Week 10

For our Personal Learning Environment assignment this week, we were asked to watch three videos: I Love Spiders, Habitats, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. I learned a lot about using technology with young children from these videos.

In the first video, I Love Spiders, the teacher created a website for the class project. The students were able to use disposable cameras and take pictures of different spiders in the area and post them, along with captions onto the site. They were also able to exchange these photos with another class at a different school, even in a different state. I thought that was super neat and something that kids would love to participate in.

In the second video, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, the teacher explained that her class of students was not experienced with computers when they entered her classroom, but they loved to explore, learn, and teach each other. This allowed them to be rather proficient on the computer by the second semester. I also thought creating the class video was neat because it was a way to involve the parents. It is one thing to send a newsletter home to parents but they feel so much more involved when they receive copies of these videos that their child has helped create.

In the third and final video, Habitats, I noticed that the kids knew a lot about computers. Some of them even seemed to know more than the teacher. This means it is extremely important to stay up to date with technology so that our students do not pass us. We need to stay current on our laws as well, because we need to teach things such as the copyright laws to our students.

I hope to be able to implement lots of technology into my classrooms, as well as continue to learn more about it!