Digital Eyes

Ever wonder what your students are thinking while you are teaching? Backchannel discussions are the way to get student thinking at the forefront of your lesson! Wikipedia defines backchennel as : "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." So often when the teacher is speaking (or a student), the other students are disengaged. They may be thinking about something else. We don't really know. Providing your students with a backchannel to discuss what you are teaching in real time gives them a way to engage in the discussion, while at the same time, it gives you a way to KN...

I have been a fan of Bill Ferriter, who blogs at The Tempered Radical , for a long time. Not because I always agree with him, but because he always makes me think. His recent post on Using Digital Tools to Support PLCs got me thinking, mostly because we have been having the same conversation here. We have a few classes at our Summer Tech Institute in August that focus on how technology can facilitate our learning teams. We have some phenomenal teachers that will share ways that they use MOODLE, Google Docs, and video conferencing to share data, discuss student assessments, develop common assessments, and much more. Bill does such a nice job of explaining how he and his team are using a wiki to accomplish this same thing. "Over the past six years, my own learning team has had to learn how to coordinate the following actions : The development of common assessments. The development of shared sets of essential outcomes. The publication of shared sets of lessons and materials. ...

After reading about this course about Critical Literacies, it really got me thinking about how we teach. We use textbooks and assign chapters to be read. We all come to class having read the same thing and then discuss it. Sound familiar? Well, I have to admit, I don't get it. In my world, no one assigns me what to read. I have to go find it. I have to sift through gobs (yes, this is a technical term!) of information and find the most relevant, accurate, non-biased, current information. I love the design of this course. It basically breaks the course down into four categories: 1. Aggregate - Give students access to lots of information and give them the opportunity to practice the skill of focusing their search and finding the best information. Don't just tell them what to read, show them where to go to find the information. Teach them how to search, analyze sources, and choose the best information. This is a skill that will be essential to their future! 2. Remix -  Give studen...