We used Today's Meet (backchannel website) last month to help us learn about Mystery Skypes. I presented questions to the students (What is a Mystery Skype? How do we prepare for one? etc.) and as students researched in pairs, they used Today's Meet to keep track of their findings. The website is a backchannel that can be used during a class to type questions or key points while a lesson/presentation is in progress. I liked that we could look back at all their thoughts without having some students trying to share while others still needed to research. They also seemed to ask more questions and find additional points in their research because they wanted to type them for others to see.
How to use it: go to todaysmeet.com and give your "room" a name. To enter the room (the webspace for the meet), students go to todaysmeet.com/ and put the room name after the /
They enter their name and can then type messages to send into the chat.
If you have extra time (like so many teachers do!) you could create your room in advance and just put the URL for the room on your webpage or somewhere students can click to access it quickly. At my level, the kids could easily type todaysmeet.com and put in the / and the room name without a link, but it could be helpful. I made the room ahead of time, but they typed in the URL
If you have iPads in your room, you could go to the website on Safari and then add it to the home screen so it can be a thumbnail for kids to touch quickly. This would be helpful for a room you might have open for the whole year. Maybe one for vocabulary word discussions or notes on reading passages? You could have a generic todaysmeet.com/reading....and then put your name or room number.
No comments:
Post a Comment