Abstract:

Teachers are often confronted with difficulties such as aggressive students, demanding parents as well as conflicts with colleagues or supervisors during their everyday work. These situations can be very draining if not health threatening. Instead of turning to others for help, teachers rather tend to deal with their problems in private. Some of them create the same, sometimes ineffective or insufficient solutions over and over again to the detriment of the pupils and themselves.
An internet forum - www.laererforum.net - is now an integrated part of a dual counselling, assistance and learning system at Bodoe University College. The forum is, based on our experiences, good for counselling by information, learning by reflection and for decision making. All users can have a quick access to the special knowledge of specialists as well as to the knowledge of well experienced colleagues. If necessary they can address these counsellors even covered by e-mail. There is no need to compare timetables with the counsellors and for sorrows to be asked taking a whole sequence of hours for a long counselling process.
Results after the two year introduction period show us that the net-forum has a lot of visitors but not so many users. Users need a push, a start-course, to use this “risky” service. The visitors mostly seem to look for general information. They are looking for knowledge of didactical, methodological and educational character. The visitors also can have access to information of ethics and laws. The users make their problem explication themselves. They expect to get an answer to the questions they have been putting into the forum. Here we can find questions expecting need for information, advice on methods, and help with declaring situations. The net-forum seems to have a potential for guidance and consultation on practical problems. Very few users write about more serious personal problems.
Our internet platform offers the opportunity to work in professional and cooperative learning communities without having to reveal one’s identity. Teachers now have the chance to anonymously read or write about difficulties, ask questions and experience the strength and advantages of a professional learning community.
Especially young teachers will receive acknowledgement of and understanding for their difficulties. They will realize that others have to face the same or similar problems, found a way to solve them and this may help to ease the pressure of the involved teacher, thereby enabling him to deal with his problem in a more professional manner. By helping each other via the virtual platform, teachers can also improve their problem solving abilities as well as their abilities to offer encouragement and professional advice.

Keywords:

online learning, teacher s forum, internet-based, problem solving.