Blog Assignment #9

Ms. Cassidy is a 2nd grade teacher and strongly believes in using technology in class rooms. In the first video and second video Ms. Cassidy teaches us many useful aspects of using technology in your classroom. She said that the principles never directly supported the use of technology so she pretty much did it on her own. In her classroom she uses blogger as her tool. All of her students have blogs and are required to comment on other students blog that they call blogging buddies. It is a writing, video, and audio lesson all in one. Ms. Cassidy brought up why would you want to write on paper when the students can write on blogs for people to see and comment on. It allows you to have an audience and makes writing more interesting. She mentions something called a cluster map which shows the people from around the world who looks or comments on their blogs. I found that very interesting. The students love using technology. Technology is part of the world now and they feel like they do not have to power down when they go to school. The parents also support the use of technology. They can look and see the progress of their students at any time. Ms. Cassidy believes that every teacher should be illiterate. Technology has changed so we have to too and it is not going away. You should use technology with what you are interested in. She believes that if you do not keep up with technology that you are handicapping your students and yourself and I agree with her.

In the third video is some of EDM310 students asking Ms. Cassidy some questions. She was asked how often she uses blog in her classroom. She says that it really depends on the year. Now in her classroom she has other adults to help her so she does not need a center for blogging. The students usually blog about once a week but the students are allowed to blog from home. Also, if the students get their work done they are allowed to then too. Ms. Cassidy was also asked since blogs are so accessible by the internet, do you fear the more cheating going on. She answered with no. She explains that the internet allows you to look at other peoples work and allows other people to look at your work and take that information and add to it. It is called collaborating. She also mentions that teachers should get more creative in the way they ask to present information so it is not possible to copy someone work. Another question she was asked was how does she protect the students from seeing or being exposed to things that shouldn’t from the internet. She teaches the students the places that they should and should not go to. Ms. Cassidy has a classroom web page of links to blogs and games for the students that they should go to. The students are not allowed to use their last names or post pictures. She encourages the students to stay positive. I really enjoyed watching theses three videos of Ms. Cassidy and her thoughts about using technology in the classroom.