Blog Post 10

What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy?

The most significant thing I learned from Mrs. Cassidy's videos is that kids absolutely love blogging. In her video "Cassidy 13 Part 1" she explains in detail why her students love to blog. First, kids enjoy receiving feedback from their blog posts. This makes them seem more enthusiastic about blogging. Furthermore, since students anticipate people commenting on their blogs they put more effort into developing them and making sure they adhere to the teachers' standards. The more blogging the students do the better writers they become. Blogging improves writing simultaneously. As a future educator I will incorporate blogging into my classroom to improve writing skills in a fun and interactive way.
The next technology technique I plan to use in my classroom is a class webpage. Mrs. Cassidy students' showed excitement when they described their class webpage. The advantage of a class webpage is that it allows students to gain practice on subjects being taught inside the classroom and students can access this material from home. Online learning is proving to be essential for current and future students. It provides them with resources they can access anytime and they gain valuable experience using technology. The wiki page is also useful as a technology technique. Students can use these resources to search topics and gain help from other people. It is useful because it gives students opportunities to learn things from other peoples perspective.
The third technology technique that is useful is Skype. I love how Mrs. Cassidy got an expert geologist to have a live conversation with the class. This is another way that technology enhances education. The students were able to ask the geologist questions and receive feedback. This is an interesting way to get your students motivated about a particular subject. They gain valuable knowledge and improve their communication skills at the same time. All of these resources are useful for classroom assignments and they all involve incorporating technology in the classroom.
As a new educator there may be roadblocks in my way as I try to incorporate technology in the classroom. I have never built a website before so making a class webpage will probably be difficulty for me. To counter this difficulty I will seek the support and help from my faculty and use tutorial videos from the internet to help me build my class website. My personal learning network would also be beneficial in helping me. The next roadblock would be using Skype effectively. I have never used Skype before so I may find that difficult also. To address this problem I could begin using this application to familiarize myself with it so I could effectively use it when I become a teacher. Technology continues to shape the future of education in powerful ways and I plan to utilize all of its power to give my students the ultimate learning experience.

Here is the entire interview with Mrs. Cassidy:

1. Interview with Mrs. Cassidy Part 1
2. Interview with Mrs. Cassidy Part 2
3. Interview with Mrs. Cassidy Part 3