Challis Hodge’s UXblog

The best uses of emerging technologies inevitably come from the street and back-channeling is as good an example as any. My first glimpses of back-channeling were in corporate meetings where blackberries, cell phones and SMS were a rescue from the boredom, not to mention a means to quietly let your next meeting know you were running way late.

Well before we figured out whether it was good, bad or appropriate, back-channeling simply was. Now with the proliferation of things like IM, Wi-Fi, blogs, and various social software, back-channeling is poised to alter the dynamics of traditional speaker to audience, audience to audience, and audience to world relationships. Back-channeling has quickly spread from the corporate conference room to the lecture and conference halls.

In the study of online learning, researchers have discovered that higher levels of learning occur not when a professor delivers a one-way lecture, but rather when dynamic discussion and debate amongst students happens around carefully constructed course topics. So too, have we learned long ago that conference goers do not attend to gain knowledge from speakers, but rather to interact with their peers and like-minded people around specific topics and subject matter. We also know that those unable to attend wait anxiously for the online reviews, commentary and discussion so they too can participate in the community.

For better or worse back-channeling is here to stay. While we may be able to stave off the use of wireless devices in the classroom, the conference scene is a different story. There are some interesting possibilities to consider in terms of introducing back channels to ad value to learning. I know I’ll be looking for ways to incorporate a back channel into my future presentations and lectures. It may just provide a means to quietly remind the student in the back row to pay attention!