Using Today's Meet to Backchannel

Our 8th grade students have been using Today's Meet, a backchannel tool, while watching the past two presidential debates that have taken place in October. Last night our students did a great job discussing the debate that took place. We connected with 8th graders from Clear Lake on the backchannel site, which gave our students a chance to ask questions, respond, and learn from other 8th grade students in a different school. I set up the backchannel site by going to http://todaysmeet.com/. You can create a URL that is based on the topic you will be using your backchannel discussion for. You can then set up how long you would like your discussion to be saved for. Once you are completed with your backchannel discussion, you can download a transcript of the discussion in case you would like to save it for a future reference.

Mr. Erickson did a good job keeping up with the conversation that was taking place on Today's Meet. He would post the questions that were asked during the debate on Today's Meet in case students missed the  current question being discussed. Students were instructed on how to respond in an appropriate manner when using a tool such as Today's Meet. Students were also instructed to try and keep their biases out of their discussion on Today's Meet. Overall, the backchannel discussions were a great experience for our students that were able to participate!