With Bclicker, Discussion Takes Flight
Imagine, at the end of a lesson on a hot topic like the prospect of Turkish EU membership, the professor invites students to express their views. There will be those who, full of polemic convictions, will leap into the discussion, and then those who by nature or shyness, remain silent despite having much to say. A pity, for the discussion.
To overcome this problem, but also to use a particularly common communication tool among young people, Carlo Altomonte introduced in the World Bachelor in Business a new teaching tool, used the first time in the last academic year in European Economic Policy and called Bclicker. It is a vehicle for short anonymous messages of only 140 characters, the style of Twitter, which allows students to present their position on the issue at hand. "The choice of this instrument, and even the brevity of the message, allows students to express their opinions, even when strong and controversial, in a direct way, without unnecessary beating around the bush," says Altomonte, "and this makes for particularly lively debate. In practice, I generally choose the two most polarizing tweets and launch the debate, which at this stage takes place in classic form. But the fact that they have somehow broken the ice makes for an effervescent classroom. "
This also brings surprising results, as the Program Director recounts: "When last year we launched the discussion on Brexit in a class with a strong international component, but in fact no British, I was expecting a clear position in favor of remain. However the results were very similar to those that emerged from the polls. "
"Before this instrument came into use," says Cecilia Concetti, a WBB student who experienced Bclicker last year, "the participants in the discussions were always the same people, especially on issues where a strong stand must be taken. Now everyone has more say; it is a method that increases the interactivity of the course and allows students to make better comparisons. Sometimes comparisons even become confrontations. " And conflict, or at least comparison, is what Altomonte is expecting in a couple of months, around March, when the topic of discussion will be Donald Trump: "We will judge his first weeks as president, particularly on the issue of protectionism, one of the flagships of his campaign, "says the director. But it is easy to assume that, given the characteristics of this figure, the discussion will take a wider turn. I will be a sort of referee, and I hope not to suspend too many players".