Kathy Cassidy and Connected from the Start Chapter 1

Ok, so yesterday I said that I was going to discuss our class textbook, and didn't. So, to make up for that, and my week of missing a post, I would like to discuss a  chapter from Kathy Cassidy's book Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades.

In chapter 1, Kathy asks the most obvious, yet most important, question regarding technology; why connect? She discusses how her class began connecting with another class in New Zealand at a time when communication through technology first began. It is difficult to think about what people did to communicate before the world of internet, Facebook, Skype, and even texting, among many other forms of social media and communication. With the quickly growing use of technology to connect with people around the world, the students were able to see similarities and differences between them and other students in New Zealand. Kathy was able to take full advantage of this communication tool and cover outcomes of her curricula. What really surprised me was the point that Kathy made about teachers claiming that they do not "have time" to connect with other classrooms because they are "too busy" covering the curriculum. Kathy uses technology as a way to teach the curriculum instead of an addition to it.

All of us know that technology is such a huge part of student's lives now, and any way that we can teach more efficiently with technology, should be done for the student's sake.  I love the fact that communicating through technology all over the world makes everything much more personal. Kathy explains how people may hear that there are volcanoes , however, when students are aware that volcanoes may be close to the school of other student's that they know, they may become concerned for their safety, therefore making this information personal and much more real.

Another point that Kathy makes that all teachers should be aware of, is that students learn much better when they interact with their classmates and other kids. The fact that students now have the ability to connect and learn from other students around the world, they are able to see how they are similar to others while also observing the differences in climate, speech, and schooling practices among many other things.

Now, I will admit, I used to be one who thought that teachers were relying too much on technology in the classroom and that when I became a teacher, I would teach the "old fashioned way" with writing instead of typing, and figuring out problems without using calculators. Since being in the Faculty of Education, I have greatly changed my views on this and feel that technology is an incredible tool when used properly in the classroom. One of the reasons that I was so hesitant to use technology is because of all of the "bad" and "unsafe" things that are out there. However, Kathy makes an incredible and eye opening point that "children who are isolated from social technologies will not learn HOW to be safe online". I have never really thought of this before. In the classroom, it is the teacher's responsibility to teach the students how to appropriately use technology and the internet. I loved the idea of the baby steps where the teacher models the expected behaviour and slowly allows the students to have more freedom once they are familiar with the teacher's expectations.

Going back to communication, when students have the opportunity to converse with other students around the world, questions constantly come up about what they see, hear and read. I feel that this is a great way for students to form their own questions and explore the answers of these questions. This actually seems like a good learning experience for both the students and the teacher. I can see myself using this tool to communicate and learn with other students while also coming up with questions of my own in addition to my student's. I love the idea of "accidentally" learning new things. I feel that when students accidentally come across new information and answer new questions, they tend to remember this information better because they are much more interested. This goes back to the idea that students are in charge of their own learning. When they have questions of their own, the answers are much more interesting.

Phew, that was a mouth full. Up next: Skype. Stay tuned for a commentary of chapter 2!!

-Brittany

So little time..

I know, I know. I missed writing a post last week. What can you expect from a busy student, server and someone trying to have a life all at the same time?! I promise that I will try to be better. Because I missed a post last week, I have TONNES to say this week from class projects and the class textbook, to funny technology pictures I have seen, among my other musings.

So this week in school, we have been doing a lot with "digital storytelling". What is digital storytelling do you ask? Well, it is quite frankly exactly what it sounds like. Using digital technology to tell a story. In order to do this, we have been creating many mini projects in class including videos and picture editing. The first mini project we had to do was create a video using our own personal photos. Being someone who loves to travel, I decided to make mine using pictures of many trips that me and my boyfriend had been on. Most of these were pictures of New York, Calgary, Las Vegas, Boston and Washington. The program that most of us used to create our videos was Animoto. I highly recommend this site! It was so simple to use as it was similar to that "click-drag-and-drop" process that I talked about when discussing my website on Weebly. The only issue with Animoto, is that it only allows you to make a 30 second video. BUT, if you are a teacher and sign up under the education tab, it allows you to make a 3 minute video, with 50 associated videos for your students!! Back to the digital storytelling, we have just been given the assignment to create a slideshow of pictures in order to tell the story using ONE sentence. This sounds confusing, I know, but it is simply a slideshow of your own pictures, with a word or small phrase on each slide, that makes a complete (yet not particularly a proper) sentence. As long as it tells a short "story" using your pictures, you are good to go!! Once mine is finished, I will upload it so you can see exactly what I mean. It is nice to finally see that something in one of my classes is linking to a project in a completely different class. Digital storytelling is going to be used in my English Language Arts Across the Curriculum class as well! I am extremely excited to see what ideas all of my classmates have come up with! (although the expectations of this assignment have not yet been made clear, am I right?)

CLICK HERE to see my Animoto video!!

Another mini project we have been doing a lot of in class is photo editing. There are so many programs out there to use!! I have looked through a lot of them, and I encourage you to do so as well so that you can find the right program for you. For my class project purposes, I used iPiccy. Again, It was very user friendly and produces a good product. A friend had suggested that I use this program and I don't regret it for a second! There are so many edits that you can use, it is impossible to not find what you are looking for. And, if you do something that you don't like, you can just close it and start again. I must admit, I did this A LOT!! I have never really done photo editing before so this was a new experience for me. I can't tell what a well edited picture looks like. For me, it is one of those things that looks good for a bit, and then you look at it for too long and you can hardly tell what it is. It doesn't help that I don't understand the levels of "saturation" "exposure" "noise" and all of that other photo editing jargon.

So time has run away on me once again, and I feel that I have rambled enough for one night. Since I apparently have so much to say, I will make another post tomorrow about the class textbook. It is honestly one of the best textbooks I have purchased in my 5 1/2 years in university, so I am actually pretty excited to talk about it. But before I leave you, I do have a picture that I found funny that I would like to share with you...

I thought that this picture was funny and freakishly accurate. This is exactly how everyone sees technology these days, especially the younger generations. But, for now, I will leave it at that, as this is a great transition into what I will talk about in my next blog!!

Until next time, remember to "keep fit and have fun"! (yes this was a BodyBreak reference.. I'm so Canadian..)

-Brittany