Blog Assignment #11

Little Kids...Big Potential
In this video, students in Mrs. Cassidy's first grade class talk about how they use technology to help them learn. They detail what they like about the technologies that they use and the how it benefits them.
This was a really interesting video. It was really refreshing to see how the kids were interacting and learning with technology from such an early age. I'm actually a bit jealous that I didn't have that same kind of technological learning environment when I was a first grader because of how much fun it seemed they were having while learning so much. I definitely believe that getting involved in internet enhanced learning so early in their educational careers will pay exponential dividends in their continued development. It was also really cool to hear them talk about getting comments from edm 310 students. They seemed to really enjoy that and it feels good to have a small impact on their lives and know that they appreciate our comments. My favorite part of Mrs. Cassidy's curriculum however is incorporating Nintendo DS games into the school day. I remember the days when I used to get in trouble for playing video games in grade school when in reality I often learned more from playing them than what the teacher was lecturing on on any given day.

Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy
In this video Dr. Strange interviews Mrs. Cassidy as she answers questions about her teaching methods and how she has incorporated technology into her classroom. I definitely plan on using blogs in my classroom. I want my students to be able to critically analyze health articles and write about them as well as be able to write health articles themselves based on the information I teach them as well as information they will gather from health videos, podcasts, and projects. I also plan on allowing them to use their own personal handheld devices for supplemental learning as there are vast excellent health related apps as well as new ones being developed each and every day. I believe this approach will benefit my students because it will make learning some difficult health concepts easier than with strictly traditional lecturing. I also believe it will help them to become more engaged in the learning process as well as retain more information as it will make concepts more tangible. The main concern as far as impediments go however is that with there can be some subjects, such as sex education, that certain people may be sensitive due to religious affiliations or personal moral conflicts. These may inhibit some of the media I would want to show to these students, but I believe alternative assignments could be issued for these special circumstances that would satisfy the curriculum by communicating with these students, their parents, and the school system so we are all on the same page.