Blog Post #11: Ms. Cassidy

Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, Canada, and everyday she uses technology with her students in the classroom. In the video Little Kids...Big Potential, Ms. Cassidy and her students explain how they use technology in a classroom setting. The first technological tool that her students discussed, was a blog. The students in the video said they enjoy writing blogs because other people, like parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and more, can see the work being done. The students also said that writing on their blogs, makes them a better writer. They can see where their mistakes are and correct and learn from the errors. Another technological tool that Ms. Cassidy uses with her students, is video production. The students sometimes split into groups and make videos to show what they are learning. Ms. Cassidy's class also uses Skype as a tool to see what other classrooms around the world are learning about, and they help each other learn too. Not only does Ms. Cassidy's students talk to other students, but they also talk to professors, teachers, and instructors. In the video, one student asked a "rock expert" how many types of rocks there are in the world!! How cool is that? I hope that in my future classroom, I will be able to use a variety of technological tools, but one tool in particular I would thoroughly enjoy using is Skype. Skype would be an interesting and new tool to receive information in the classroom setting, because the class can get information from an actual person(s) rather than looking it up on the internet.

In the interview with Ms. Cassidy and EDM310 of 2010, Ms. Cassidy discusses with Dr. Strange and his class, many questions about how she uses technology in her classroom. Ms. Cassidy talks about when she first got involved in technology in the classroom, about twenty-three years ago present day, she was given five computers, but that they were limited. She said there were monitors, keyboards, and internet access, but she could not put programs on the computers. She decided that since she couldn't have programs on the computers, but still had internet access, that she would work with what she did have. She began to explore using webpages, blogging, and so forth. She also began implementing the use of the technological tools in her classroom, and instructed her students to post activities and projects on their blogs, and use search engines to find information about what they were being taught. Ms. Cassidy also talks about the fact that she does the blogging, video productions, webpages, etc. alone (of course with the help of her students), but that she has great support from her school, district area, and technology coordinator that has been by her side for a while, doing what they can to help her.

A quote Ms. Cassidy said, that I love was, "technology is not going away; it's here to stay. We cannot teach kids, in this generation, using the tools that worked twenty years ago, ten years ago, or even five years ago. We have to change, because the world is changing."