For this blog post we were supposed to watch Little Kids, Big Potential, a video by Mrs. Kathy Cassidy, a first grade teacher in Canada who is using technology in her classroom. She has her students online, blogging, creating wikis, skyping - and they're only six! It is really amazing to me what these kids are doing online at that age. It just goes to show that education is changing and that technology can be used in so many different ways in the classroom. These students use online resources for things like learning the alphabet or learning about different traditions, by sharing them on with wikis or in their blogs and getting comments back from all over the world. Considering the age group she teaches, I think that many people would be nervous about allowing their students access to these resources, but Mrs. Cassidy embraces the different availabilities. She even allows the use of Nintendo DSs in her classroom! Not many teachers I know would do that. She is quick to say in her Skype interview that she makes sure to protect the students' safety online and teaches them to do things safely like Mr. McClung, including not using their last names or any other personal information.
If it can be done safely, as these two teachers have proven it can be, I see no reason not to use it in the classroom. The benefits are numerous. Like Mrs. Cassidy says in the interview, not taking advantage of these tools is only handicapping yourselves and your students because the world is changing. Teaching students these things at a young age can only help them in the future, so long as it is done in a safe and supervised fashion. Another benefit that Mrs. Cassidy talks about is that the children in her class will be able to write something not just for her, but for others online. They are able to see that someone is reading and they can get comments from readers and not only know that they are being read, but can get some feedback on what they are doing. I know that must be exciting for them to watch their page views go up and to read comments from others. Teachers like Mrs. Cassidy and Mr. McClung are really preparing their students for the future, because the future is technology.
Kristen,
ReplyDelete"Like Mrs. Cassidy says in the interview, not taking advantage of these tools is only handicapping yourselves and your students because the world is changing."
A teacher's job is to prepare students for the future, and if we don't implement technology in our classrooms, then we're not doing our job. Technology is a part of everyday life, and it will play an even bigger role in the future!
Great post!
- Allie
Hey Kristen!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Ms. Cassidy and Mr. McClung really have embraced that technology is the future. I've been considering what information we have gotten from them and how I will apply it to my classroom. Since I want to be an English teacher, I thought I could incorporate blogs into the classroom and purpose them to act like public digital essays, and collaborating with other for research papers. How do you plan to use their information for your classroom?
Hi Christina!
ReplyDeleteYou have some good ideas about using technology in your future classroom! I'm not sure about my own yet, but I love the idea of a class blog, especially one in which parents are involved! I plan to teach elementary school, so I would have a lot of options as far as subjects to choose from. I really liked the videos made by the students that Mr. McClung posted on his blog, so I would consider doing some of those for sure.