How I use this in my class: Social studies is full of movies...so much so, we are often referred to as the movie theater of the school :) I was wondering how I could engage my students while watching movies, and stumbled across a backchannel chat. The first thing I did was create my chat room, I then posted the link that was given to me on my website. All the students went to my site, clicked on the link, put their name in, and thats it! While the movie is playing, all my students have a laptop in front of them. We are then able to discuss the movie as it is going on. What I really love is being able to send links to the students to add to the discussion. The kids have LOVED doing this. I'm going to try to create a video of my class chatting tomorrow, and share it.
That's a really cool idea. I like that it is so simple. No complicated logins and all that. Do the kids end up talking to each other much or just making comments to you?
ReplyDeleteA little bit of both...I think if I did it more in my classes, more students would get comfortable with peer to peer conversation. I have laid the ground rules in advance, and the kids really respected the rules.
ReplyDeleteWhat ground rules do you use?
ReplyDeleteNo swearing
ReplyDeleteNo name-calling
No off topic chat
If ANY rules are not followed, computers are closed and we do something else.