Blog #9

Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Canada. In her video, "Little Kids... Big Potential", the kids love posting in their blogs. Not only do the students know how to blog, but they can do so much more such as videos, Skype, and WebPages. One of their favorite things about blogging is the comments they receive. It can be people they know and are close to, or people they don’t know. When commenting on other blogs, remember to be positive because you do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings. They use WebPages to find information and to help themselves learn. The students can make videos and use Skype to express what they learned about. I think it is awesome that young kids know so much about technology. They know way more than I ever knew when I was in the first grade.

I believe that the main idea of Ms Cassidy’s interview on blogging is the fact that she has her students do them regularly. The students are able to receive feedback from their blog post just as often as they post them. Blogs are available to essentially anyone that owns a computer; this makes the blogs more likely to receive a comment back to whatever the students post. The students really enjoy receiving comments and compliments on their blogs, and make them eager to do more with them. They enjoy being connected to the world. Through this video I can see that blogging can be a very useful tool and a fun way to engage my students in computer work.

Ms. Cassidy does not use much technology in her personal life. In Part 2 of her interview,she thinks that people should start in the area they are most interested in. It can be from blogger, Twitter, YouTube, or iMovie. There are so many tools out there that can be used. You can connect with so many people and learn so much through Twitter. She says if you are interested in making videos, then to start with YouTube or iMovie. I think these are all great educational tools for teachers to use.

Part 3 of the interview, Ms.Cassidy is asked questions from former EDM 310 students. She blogs about once a week with her classes now because she has a small class. It depends on what is going on during the year on how much her student’s blog. She does not think cheating is a problem when students look at each other’s blogs; she refers to it as collaborating. Ms. Cassidy talks about student’s safety when using technology. She encourages her student’s not use last name, post pictures of themselves, and being positive to others. The student’s should know which websites are okay to click on and not okay to click on. They should make sure not to click on things in the middle of a website or blinking/flashing things on the side. She explains to only look at educational things. I would definitely take into consideration these things when teaching.