Chatterous - Create Private or Public Chat Rooms

Chatterous is a free platform for creating your own private or public chat rooms. Many other services also allow you to create your chat rooms. What makes Chatterous different is that you can join Chatterous rooms via cell phone, IM (Google Talk), or email. Should you decide to make your chat room public, Chatterous rooms can be embedded into your blog or website. My sample Chatterous chat room is embedded below.


Applications for Education
I've written about using backchannels in the classroom numerous times in the past, you can read a couple of those posts here and here. In short, a backchannel provides a place for your students to ask questions and post comments during lectures, film viewings, or other classroom activities. Chatterous could be a great tool for hosting a backchannel conversation.