Even though it’s in vogue to beat up on PowerPoint presentations, and of course, there are plenty of cases where this is justified. Yet, the fact remains that they are still widely used. I don’t know, maybe it’s something about those concisely cordoned title boxes and bullets that make it just irresistible. So if it’s going to stick around for a while, why not sprinkle it with a little added value?
SlideRocket has a backchannel feature that incorporates Twitter and polling among other things. In education circles, there’s been more buzz about backchannelling both in terms of supporters and detractors. Supporters like how it accommodates multiple conversations; detractors are turned off for that very same reason (e.g., lack of cohesion). More on this can be found at places such as Educause and the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. I think, as it goes with lots of these sorts of tools, instructors should pay careful attention to the specific context and purpose, and if the backchannel option seems to be a good fit, then start looking for some tools for some sort of best practices that helps to avoid common pitfalls.