A Warmer Cold Call

Teachers cold-calling on students serves two purposes: the student responds and the class (maybe) feels they too could be called upon.

Some teachers might intentionally call on inattentive students to make a point, or call on favorite students to get an answer they like. Other teachers might use Popsicle sticks or a deck of cards to specifically (& transparently) not do those first two things.

But if the teacher is trying to weave student ideas together in a class discussion, the random, or inattentive, or favorite responders make for stilted discourse.

Imagine a classroom discussion where the teacher could read a little of the minds of each and every student. The teacher could gently curate and guide the entire classroom by purposefully selecting voices to contribute.

Imagine as a student if you aren’t anticipating the chance of a high stress answer performance around every corner, but instead you volunteer or get called upon based on an idea the teacher already knows.

With a digital activity, cold-calling can be warmer.

In this sample digital activity, students interpret a graph of time as a function of speed. The activity asks, “do you think Ali’s graph is reasonable?”

The students are working in pairs on laptops. Each pair considers the question and submits their answers.

First, we have two big advantages over the non-digital routine:

Now we can provide the teacher with tools to facilitate the class discussion.

The digital activity is an aid to classroom discussion, not a replacement. With tools focused on helping teachers do instructional routines or pedagogical tasks, the teacher and students wield laptops as they would pencil and paper, tools for thought and communication.

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