Sunday, November 11, 2012

Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy’s Class

Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher located in Moose Jaw, Canada. She expands the use of technology among her first grade students, and goes out of her way to make sure her students are learning in the 21st century. She believes it is very important for teachers to be technologically literate, because of how much technology is a part of the world today. Teachers need to understand the new sources out there in order to teach today’s generation; some educators are still stuck on old technology, which will not help their students in the future. Teachers, like Ms. Cassidy, are learning how to use new programs to benefit education inside a classroom environment. Ms. Cassidy’s first grade students use plenty of sources a part of technology: Smart board, Internet(Web pages), Wiki’s, Skype, Nintendo DS’s, Blogs, and video components.

Her student’s absolutely love to blog. One of the reasons why Ms. Cassidy started a class blog was to let her students share their work with an audience; by sharing their work with an audience, it is inspiring her students to become better writers in their posts. With resources, through the internet, similar to PLN there are web pages. Her students look through a variety of pages, to find places for learning online. With Wiki one of the projects her students made was an alphabet demonstration; later, other Alabama students shared their own way to learn the the alphabet. Wiki also helps Ms. Cassidy’s students find fun facts, if they are curious to learn something new. Skype is another way her students stay connected to the world, through interviews with other classes. They use the DS’s to play learning games, similar to apps most likely on the iPad’s.

I would definitely use some of Ms. Cassidy’s approaches for technology in the classroom. One source of hers I would use is Wiki. Wiki is a great place to browse information, and keep the students active on the computer. I would also like to have my student’s blog, that way they can learn about other cultures around the world. Blogging is very important, and I think all teachers should make a class blog for education purposes. I would like for all my students to have a fun learning environment inside and outside of the classroom. To share their thoughts with others, and create new ides to help additional students along the way, is what I want to accomplish with my students.

When providing new resources in education, there will always be some sort of barrier blocking the way. Whether it is critics who do not like your method of teaching, or finding inappropriate data while browsing the internet, they both can have an effect in the learning atmosphere. Simply there can be ways to fix these barriers; one would depend on what you feel is best for your students, and the other barrier is an educational system problem. Ms. Cassidy mentioned in the Skype interview was how she had to have an older group of her students tell the story in the video because, students who were recorded in the video did not yet fully understand the new technological resources given to them. This can be a slight disadvantage in the classroom setting, if younger students do not quite implicit the new sources they are using. To prevent this disadvantage an educator can make sure to apply these new resources as daily activities.

It is wonderful to see how involved Ms. Cassidy’s students are with technology. All together, these approaches she uses will help her students keep their foot in the door for future references. I think the biggest thing the students will learn is how to reflect their ideas. Students can do this by going back through previous posts, and seeing their improvements in the year; this is the same thing we will do at the end of EDM310, which will be to reflect what we have accomplished in the course. I am glad I got a head start in learning new technology tools, before I dove into the learning environment.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Jazmin! I like the picture that you used in this post and I think you did a good job of summarizing the assignment.
    Your 4th paragraph had quite a few grammatical errors. The sentence "Simply there can be ways to fix these barriers; one would depend on what you feel is best for your students, and the other barrier is an educational system problem" kind of needs to be reworded and maybe broken up into two or three short sentences.
    good job overall.
    Meghan B

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  2. Great job, Jazmin! It is great that you related to the post, but also hwo you connected it back to EDM310. I noticed quite a few grammatical errors, so be sure to proof-read for easily-detectable and easily-fixable mistakes in organization, punctuation, or word choice.
    Keep up the good work,
    Carly

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