Digital note-passing gains respect among adults

Passing notes in the classroom is probably as old as formal education itself, but the advent of cell phones and other sophisticated handheld devices has elevated this communication to a digital art form.

...

"You realize that questions must be going unasked, that learning is going to be reduced," Griswold said. "If we're losing efficiency, that's undesirable."

With the help of a grant from Hewlett-Packard in 2001, he developed software that allows students to use personal digital assistants or laptop computers to join a public backchannel in his lecture hall and ask their questions anonymously in real time.

"When you give people this public ubiquitous backchannel, it broadens the discourse," he says. "Some of these questions are very high-end."