Forums

Last week, Mark posted an article on his blog saying that he is a fan of forums. He asked us to react to his post and here is my reaction...
I do not know what to think about forums. I think it is a really good tool to communicate new ideas and other things like that, but I also think that it is not always a good idea to use forums. One can post anything he/she wants on a forum, it does not matter whether it is true or not. I see forums as a "more open" wikipedia. You surf through the forum, read many interesting ideas and some new information on subject but you have to keep in mind that some of this information can be not true or only partially true.
On the other hand, it is true that forums can be very helpful for some students. When one has a question about an assignment, he/she can ask the question on the forum and wait for an answer (that comes only after the deadline). I think that the most positive aspect of forums is that it stays on the internet, it stays easy accessible for everyone. One can go back on the forum 3 years latter to find answers to his/her questions.
Most of the time, I think that forums are good and very useful. The only thing wrong about forums is the information that is send that could be wrong, but that problem can always be over come by a genius administrator that asks the users to have a reference for every new information posted.

Computer Classroom Management

Technology is part of every student life. In University, many course are given through the Internet and many course note are only available on webCT. In High School, most of the students spend many hours per week on the internet, whether it is before or after school, they chat, surf or play games. I remember when I was in High School, I used to spent hours on MSN to chat with friends. At the same time, I was surfing on the Internet to find any news on my favorite celebrities. In Elementary School, the children have computer labs, and in some classes they have computers in the classroom. they know how to surf through the Internet and how to install some software on the computer. When I was in kindergardner (a couple of years ago...) I remember that we had a computer in the classroom, okay it was not very powerful but it was a computer. I knew how to work with a computer before I actually got one at home.
Teachers have to know how the technology works to be able to work with it with their students. They also have to change their method of classroom management and adapt it to the environment. The students don' t act the same in a computer labs than in their own classroom.
To sum up, the technology is important for the students and in the mean time, it has to become important for the teachers. the teachers have to work on their approach to teaching in computer labs to be able to handle this type of classroom environment.

Mark's experience

When Mark talked about his experience with computer labs and the special classroom management of this type of class, I was very interested. I thought that every Pedagogy courses should be like that class we had, it was interesting and, compared to other things that we learn in ESL Pedagogy, useful!

There is one thing that Mark said that I am still thinking about. The part where he said that the principal didn't believe his wife, he/she went on the parents’ side and left Mark’s wife alone. That made me realized that a teacher has to know the direction and know how the direction reacts before doing anything. I had the chance to talk about that fact with the teacher I'm doing my practicum with and she told me that she had to deal with the direction once at a school she used to work in. There was a huge problem in her class and she decided to deal with it in a way that could not be accepted by every parent. She told me that the direction wanted to meet her to talk about the solution she had found. At first, she was scared. She didn't know what could happen but when she entered the principal's office, she realized that everything was okay. The direction wanted to know every details of the story to be able to explain them to the parents. They trusted her and wanted to make sure that the parents understand why she was reacting this way.

I think that it is important for the school to trust its teachers, but it is also important for the teachers to trust their school.