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Permalink Reply by Andrea Christman on December 8, 2009 at 4:45pm

Judith, I have not personally presented while there was a backchannel, but there has been a lot of chatter about it lately in light of a recent Web 2.0 conference with danah boyd presenting. I heard her keynote at AASL 2009 in Charlotte and I thought she was awesome! Things went haywire for her at Web 2.0 and while there are many blogs about it, you may want to read up on it from Gwyneth Jones' blog http://librarytechmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/theres-hashtag-for-t...

VERY insightful!!!

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Permalink Reply by Maryanne Burgos on December 26, 2009 at 6:33pm

Judith,
I only have experience as a member of audiences, but I think that back channeling can add a lot to a presentation. However, from what I've observed, you need two people for that type of presentation. One to present and one to follow the back channel. The second person can add to the back channeling and/or alert the presenter to issues or questions that seem to be common and haven't been answered by other in the back channel.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Perkins on January 5, 2010 at 1:51am

Hi Judith,
Backchanneling for me turns participants from passive to active members of a presentation. Personally, I learn by collaborating and discussing with others, comparing and contrasting opinions, relating to prior knowledge, making connections and identifying patterns of information. For this reason, I find it hard to go to a conference or attend a keynote or other presentation without a backchannel.

Similar to what Maryanne said, at a Brisbane eLearning conference last year, two teachers presented a talk on mobile learning technologies. While one was addressing the audience, the other was browsing and responding to the backchannel. Worked very well.

From a presenter's point of view, I think it's great that you get this feedback during your session. It's all about your participants' needs and interests - not about you feeling threatened by what's "going on behind your back".

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Permalink Reply by Chris Champion on January 5, 2010 at 2:35pm

There's even a new word for it - HARSHtag (from harsh hashtag). A great blog post - nominated in the Edublog Higher Ed "Most Influential Post" can be found here:

http://doteduguru.com/id3712-the-great-keynote-meltdown-of-2009.html

I still think backchanneling is GOOD, especially so because it keeps the presenter worrying about currency, audience, and interest. The fact of the matter is, in the past, people were rolling their eyes or Facebooking during a presentation if they found it boring. Now they can Twitter their boredom away...

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Permalink Reply by Judith Epcke on January 11, 2010 at 3:20pm

Ah, Maryanne, I think you have touched on a critical piece to backchanneling: moderation of the backchannel. From my experiences, when a backchannel is moderated, that is when it is an asset to the presentation and not just a "gossip room". I have seen a few brave presenters have their backchannel projected unmoderated behind them while they present. They may or may not glance at it from time to time, and I wonder their purpose. Are they modeling what a backchannel is? Are they creating an archive of comments about their presentation to read later? I don't know if I have the stomach to read this "free for all" kind of commenting about my presentation. I applaud those who can.

I have participated in backchannels during the presentations of others. I even got into an argument with someone about something I said and she wasn't even in the room or listening to the presentation. She misunderstood something I had typed. Others who were in the room, hearing the same presentation, understood me, but this woman criticized me. In the end it was straightened out and I harbor no hard feelings, but found it to be an interesting experience.

Maryanne Burgos said:

Judith,
I only have experience as a member of audiences, but I think that back channeling can add a lot to a presentation. However, from what I've observed, you need two people for that type of presentation. One to present and one to follow the back channel. The second person can add to the back channeling and/or alert the presenter to issues or questions that seem to be common and haven't been answered by other in the back channel.

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Permalink Reply by Judith Epcke on January 11, 2010 at 3:37pm

Interesting article, Chris. I hadn't heard about that specific event. I had heard about the one Andrea talked about. I think my biggest takeaway is that regardless if there is an official backchannel for a particular presentation, Twitter can (and often does) become an impromptu backchannel; for better or for worse. I think the event described in this article is not uncommon, but one that got more press than most. It illustrates that when presenting to a room of folks with internet connected devices, you are presenting not to that room, but to everyone those people connect with; via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, IMs, texts, etc. Suddenly, I feel my presentation preparation just got a little more complicated.

Chris Champion said:

There's even a new word for it - HARSHtag (from harsh hashtag). A great blog post - nominated in the Edublog Higher Ed "Most Influential Post" can be found here:

http://doteduguru.com/id3712-the-great-keynote-meltdown-of-2009.html

I still think backchanneling is GOOD, especially so because it keeps the presenter worrying about currency, audience, and interest. The fact of the matter is, in the past, people were rolling their eyes or Facebooking during a presentation if they found it boring. Now they can Twitter their boredom away...

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