Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class
I enjoyed this video a lot! It reminded me of our previous podcast assignment, where my group and I chose to use only audio for the video. This shows that learning through technology isn’t just expanding in use, but it is progressing quickly in children at young ages as well. I believe Ms. Cassidy’s approach to the use of technology in the classroom was to show that technology will not just change learning for our generation, but the ones to come also. The students said they were able to blog, use wikis, Skype, and use their Nintendo DS game systems effectively to help them with classwork. The students begin to understand the uses of technology and are able to apply the skills at home or anywhere the devices are available.

All of Ms. Cassidy’s techniques seem effective and if I had to choose one it would be the wikis. Wikis, as the kids described were used to find answers to questions they did not know the answer to. The wikis allowed the students to receive multiple comments from people all over on what they felt traditions and rituals were. In my Math class I could use a wiki to explain different math terms or even help with conversions of weight, length, or volume. Wikis can be used for just about anything and I am glad I discovered this because on a previous post of mine. In the post I stated that I would NOT use technology in my classroom, but just as Dr. Strange said it will probably be very difficult to be a teacher and not be technologically literate. I now see that technology could be beneficiary to every subject. One issue that may come across from using the wikis might be the access to them once school is out. The percentages of having computers at home have gone up, but not every household is as motivated to purchase these useful items as others are. Therefore, the wikis will only be used as an alternative, in the case of students needing extra help learning the material.

This approach by Ms. Cassidy benefits me a great deal by choosing to teach Math. We never actually stop learning; with that being said I could use wikis for my students and myself as well! I didn’t know exactly what a wiki was, but once I searched it I realized how beneficial it could be to my future classroom or anyone’s. If I were teaching English, I could use a wiki to help students understand the basis of punctuation and it could be helpful with correct spelling. With Mathematics there are never ending formulas that can be hard to understand at first look and wikis dealing with math can offer a review lesson to show what came before the new formula. I enjoyed Ms. Cassidy’s video of her first graders, and I hope that one day my class will be as excited about the new ways of learning as hers was.