Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside the primary group activity or live spoken remarks.
The term "backchannel" generally refers to online conversation about the conference topic or speaker. Occasionally backchannel provides audience members a chance to fact-check the presentation.
First growing in popularity at technology conferences, backchannel is increasingly a factor in education where WiFi connections and laptop computers allow students to use ordinary chat like IRC or AIM to actively communicate during class. More recently, researchers from Penn State University have explored bringing "backchannel" up front in classrooms - "ClassCommons, " to increase students' participation and promote community building in classrooms.
Twitter is also widely used today by audiences to create backchannels at technology conferences. When audience members add an event hashtag to their tweets [e.g. #learnmoodle] anyone can run a Twitter search to review all the backchannel tweets related to that event.
