#eel13 Day Two in Tweets

How to Take Advantage of the Conference Backchannel

With Ebooks in Early Literacy: Science, Design, Decision kicking off this Friday, attendees should be planning to maximize the learning potential of the event. One thing that should be part of the plan is participating in the conference’s backchannel.

Wondering what a backchannel is? In The Backchannel, Cliff Atkinson defines a backchannel as:

…a line of communication created by people in an audience to connect with others inside or outside the room, with or without the knowledge of the speaker at the front of the room. Usually facilitated by Internet technologies, it is spontaneous, self-directed, and limited in time to the duration of a live event.

Derek Bruff, assistant director at the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and senior lecturer in mathematics at Vanderbilt explains the importance of a backchannel in a post on The Chronicle of Higher Education,

A Twitter backchannel at a conference can provide participants a way to share ideas and resources from the sessions they attend, connect people who might not have connected otherwise, and broaden the conference discussion to include those not physically present.