L

ita Mariana's students don't use their cell phones or any other gadgets in her class, they know better than that.

Using her blog, lita.edublogs.org, the 28-year-old chemistry teacher from State High School No. 8 in Tebet, South Jakarta, is sure that her students have read and understand the do's and don'ts in her class.

"I posted the class rules on my blog and told my students there's no way they missed the rules since they could access it online," the mother of two, who started her teaching blog early this year, told The Jakarta Post Tuesday.

"And it seems to work well. As of today, I've only expelled one student from my class."

Having been a member of the school's faculty for two years, Lita said her nearly-paperless way of teaching has brought many significant advantages to her students.

"For example, those who are absent can download lesson materials and study at home," she said.

Eviana Hikamudin, vice principal and math teacher at SMA 8 Bekasi High School, has a totally diametric experience of the Internet in education.

Although the high school has spent millions of rupiah to install wireless Internet hot-spot facilities, Eviana said the technology had made no significant impact on improving the school's teaching quality since most teachers were still unfamiliar with the technology.

"The school has actually created a teaching blog account for every teacher," he said.

"But only around five of our 50 teachers occasionally visit and update their blogs."

According to data from the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), in 2007, Indonesia had 25 million Internet users, 25 percent more than the year before. Last year, the Association of Indonesian Internet Cafes (Awari) also recorded a significant increase in the number of outlets, from 10,000 to 12,000.

Many experts believe that the number of Internet users in the country has surpassed 30 million people, around 60 percent of whom are young people.

Seeing the increasing popularity of the Internet among Indonesians, the government has made efforts to develop Internet-based learning facilities to improve education and tackle the disparities between students and teachers in developed areas and those in remote ones.

Institutions or individuals interested in developing distance-learning programs, for example, could use the National Education Network, which facilitates the sharing of study materials.

Meanwhile, more schools, especially those with proper Internet facilities, are urging teachers to take advantage of the technology; for example by implementing online, interactive teaching methods through the use of teaching blogs.

However, it is not easy for all teachers, even Internet-literate ones, to start up such programs, since most of them are comfortable with classical teaching methods.

In a recent discussion with high school teachers from Jakarta, Wicaksono, a noted blogger and Internet technology observer, said although it could prove difficult for teachers to follow every single development of Internet technology, just a start in the technology was necessary.

Wicaksono also suggested that teachers who already had a teaching blog should experiment with content and design to attract more visitors.

"Almost all people like to see their own face in the Internet," he said,