blog post 11!

Little Kids... Big Potential
Watching this video about Mrs. Cassidy's First Grade classroom made me think that anything is possible. When first starting EDM 310 I was doubtful in the way that such young students would be able to use technology like we use today, but by watching this video it proved me wrong. In Mrs. Cassidy her students are working with blogs, wikis, webpages, Nintendo DS, making videos and also Skyping to share with others there education progress. On the students blogs they do their classwork and even show improvement by each blog. With the students being able to blog they said other family members such as uncles and grandparents could see their progress in their school work. What an awesome idea! Not only on their blog, but Mrs. Cassidy has the student webpage and the students can go to it and click on the many exercises that are listed and they can work them at their own pace. For the students to have other classroom blogs and classrooms that they Skype with and share their ideas really shows collaboration with others, which is never a bad thing. The students to seem to really enjoy working and being engaged in activity with technology. Their progress for only being in the first grade is also about the same level that I am on in college. Also, Mrs. Cassidy went outside of the regular teaching methods, and I am sure that the students enjoy being able to use all of the technology.

Skype Interview with Mrs. Cassidy
While watching the Skype interview, it seems as if Mrs. Cassidy is all about her students learning how to properly use technology to learn in the classroom. She went to many lengths for technology to be used in the classroom, which means she was determined for her students to have and learn it. Mrs. Cassidy also says that "students and technology go hand in hand." I think she is correct, and that students do begin to shut down with learning the old way with books and paper and pencil. She is also very cautious of how her students do their blogs and the information that they display. She does not allow the students to post pictures with their face, but yet mix up the pictures with the students names. With the approach that she takes to technology she is very cautious and does not seem as if she will be letting technology go in her classroom, but only further more use it.
Using blogs and webpages seems to be a great idea while in the classroom. I like the idea of using the webpage and the students being allowed to go home and work on the lessons at their own pace. I also really LOVE the idea of using Skype. I hope that in my classroom I will be able to find a classroom that could be our "buddy class" and we could Skype maybe once a week to see what is happening. Sharing ideas is something that I think can help further education and just our own learning purposes by others. I hope that my classroom can be half of the classroom, speaking about technology, as Mrs. Cassidy's classroom is.