Blog Post #11

Ms. Cassidy's First Grade

Watching First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy gave me some great ideas about how to use technology in my future classroom. Ms. Cassidy says that she began learning about technology for the sole purpose of using it in her classroom to benefit her students. She says that technology is part of modern day students' everyday lives, and it needs to be incorporated into the classroom in order for successful learning to occur. She implements the use of technology in several ways in her classroom including blogging, wikis, video, Skype, and even Nintendo DS. I think the most important piece of advice that she had to offer in her interview is that each year will be different, so technology use will also be different. What works for your class one year might turn out to be disastrous the next year.

I think I will use several of her techniques in my classroom. The first of these is a class blog. I love the idea of parents being able to follow their child's progress, and see examples of their work from anywhere. This would be a really awesome tool for a child whose parents do not both live in town. Both parents could keep up with their child's progress instead of only the parent in town who receives the daily folder of papers that get lost anyway. Another technique of Ms. Cassidy's that I will use is video. I think making videos of children demonstrating new skills gives them an immediate, short term reason for learning the material thoroughly. This in turn, helps the children in the long run, because they now thoroughly understand the topic because of a fun activity. I also think it would be neat to use Skype in the classroom to talk to experts like Ms. Cassidy's students were in the video.

I can't picture myself using a couple of the techniques the Ms. Cassidy uses (although who knows what I will do one day). One of these is wikis. I have always found these to be a bit confusing, so maybe that is why I am not as eager to use them. I think if I take the time to learn about them like I have with much of the technology in this course, I might find them more useful. However, for now, I don't think they are for me. Another technique that I am a bit skeptical of is the use of the Nintendo DS. Again, this might be due to being unfamiliar with this technology. I have never heard of these being used in classrooms, but I bet the children really love it. I would love to learn more about this technique, and hopefully change my views about it. Overall, I think Ms. Cassidy has fabulous ideas on incorporating technology into education, and I can't wait to put some of these ideas to use.