Blog Post #11

Ms. Cassidy is a First grade teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. In the first video we were assigned to watch, the different techniques that she uses in her classroom were described. Those methods were blogging, webpage, wikis, videos, Skype and Nintendo DS. The blogging improves the students' writing and promotes positive feedback amongst peers. They use their webpage to find information about different things and in the video they used Wikis to learn about different things like traditions and rituals by posting questions and having responders. Skype allows the students to speak to different people from all over and have virtual face to face contact with people that they would normally never come into contact with. Videos are used to help the students learn different information, for example they used a song to help them learn the alphabet and the letters using a video. The last way was the most surprising to me and that was the Nintendo DS. The students use these popular game systems to become better problem solvers while learning how to share at the same time.
    The technique described that I would really like to see used in my classroom is the Nintendo DS or the popular game system equivalent at that time. Nintendo DS is a very popular item amongst children and there are several educational games that can be purchased to go along with it. This way, children are learning quite a lot about role playing from games like the one the children played in the video and also from more educational games and having fun at the same time. I think some impediments I might encounter with this method are funding and keeping the students focused. I would have to come up with a plan to provide these for my classroom and I could try to get a grant like Ms. Cassidy did, or have a fundraiser of some sort. Also, since it is a "fun" gaming console, the children would probably be easily distracted or tempted to want to play games that are less educational than others. I would have to have only educational games in the classroom, and rarely mention other games other than what is already in the classroom. Children have an innocence that can be really beneficial in this area mostly because if you don't constantly mention it, you have a greater chance of them not even knowing there are other game options.
      In the Skype interview we watched, Ms. Cassidy mentioned a lot of eye opening points for me and shared a lot of information about the technology in her classroom. She has been using Webpages in her classroom for about 10 years and she has had a classroom blog for about 5 years. She did mention that she is constantly adding technology to her classroom which is a sign that she is constantly changing her routines. One thing that she mentioned that really stood out to me was her response to Dr. Strange's comment about students' opinions that they are not going to be using technology in their classrooms. She really emphasized that technology is not going to go away, and we cannot keep teaching students in this day and age with methods that were used 20 years ago.