One of my favorite uses of edtech tools ever is to have a backchannel, whether that was in the classroom or when doing a presentation at a conference. A very memorable experience of mine as a classroom teacher happened soon after my classroom went 1 to 1 where every student was given a laptop. It was just a few months into this that I decided to make use of a tool I just learned about to have a way for students to ask questions and to have discussions digitally, while we were doing things in the classroom. This allowed students who may not have felt comfortable participating vocally with the other students at the time, the ability to participate in a way that allowed them to in a way that was more comfortable to fit their individual needs at the time.

One student in particular excelled after this point, where as before she was doing ok but I thought she had more potential than what she was showing. Her other teachers just said she was quiet and did not participate or ask many questions. As soon as I had that backchannel working, she was participating digitally more than any other student. She was asking questions, providing possible solutions, and just interacting more than I had ever seen her. She was doing better because she was more engaged in the learning because she had a way for her to be engaged without her social anxiety controlling her options. If I had never tried a new way to have my students interact in the learning, I never would have known what she was truly capable of.

I have worked with students who have had high social anxiety, speech impairments, or just processed things at their own pace which was different than the pace of a traditional classroom. All of these students could benefit from having a way to digitally participate in class discussions and activities that made it easier for them to participate in a way that fit them as learners. The key is to find a way that easily allows this to happen so that they feel they are part of the classroom and not a separate group.

One way that I can see that we can make this work is through the use of Figjam. While I really enjoy finding ways to use Figjam in collaborative work, I think it could work really well as a backchannel tool. Students could easily be engaged through the in-class activity or through the Figjam, and be part of the class discussion. Watch the video below to see how this could work.