The dark side to e-Learning

Teacher is suspended for jibe on Facebook about her class

By Mail On Sunday Reporter
Last updated at 5:12 PM on 28th July 2009

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Sonya McNally complained about her class on the networking site

A teacher faces the sack after complaining about the behaviour of her class on Facebook.

Sonya McNally, 35, has been suspended on full pay since calling the 13-year-olds ‘bad’ in a private conversation on the social networking site.

In a post on March 20, the supply teacher wrote: ‘By the way, (class) 8G1 are just as bad as 8G2.’

Another teacher involved in the discussion, Kirsten Allenby-Moore, took offence.

She complained to the council’s human resources department, writing: ‘I found the comments personally insulting as the 2 classes mentioned where [sic] both mine.’

It is understood she teaches both classes information technology once a week.

Education officials at North East Lincolnshire Council suspended Mrs McNally from Humberston Comprehensive School in Grimsby in April and launched an investigation.

In a report to the headteacher, Mrs McNally is accused of ‘bringing the school into disrepute’.

The previous headteacher resigned in December after Ofsted inspectors rated the school ‘inadequate’ in 13 key areas.

Mrs McNally has admitted writing the comments – but she says similar remarks by other teachers at the school were made on Facebook.

One of her relatives said: ‘This is all so ridiculous it would be funny if it wasn’t true.’

Both Mrs McNally and a council spokesman refused to comment.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1202210/Teacher-suspended-jibe-Facebook-class.html#ixzz0MbGAVRNf

Why I need an IWB (Interactive White Board):

I love technology. The wealth of knowledge that can be shared nowadays at the touch of a button is amazing. There is still debate however, as to whether ICT has improved learning. The contributions of ICT to the classroom stretch far and wide and it would be challenging to discuss the impact of ICT on students learning. Consequently, this blog will focus on a specific computer assisted learning strategy, namely the use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs), to discuss whether there is any evidence to suggest that IWBs could improve learning.

Why I'd like to have an interactive whiteboard:

They give me and my students instant classroom access to:
* Millions of images within seconds
* Millions of videos within seconds
* Millions of audio clips within seconds
* Billions of texts within seconds

It gives me the ability to:
* Contact and bring real people from around the world into my classroom via, text chat, audio or video conferencing and allow my students to interact with them.
* Record and publish text, audio, video directly from my classroom onto the web within minutes
* Save, print and share the board work, notes, links, new vocabulary, students comments from every lesson and retrieve them again in any other lesson
* Share lesson plans and materials with other teachers and access theirs from within the classroom

Some questions worth thinking about:
* Will my students learn better because I have one? - Maybe
* Will teachers need training to be able to use IWBs? - Most Definitely
* Will it effect the way I teach and make me a 'chalk and talk' rote learning teacher? - Possibly!

Increasing student engagement has been linked to greater enjoyment, excitement and a faster paced lesson for students (Levy, 2002). The unpredictability of IWBs has also been linked to an increased zest for learning among students by teachers (Miller and Glover, 2003). There is of course the risk that IWBs become standard practice and lose their appeal or newness to students (Miller & Glover, 2002). Teachers have also suggested that IWBs can encourage student engagement through reducing the anxiety of making mistakes given the temporary and alterable nature of IWBs (Carter, 2002). Cogill (2002) even suggests that IWBs have a motivational impact on teachers, which can in turn have a positive influence student’s perceptions of enjoyment.

I guess what I'm askingf myself is "will an IWB make me a better teacher???????".