Shy Students Saved by their Mobiles

From Washington Post:

In Kyoto, the cell phone culture has generated a new type of university class. Students in more than 52 courses ranging from math to welfare studies at the city's Bukkyo University almost never speak aloud.

Rather, they e-mail questions and comments from their cell phones to their professors while in class, and professors answer orally.

"Students can be very shy, and the anonymousness of the system helped them to overcome their shyness," said Kiyoharu Hara, assistant professor of sociology and a mastermind of the university's unusual class communication. "Keitai mail matched the Japanese culture of silently conveying meaning."