"Blurring the Edges: Using Slack to Enable and Extend Class Interactions" presented by Stephen David Grover     

The second session in the 2022-2023 GSOLE Webinar Series

Overview

Slack, and other messaging platforms, provide ways to promote more—and more organic—interactions between students, instructors, and course material and to extend those interactions between class meetings or outside the LMS. In this webinar I will outline the benefits, pitfalls, and principles of use that I’ve discovered over 7+ years of using Slack in my teaching of writing. Additionally, I will demonstrate how I use it in practice, including what settings I use, what channels I create, and how I get students set up on the software. I will show how Slack can be used to:

• allow students greater control over how they present themselves to classmates,
• increase modes of access, enabling more student participation,
• allow a greater degree of underlife in and out of class, and
• promote community building among students separated in time and space.

(I’ll even share how Slack once led to an impromptu late-night class party at a local ice cream parlor.)

Because Slack is only one technological option of many, I’ll also present the heuristic I use when evaluating new software for potential use in my classes. During the webinar, participants will join and use a Slack workspace live and will brainstorm additional ways it can be used to enhance their teaching.

Registration Information:

• This Webinar is free to GSOLE members. 
• Non-Members can register for $15.
• Learn more about GSOLE webinar participation