When I was in college, I took a media law class as part of my major. The professor had an aggressive “everyone participates” policy that he enforced by whipping out the class list and calling on students at random.

Taking a law class was nerve-wracking enough for me, but the thought of making a fool of myself was absolutely unbearable. (Am I the only person around who's still haunted by the dressings down delivered on “The Paper Chase?”) So I studied for that class like I had never studied before, and I am relieved to say that when called on I was able to answer with a reasonable amount of clarity.

I thought about that class while reading an article in The New York Times on a new trend in school participation: Teachers have started using social networking technology to enhance classroom discussion.

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