention.
Look at this picture. It comes from Brian Crosby’s NECC07 Edubloggercon Flicker photostream. Before you read on, describe in your mind what you are seeing.
The photo was taken during one of the Edubloggercon unconference sessions. The arrow is pointing to me; I was the one talking at that point. What do you notice about the other people in the room? Do they appear to be engaged with the speaker? Very few people were looking directly at me, and I could hear click, click, click, as fingers flew across keyboards. I have to admit that at first I found it difficult to speak, (even after factoring out that I was totally awestruck by the composition of the group). What you don’t see in the picture is David Warlick sitting across the circle from me. He was facilitating the discussion and although he was typing as well, he looked up from his keyboard and made eye contact on a regular basis as I was speaking. I clung to that lifeline to persist in getting my point across.
Were the members of this group listening attentively?
You bet!
Were they engaged in the conversation?
You bet!
Had they all developed skills I still need to work on?
I think so!
Members of this group, the uber-bloggers I referred to previously, have developed the skills needed to listen, think, keep up with the comments they are reading, think, compose their own responses to commenters, think, ask questions for clarification, think, post notes to their blogs, think, type, think, and jump into the F2F oral conversation as needed! Wow!!! So many questions run through my mind. Can I develop the skillset to multi-task with such intensity? Is my age a limiting factor? Have my life and learning experiences resulted in a brain that is wired in a linear fashion? Can I re-wire it through new experiences? Happily, I can answer the last question with “I think so”. I’ve been following the Tuesday night chats of WOW2, and am becoming much more comfortable listening to the speakers and following and taking part in the chat. I know I will need much more practice before I reach a point where I can facilitate a discussion that includes simultaneous F2F and online components.
In the archived chatcast, (from the Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston this summer), where David Jakes “hosted” the Skype session of Ewan McIntosh’s presentation - Is Your Public Body Public, Dean Shareski states:
90% of teachers would be having a heart attack right now
I agree. At first glance this looks like “note-passing” on a grand scale. Given the opportunity to conduct a skypechat session during a lesson how would students react? What skillset would they bring to the experience? Although they seem to be able to multi-task, and naturally chat in numerous conversations at the same time, is their processing/thinking focussed or scattered? Will they bring the same focus and intensity to the conversations as the adults did in my example above? What will be the balance between on-task and off-task chatter? Clearly this is a deviation from the social norm I’ve been expecting in my own classes. What effect will this type of student activity have on the way teachers facilitate the F2F component of the conversation?
There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that this new mode of learning activity is worth pursuing further. Do a blog search for NECC07 or BLC07 and you’ll come across numerous examples of archived skypechats or blogger notes. There is such rich content - of value for participants in the original conversations and non-participants reading the archives. Wouldn’t it be incredible to open up the learning that takes place in our classrooms to this kind of participation?
Darren Kuropatwa invites us to imagine the possibilities in this post reflecting on the BLC Conference:
Imagine a 20 minute lecture where all your students back channel about what you’re saying. Outside guests or experts are invited in. Someone acts as a “rudder” to keep the conversation on track. The discussion is displayed on a SMARTboard or with a projector. The chatcast is immediately dumped into a wiki. The rest of the class is devoted to reorganizing the wiki clarifying what was said, answering questions (student to student as well as teacher to student; and don’t forget the people, students, teachers, mentors or parents beyond the glass walls of the room) summarizing the big ideas, reframing the discussion in terms of what needs to be explained again and where we’re going next. Imagine the possibilities …
Imagine indeed! I have a “gut feeling” that backchannelling activities may democratize classroom discussion, changing the dynamics as to who drives the conversation. In a recent post, Instructional Scaffolding, Konrad Klogowski lists ownership of the learning event as a key characteristic of successful instructional interaction. He states:
The project can be initiated or suggested by the teacher as long as the student has his or her own reasons for participating in the activity and is given opportunities to develop the topic as an independent researcher.
I think the kind of back channelling activity I’ve witnessed so far will pull students into learning ownership.
You’ll be hearing more from me on this topic as I try to think through my questions, and I have so many questions…
Technorati Tags: backchannelling discussion learning activities Atlanta Edubloggercon NECC07 NECC2007 BLC07 BLC2007 Skype chatcast Brian Crosby David Warlick WOW2 David Jakes Ewan McIntosh Dean Shareski Darren Kuropatwa Konrad Klogowski
Image Citation
Crosby. “DSC02216.” BCrosby’s Photostream. 23 June 2007. 01 August 2007 < http://www.flickr.com/photos/34879177@N00/606559308/>.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Wow! It’s as if you were reading my mind. On one hand my mind was saying the whole time I participated in skypechats that it loosely resembled passing notes in class. The only slight difference was that the instructor/presenter was oblivious to it, but it was on task, and of course the “rudder” (David) worked to keep us on task. I was equally impressed with how this “new” way of learning (back channeling) was so totally embraced and even integrated into the BLC session conducted by Chris Lehman and Christian Long, who acted as presenters of a session and at the same time participated in the mind boggling Skypchats, using it as a guide for topics to address and questions to answer. So cool. I too, attended the Edublogger Con (see picture - sort of front and center kneeling in a yellow t-shirt). I was so awestruck by the “experts” in the room I almost felt intimidated. In my RSS reader these folks were all from my “experts” folder! I am still reeling from the experiences of NECC and my virtual attendance at BLC. I hate to say that it has warped my sense now of how a presentation should look and feel. Anything less is going to be a letdown.
Great Post!
Cathy Nelson
August 1st, 2007 at 3:50 pm
We often think of “passing notes” as an obstacle to learning, but haven’t you done that in a positive way in a presentation or staff meeting, to comment on something that was said or to point out something of importance to a colleague? I know I have. When I moved from my school to the Education Centre as a Curriculum Consultant, it took me a while to learn to sit out of reach of my superintendent’s notepad. She was notorious for passing notes during meetings or presentations, that usually resulted in the recipient leaving the room with six new jobs ;-). The potential for learning that technology brings to the “note-passing” behaviour is exponential. To get an idea of the whole picture, I think we need to compare my experiences using the archives, to yours participating from afar in the event, and to Chris and Christian’s pulling the F2F and from afar elements together. So much to learn! Don’t you just love it!
BTW, in that Edubloggercon picture, I am almost directly behind you, over your left shoulder (brown shirt, silver hair). I almost wish I’d stepped on your toes or something so we would have spoken F2F :-).
August 1st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hi Diane - Great thoughts here. I am particularly interested because we are going to test “back channeling” with our faculty during our first day of faculty meetings later this month. During the first part of the day, we will be conducting 3 separate discussions (at different times). During each discussion, one-third of the faculty will be involved in a live discussion (f2f) while the other two-thirds will be live-chatting it. I’m sure we will have faculty members who will be overwhelmed by the multi-tasking but we are going to give it a shot. As follow-up we plan to post the chat transcript on a blog for everyone to digest and then continue the conversation. I’m excited for it (though a little nervous) - it’s really the first networking exercise we’ve done as a whole faculty.
August 1st, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Wow Page - what an undertaking! How did you get “buy in” to try the approach? Would you come back and post the link to the chat transcript?
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:40 am
It took some years of pushing but I have a School Director who finally “gets it”. He doesn’t necessarily use all of the tools yet but he sees some of their potential and is beginning to adopt their use in his class. The moment he understood that he wasn’t bringing technology in for the sake of technology but to enhance his curriculum was the moment he “got it”. I’d be happy to send you the link to the chat transcript when we have it. Wish me luck!
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
I’ve repeated this so many times, it’s almost become a mantra, it’s so not about the technology! Congratulations to your director for making that connection! Chris Lehman @ Practical Theory has a great post on this theme, this week - http://tinyurl.com/3y26k6 . It’s worth a read. Good luck and be prepared for some glitches. Let me know when the chat transcript is available.