Blog Post #11

The First Graders in Ms. Cassidy’s Class was a wonderful example of how at ease with technology our students can be if we start them young enough. These kids seemed so confident in what they were doing and seemed to understand what it was teaching them. I was very impressed. For example, they knew that their writing was getting better every time they blogged, the Nintendo D. S. was helping with math facts, the Wikis were helping with their alphabet, and through Skype they were able to communicate with other people. These are just some of the great things Ms. Cassidy was utilizing in her classroom.
You could tell that she had been teaching them responsible computer behavior. One little boy explained you couldn’t say anything mean on someone else’s blog. I am sure the process of utilizing all of the technology in a safe and productive manner takes some time. But even the children shared that they were now better problem solvers, better decision makers, and had learned to share! I think these could all be problems if not taught in the beginning.
It sounds as if her technology program sprang from necessity when she had to teach the children to use the internet in a safe way because her computers could not load programs. I had already wondered where she got the money for these things in her classroom and she was able to get funding through several resources. I also know that it takes time to keep up a web-page and monitor the progress of each student so I was glad to know they gave her some release time in which to do this. I loved her idea of using Twitter as a collaboration technique for not only for students in the classroom but relating to other teachers as well. The idea of having the students create their own school Facebook page different from their personal one is a great idea. It would be a very easy way to communicate with each other and post assignments. Most kids are going to check their Facebook when they get home anyway.