"Connected from the Start"- Review

Recently, I just finished the book "Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades," written by Kathy Cassidy. Our ICT class was required to read this text throughout the term and to comment on a community page about our opinions and thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as it demonstrated different technologies and applications that could be utilized throughout the classroom.

Kathy discussed using Skype to connect her classroom to the outside world. She gave an example of how her class used Skype to interact with a school that was 2500 km away from theirs'. Her class was able to develop questions for the other class, discuss climate patterns for graphing purposes, and make connections with other students. I have never thought of using Skype in the classroom, but now I can really see how it is beneficial. It can be used to connect to those who are not there. Children can read to other students over the internet or show their work to a relative who lives far away. Students could connect to other school communities all around the world.

Another favorite concept that Kathy used was using blogs within her class. I'll admit, I was a little hesitant on letting my students use them as the internet can be a dangerous place for small children, but Kathy's book assured me that protective measures can be taken. Such measures include, proofreading of every post by the teacher, not using any last names of students, and not connecting photos to the names of students. I think blogs are a great idea for the use of student reflection and portfolios. Parents can be connected to their child's learning by reading their blogs and seeing what they are doing in school. People often comment on these students' blogs, which really excites the students. It also has been observed, that students will produce higher qualities of work when they know that there will be an audience.

Kathy discusses using applications such as Twitter to share ideas and thoughts with other classes. Her class had lots of experience using videos to make presentations She introduces the idea of using Wikis, Google Docs, Wordle, and other simple applications for her classroom.

Wow! What a great book! I suggest that all teachers should read this book and start integrating technology into their classrooms.

Bye, for now.

Jordan