One of the things that I have been getting out of new technologies that enhance class participation is a new sense that a number of students who typically did not partidcipate much, are now much more keen to do so. Whether it's because the technology allows me to break the class into smaller groups, or because technologies provide a certain degree of anonymity, there is a whole portion of students in my class who never raised their hands who are making their presence felt. This is very encouraging. One of the problems I have sometimes had in the classroom is a sense that it is difficult to engage everyone at the same level. Typically, the bolder students end up monopolizing participation as others settle in the comfortable belief that someone will always break that uncomfortable silence. I think of my classes more and more as networks or series of networks in which communication becomes very decentralized and multilayered; at any one point, students might be commenting on a back channel, talking to each other about an exercise, voting, etc. It is much easier to participate when you know the consequences of being "wrong" will be imperceptible. The Chronicle's "Wired Campus" has a post on "how interactive technology can help minority students learn", and that may well be an added benefit. Technologies are an equalizer of sorts, where the ability to authoritatively and comfortably speak in front of a whole class may be very much an acquired skill, one shaped by education and background.
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