This article from Wired describes a growing trend in university lecture halls: mass polling of a class via wireless devices. These seem to be akin to the "Ask the Audience" gadgets used in "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?," and the instructor can use them to elicit opinions, quickly test knowledge, or any other use for which an answer can be given via multiple-choice or numerically.
Students at Brown University call the devices "clickers," and professors have found that using the gadgets actually boosts classroom attendance. It also gives students a venue in which to more freely share their opinions. "People that [hold unpopular opinions] will click," says Ross Cheit, an Ethics instructor at Brown. "But they might not raise their hand and say it."
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