THE TEACHING ECONOMIST - William A. McEachern 
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Issue 16, Fall 1998
William A. McEachern, Editor
Step Up To The Mike
I am no Luddite, but I have been reluctant to get away from my natural speaking voice to use a microphone in large classes. I have taught classes of up to 350 for more than two decades without amplification. I didn't want to put up an artificial barrier between students and me. I liked the freedom to roam the classroom, untethered by a microphone cord (my lecture halls are not equipped with wireless mikes). No question, projecting my voice during the entire period was a challenge, but I felt the payoff was worth it.
But I had no choice. In redesigning large lecture halls for high-tech use, engineers added acoustical baffling, which made it harder to be heard. I gamely increased efforts to project my voice last spring. But, for the first time that I recall, a few students mentioned they were having trouble hearing me.
So I decided to step up to the mike. After using a microphone for several weeks this semester, I think, on balance, it's terrific! I hadn't realized how tiring it was to project my voice the entire period. I can now use my normal voice with its full range. I can naturally vary my pitch and volume for emphasis in ways not possible when I needed to make such an effort to be heard.
In what at first seems to be an oxymoron, the word microphone is from the Greek µ
, meaning small, and 
, meaning sound. The idea is that a microphone is an instrument through which small sounds can be amplified. The microphone is especially effective when I am facing away from the class, as when writing something on the board or looking up or down at an overhead transparency.
Finally, this may seem odd, but the microphone makes me feel and act more like a performer, which is what teachers are after all. Teaching is live theater. I can say things under my breath in a stage whisper and students can still hear me. I now realize that my natural, unamplified speaking voice is not so natural if I have to strain to be heard. For students, I think the presentation in more personal, engaging, less mono-tone-ous, and they don't have to squint with their ears.