Forum

Learning how to use a forum was one of the best things I have learned in this course. I think that all courses in the B.E.A.L.S program should have a forum. Students will thus be able to share questions, answers, and points of you about some topics seen in class.

Teachers should all take the time to have a forum because it is fast and easy to manage. Instead of answering individual messages, teachers should answer only one time for a questions comparatively to many time for the same question. Teachers would thus save time and energy to share information with students.

In my website, I have built a section for a forum because in my future career, I really want to let students the opportunity to use my forum to help each other out with different things.

Furthermore, I think that managing forum gives creditability with the websites visitors. I also consider that teachers who make use of forums enable them to create relationships with their students.

Making division with subjects in the forum is a good way for learners to follow discussions and for studying. I also like the fact that teachers post on their forum a section where students can complaints about anything. However, teachers have to be up-to-date with the complaints in order to avoid too big complaints.

To conclude, I am totally pro for the use of a forum in a classroom.

Computer Classroom Management

As a future English teacher, I have to be aware that students are interested in technology and that they are thus stimulated by it. Fortunately, it is a good method to help students to enjoy the English course by bringing them to the computer lab and integrating technology. However, in order to be able to make students work properly, I have to be up-to-date with the computer’s software. One problem is that I also have to be able to manage the class, which sometime can be problematic. A few weeks before, in the Computer Applications’ class, a discussion was made concerning “computer classroom management”. This discussion made me think about the real situations that I will face soon. To be honest with you, I am scared of managing, in my future, a computer lab because many problems can occur. The first one is that students who will access inappropriate content on the net during the presentation of the task or during the individual work. Another problem is the chat programs. Teachers of all levels, from elementary school to university, have to be conscious that the majority of students make use of chat programs. For instance, the majority of students at university bring their computer to class and end up chatting. In these cases, I just don’t understand why they are coming to class. They are not at all concentrated on what the teacher is saying and it is distracting to others. When this problem occurs during a computer lab classroom, teachers have to establish with students some sort of punishment. The last problem that I know I will face is the fact that some students will know more than me about computer technology. However, before going to the computer lab, one solution to this problem is to let students know that the computer is not your best friend and then ask the best students to help if the teacher needs help. Linking this idea, students have to know that an English teacher is not a computer teacher. It’s true that all of these problems will probably occur during a computer lab, but teachers have to be ready to face with all of those situations.

One of the roles of a teacher is to manage the class. Teachers have to establish their own rules in the computer lab as much as in the English class. One method that could be effective is to tell students the rules before going to the lab. The first rule could be that students have to ask permission before standing up. Another one is to give assigned places to students. In this way, you can control the students who you do not want sitting near each other. One role of the teacher is to accept noise. Students will not be able to stop talking. Another major rule could be that if you find students are not working properly, you, as the teacher, can bring them back to the classroom.
Technology will be more and more present in the students’ life. To be an up-to-date teacher, bring students to the computer lab will motivate them.

Homework Week 3

Over the last ten years, I have been working with the computer and the Internet. In 2006, I started University. Before then, I had never used the Internet so often in my life. In the Computer Applications' course, I am learning more about the uses of the Internet, such as "Open-Sourced Software".That was the first time I had heard of the concept of "Open-Sourced Software". Briefly, the open source software is defined as a program that somebody released on the Internet and then everyone around the world can download it and work with it. The source is open and free for everybody. The principal goal of the open sourced software is to share the program with other people who are interested in the subject.

Now, in 2008, there are thousands of open source software available on-line. My open sourced tools that I have recently downloaded are VCL media player, Firefox (Internet Browser:Mozilla) and Feedreader (RSS Newsreader) . I am wondering if Limewire 4.14 (Downloads media,...) is also an open-sourced software.

For homework this week, I had to read Software Industry vs. Software Society: Who Wins in 2020? This article was neither easy to read nor easy to follow. There were many concepts, such as ICT and Linux, that I had never heard of before. I found that this article was principally created and designed for people who are used to this new technology. As a beginner of technology, it was hard to understand. One of the main subjects that grabbed my attention was the sourceforge.net, i.e. the open source development resource. There are many open-sourced softwares available on this page. According to my knowledge, one of the main advantages of open-sourced software is that it is a good way to help society. Furthermore, it was written that in regard to open-sourced software companies "[...] profit earned by the Fortune 500 on $9.1 T USD revenues in 2005". One question that comes to my mind when I read this article.Where does the money come from?

The second article was Firefox, Why Haven't you Switched Yet? Actually even though I have downloaded it, I have not yet changed to Firefox because I do not know enough about that software, even though Firefox is secure. I am used to using Internet Explorer, but if Firefox is the future, I will probably switch.

The last article that I had to read was Microsoft is Irrelevant... The author wrote about Miscrosoft Vista (the new version of Miscrosoft XP). I have nothing to say about that subject because I am currectly using the old version of Microsoft, i.e. Microsoft XP. Technology changes too fast that I am unable to follow the wave. The only thing I know is that I regularly have trouble with Microsoft.

Finally, even though techonology changes so fast, teachers have to keep themselves up-to-date. As a future English teacher, it is extemely important to be able to work with new technologies. I have learned many things up to now about the technology and plan to continue learning more.

Homework Week 2

The video called "A Vision of Students Today" makes us think about the near future. It is unbelievable how the Internet and the computer take place in students' life. Technologies take more and more place in students' life...and it's only the beginning.

In my first year, I have noticed how many people make use of computer in classroom. Some of them used it in order to write notes for the course, and others used it to talk with MSN.