Are you a slave to your Blackberry?

Jerry Seinfeld telling some truths about how we behave on our mobiles. The truth stings;-) Now sadly I know myself a bit better. Gotta lay off the blackberry before I end up in rehab.

Backchannels in Classroom

I know I mentioned the use of technology to support backchannels a few months back but I feel its a hot topic worth bringing up again. Lets face it - its an easy and convenient way for providing instant feedback to the presenter and offering participants an opportunity to reinforce what is being taught by sharing their own ideas on a subject. In realtime. To quote Wikipedia the term backchannel was designed to imply that there are two channels of communication operating simultaneously during a conversation. Heres an interesting article that discusses more about how to use backchannels in the classroom. It raises the question are tutors really ready and prepared with dealing with this instant feedback?