LookAtVietnam – Personal blogs and websites have become effective teaching tools for instructors and also the top choice for students.

Long is quite well-known by students, however, because the young mathematics teacher owns http://caolong.wordpress.com/, which has recorded 350,000 hits over the last year and a half.

On his website, Long provides exercises and answers to math problems, updates exam questions and answers students’ questions.

“Teacher, I really like this way of learning, which is a much easier way to acquire knowledge than listening to lectures in class,” “Teacher Long, please help me solve this math problem” – these are the messages sent every day to Long’s website.

Duong Quoc Tuan, a mathematics teacher at Le Hong Phong Gifted School, is also quite famous. He explained, “I set up my blog in order to introduce methods of solving mathematics problems to students, to provide a bank of exam questions and to teach English.”

His blog located at http://blogtiengviet.net/QuocTuan2007 has had 380,000 hits over the last two years, higher than the rate for some businesses’ websites that have existed for nearly ten years.

Huynh Le Nguyen Khoi, who passed the entrance exams to Hanoi Foreign Trade University, revealed that he was a regular visitor of the blog. “The fundamental knowledge provided by Teacher Tuan helped me pass difficult exams and will still help when I learn at the university,” he said.

Hoang Duc Huy, a literature teacher at the Continuing Education Centre in HCM City, has helped many students “love” literature with his forum at www.hoangduchuy.com. Huy posts good articles, offers his analyses, makes comments and gives advice to every student by email.

Le Van Tien, a former student, remarked that he had been lucky to have had the chance to study with Huy.

“With Teacher Huy, I learned not only how to compose an article, but I also learned to love the literary world,” he explained.

Teacher Phan Ho Nghia (http://www.honghia.dayhocvatli.net/) tries to answer all the emails that colleagues and students send to him within 24 hours. Nghi thinks that teaching via blogs and personal websites is not only a means to provide knowledge to students, but this is also a chance for teachers to advance their knowledge as well.

Dr Quach Tuan Ngoc, Head of the Information Technology Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, agreed that this teaching method should be encouraged.

Ngoc added that teachers and students should use information technology in teaching, while the ministry should instate preferences to encourage the application of modern technology.

VietNamNet/NLD