Slacking Off in Class: Is Slack for Me?

Before we answer that, let’s address what Slack is (or has become) and answer some questions you should ask yourself, first.

What is Slack?

That’s become a much harder question to answer as Slack grows and its uses expand beyond simple workplace chatroom. It’s based on the IRC protocol and still has a feel very much like that but the proliferation of applications, integrations, and ‘bots’ has fundamentally changed its nature.

Without going over all the bells and whistles, take their their tour: https://slack.com/is

Why Slack?

LMSs are not great at building community. They’re designed to provide a space where instructors administer materials and information and track student accomplishments. Ironically, that doesn’t necessitate learning in any meaningful sense. Having a discussion forum just often isn’t enough; you need a community. When teaching fully online the importance of this grows exponentially.

Questions to Ask Yourself First

Question 1: Ask yourself if integrating yet another tool will benefit your students.

Do a cost/benefit analysis, basically. Are your students sponges ready to soak up the next adventure into unknown technological territory? Or are they reticent to try new things and easily overwhelmed?

No one can answer for you. Understand that no matter how you look at it, Slack is yet another tool students have to learn and, while some will dive in and feel instantly at home, others will stick in a toe and summarily proclaim it lacking. Encouraging the latter group through support and clear documentation is key. (It’s also beneficial if your school uses Google Apps for Education as, at the Education Standard level, Slack allows for Google OAuth login. That way, students don’t need to create another account somewhere. At the Plus level, you can even tie it into the LMS via LTI. More on that later.)

Question 2: Ask yourself if your students are capable of using it (tech-wise).

Part of Slack’s charm is ubiquity. Much like language-learning apps like Duolingo that thrive on the ability to be there whenever you have the chance to do some learning, Slack’s multiple platforms allow the kind of organic, flowing communication without the computer.

If your students have access to the technology, that is. Not everyone has a smartphone or access to pervasive WiFi, after all. Do you have students who live in extremely rural areas or work on military bases? Does your student’s SES hinder acquiring required technology and can you write grants or otherwise secure funding to address that? Are they part time students who devote small, intense swaths of time to the work or are they ‘always on?’ Manage your expectations about how students should interact with Slack with these considerations in mind.

Question 3: Ask your technology support team how they feel about it.

Often your IT department or related instructional support team can provide a list of requirements or considerations regarding new technology integrations. What policies are in place? If you’re teaching at the university level there is some freedom in what you do with your classes providing you meet certain security and privacy guidelines. Teachers in PreK-12 will likely have more hoops to jump through. Administration might need to see an SSAE 16 Type II/SOC2/ISO 270001 third party certification (don’t worry, they’ll know what that means) or documentation on data retention/access.

Along those lines, is there anyone able to support the administration of Slack if you decide to integrate it? Will you be stuck doing it all yourself? If you want to go the LTI LMS integration route, is anyone in IT able to set it up for you? What happens with those other teachers decide they want in on the action?

Question 4: Most importantly, ask yourself what you hope to accomplish by taking the time and effort to integrate this new tool.

Does a tool like Slack ostensibly support your favored pedagogical method? Write objectives stating exactly what you want to get out of your classroom, read more about (even better, try out) Slack, and determine it helps achieve those objectives or if it’s a case of tool-for-tool’s-sake. Acknowledge the learning curve and the possibility of some resistance, as is expected with any adoption. Does that cost outweigh the benefit measured in supporting learning outcomes? In short: are your students better off with or without this tool?

The rest of this series will be devoted to helping you answer that question.