Blog Post #10

After watching Kathy Cassidy's video "Little Kids...Big Potential", I learned a lot about technology in classrooms. First of all, like Dr. Strange has been telling us, young children can use technology very efficiently. Ms. Cassidy teaches first graders and they use blogs, websites, Wikis, videos, Skype and other resources to learn and communicate. What stood out to me even more than the young kids learning how to use technology, is that Ms. Cassidy has embraced it considering that she is a middle-aged woman and hasn't grown up with computers and the internet. This is proof to me that we can all learn how to use these things in our classrooms even though we haven't been immersed in it like our future students have.

In Dr. Strange's videos Interview with Kathy Cassidy (Parts 2 and 3 can also be found on YouTube) discusses how she began using computers in her classroom ten years ago after being given five of them to use. She had some support and funding from the school system, but is the only teacher at her school that was as technology-advanced as she was. Even now, there are few teachers that utilize all of the sources that she does. She makes it very clear, however, that learning how to use computers and the internet before becoming a teacher is very important. The children enjoy not having to be away from computers and games during the day, and they are very involved in using these things. Kids learn best by doing what they enjoy and know how to do. They can also collaborate with other students to share ideas and expand their education.

In my own classroom in the future, I think blogging is definitely something I want to try. It's such a simple thing that brings a lot of excitement to the kids while also letting them practice their grammar, spelling, and other writing skills. In addition to that, I really like the idea of Skype interviews. Those are a great way to talk to an expert about something. For example, in "Little Kids...Big Potential" the children were having an interview with a woman who studies rocks and she was answering a little girl's question. I think it would be awesome to have the kids speak to someone who knows a lot more about what we are learning than even I will, and this way their questions can be properly answered and they can learn more new things.