Blog #9

This week we watched the video First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and she briefly had her students talk about the technology they used in their classrooms. Also throughout the video it showed previews of the students in the classrooms, and how they used the technology. They used computers for blogging, and in the video the students shared how much they really enjoyed blogging because they like seeing comments from different people. Whether it is from their family members, or strangers, they enjoy seeing new comments when they log into their blogs. The students also shared that blogging is one of their favorite things to do because they can do this both at school and at their homes as long as they have a computer. The students are also using iMovie to make videos, both in groups and individually. They like to make videos of what they might have learned in class for that day, or throughout the week. Also, this is the first video I have seen where the students get to use their Nintendo DS' in the classrooms. These are usually used only for fun, but they get to use them for playing educational games. The students have commented on how some of the games are helping them with being able to spell and pronounce certain words. This sounds like a wonderful tool for the students to use, especially if by saying the word out loud and them repeating the words back actually helps them overall! All of the technology she used from her videos I could see myself using in my future classrooms. I believe that if the technology is used appropriately by the students, and certain rules were placed for the technology then they can be used in the classrooms! There are so many different tools out there used for learning, and I am going to make it my mission to search and search until I think I have found something great. Then when there becomes something even better, I will try out the different tools and so on and so forth.