Slack is a communication platform that has become sort of like texting for businesses. Slacks are organized into “groups,” which have their own pages (such as the group for our course). Discussion topics are organized by “channels.” You can select how or if to receive notifications in each channel, and leave or join channels. In my class, we had a channel open for general questions for the class as we moved along, and used Slack for messaging to communicate with each other. I could also create new channels and send direct messages to one more multiple students. I occasionally held office hours by text instead of voice.

Here’s a quick video from the Slack people that introduces how to navigate their software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2JuAa6-ors

And here’s more information from Slack about posting to channels and sending direct messages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IECPfpSB1RM

Slack for Mobile is a fairly solid app version. Here’s a video walking through that platform, as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xsU4wbbuRY

Instructions

1. Go to the English Department Slack here.
2. Create a Slack account and login.
3. Setup your bio and profile photo (of yourself).
4. Post something to the Slack group’s #say-hello channel to introduce yourself.
5. Bookmark this Slack page URL and keep it handy in your browser (I keep mine on my browser’s “Bookmarks Bar”).
6. Go back to to your Profile (click your name at the top and select “View Profile”) and click the three dots meaning “More” underneath the profile photo.
7. Write down your Member ID number.

Post your Member ID number in the Comments below. If you had any trouble getting setup on Slack, note that in your Comment, and I’ll (Seth) try to get follow up ASAP.