Ms. Cassidy teaches a first grade class in Canada. She incorporates several technologies into her curriculum for her students. She uses blogs and web pages and in her video I saw a smart board. She teaches the children how to keep themselves safe first and eliminates many of the hazards of getting on bad web pages by having her own website that acts as "hub" that has all the links to educational games and other websites. She also says that technology literate of today is not the same as it was even 5 years ago. She encourages us to stay on top of the new technology coming into the classroom so students of today do not have to "turn off" to come into the classroom.
In her skype interview with some of the EDM 310 students she asked how often her students blog and how she keeps them safe and how technology has affected her personal life. Her response to each of the question where:
1. How often do her students get to blog?
She said it depends on how many students she has and how much time they have. She added to
this saying she does have several topics that she requires them to post on. Some of the
students also post from their home. Her main reasoning for using this resource is to allow
the connection with the parents to see what the students are doing and to see the
progress. It also helps elevate writing skills.
2. How she keeps them safe?
Ms. Cassidy said that she first teaches to never post a last name and don't post pictures
with even your first name. After that she also has her own webpage with links to games and
other education sites helping eliminate the risks of the students ending up on bad
websites.
3. How has the technology affected her personal life?
She admits that before starting the use of blogs and web pages she did not do much on the
computer. After she started she started using it more and more and is now an every night
event. She uses it to find more links for the students to learn things off of. She also uses
it to enhance her own personal learning networks. She even opened her own Facebook account
due to the fact some of the pages she wanted to view you had to be an account holder.
I hope that I can use some of Ms. Cassidy's ideas and incorporate them into my own classroom one day. I thought the use of the Nintendo DS was an awesome idea. I know that there are many different things out there and it will be interesting to see what the future hold for me and for technologies.
Very thorough and informative! Well done! I would, however, have liked to read more of your own perspective and opinions and less observations :D You don't need to summarize as much, we want to read connections to your personal experience, how you might improve on the ideas mentioned in the assignment, possible flaws, things like this.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work! Only a few more weeks left to go :)