The first nightmarish obstacle I had to cope while introducing technology into my teaching was how to get the students to really pay attention to what I was saying instead of being distracted by the computer screen in front of them. I promise you, 9 out of 10 students will most probably be focusing on their computers rather than on you.

I think what is key is that every teacher should be able to manage the class. On many levels this is important. The first of course being the need to instill some discipline. Without discipline, the students are not ready to learn. On another hand, it also serves as a tool that will encourage teachers to embrace technology.

HeuCampus by Heulab is one of the classroom management tools that I found very interesting. On the surface, it features a few familiar functions- mainly the IM platform that allows instant messaging via the different users. However, the following features excited me even more.

The system allows the teacher to lock out all the connected students so that they cannot fiddle with their computers while the teacher is teaching. This already prevents the frustrating scenario of the students not paying attention to the teacher. Furthermore, HeuCampus also allows the teacher to monitor what the student is doing (ie. the teacher can literally see the individual student’s desktop on his/her terminal).

There are other collaborative tools that HeuCampus is able to offer. I’ll talk about those later when I have the opportunity. Personally, I feel that the classroom management system is a must to create the environment for learning.