Ms. Cassidy
is from Saskatchewan, Canada. I loved her video Little Kids…Big Potential. The
video is about the students and shows how they enjoy learning. She has many
computers, cameras, overheads, and other technology pieces for the students.
They used many different types of media. They used the Nintendo ds to help with
problem solving skills. They used the wiki for research. They were able to ask
opinions of people from around the world for the wiki. The students seemed to
really enjoy the blogging that they were doing. They talked about having family
members comment on their blogs. Many students may have family and friends in
different parts of the country or world and this can give them the opportunity to
share their work with them. The website that she uses allows the students to
see how many views their post receives. They are very excited to see how many
people are interested in their work. The students are allowed to put their
first names but not their last names for safety measures.
She teaches
them to only post positive comments to each other. Ms. Cassidy talks about in the Skype video that the students we are teaching today are born into technology. It is the only way that they know. They have never known anything except technology. We have to educate ourselves and transform our way of teaching to fit them. Technology is here to stay and we better get on board before we get left behind. The parents are also able to keep up with their child’s progress while viewing the blog.
There may be some parents that do not approve of their children on the blog or internet. This can be worked around hopefully. If the parents allow it you can have the students create a blog but set it to private so that no one will ever see it. The student will not have the page views or comments but maybe the parents and the teacher can comment so that the student will still have interaction and not feel left out.
Funding and technology availability may be an issue. If you can get at least around four computers it can be turned into a center activity. This way everyone will get a chance to work at the computers even if it’s not at the same time.
Even in the first grade!
ReplyDeleteYou're right when you say that kids today are "born into technology". More and more kids are getting cell phones at a young age, and many children have handheld gaming systems, like the Nintendo DS. They're growing up around technology, and they're learning fast. That's why we have to keep up with all the new technology that comes out. The kids will be just as familiar with all of it as we will be!
ReplyDeleteI can understand parents' concerns for their children's privacy, but I feel that being too careful will hold the children back. Even if the blog is set to private, where only the child's teacher and parents can see it, that's not going to be enough of an audience for that child to really thrive. At least that's my point of view on it!