Essential Conditions for Technology Integration

I think that the article has encompassed the Essential Conditions for Technology Integration. The teacher has her students using the internet or other modes of technology almost everyday and not just does she have them use them in the classroom but she also has provided ways for them to be used outside the classroom while they are at home. One of the Essential Conditions is that students have student centered teaching. If the student has the lecture or notes or questions for an exam on a CD or mp3 player the student can take this anywhere they go. One thing that I can think of is when a student either is going on vacation or maybe has to spend time between split parents sometime class is missed or if the student is an athlete. If the teacher pre-records the lecture or notes or questions than the student can take this with them on the road and not fall behind in the class and when they return they will still be at the same place that their fellow classmates are at. The one part that really struck me from the article is were the author discusses how she used blogging to create a virtual book club. I was always an avid reader while growing up and still am, I've always wanted to join a book club but the time just was never right. Getting to the place or making time in my schedule just seemed in possible but the idea of a virtual book club is amazing. I really like the fact that the students were able to discuss the books with other people such as the author or history teachers and professors. It gave them another perspective. Also they could use this as a time spent with a family member. The daughter who posted questions with her dad made a mark with me because now a days families don't get to spend time together too much because parents are working and students have school and hours of homework but this gives the parents a chance to be involved in the students work and spend time with their child. I think this article really does capture many aspects of the Essential Conditions for Technology Integration. To me it seems as if this teacher spent a lot of time thinking about how to use her resources to the best of her abilities and how to allow students to use them and have fun while gaining more knowledge and being challenged to grow in their education.

Web 2.0 tools

I found that the web 2.0 tools were very intersting to use for educational and teaching purposes. I especially liked the Gliffy map. I think that students would find this useful in making diagrams for comparing and contrasting different concepts and ideas in the classroom. I found that it was fairly easy to use and that most students who are Digital Natives would be able to catch on to it quite easily. As a future teacher and being taught in the age where technology is surrounding me and most of my education is based on technology I find that tools such as the Gliffy map are just mre expanded ways of doing previous tasks that were done on paper. I remember doing Ven Diagrams and other compare and contrast tables on paper and I always thought to myself why can we do these in a more interesting way. And now we have the gliffy map that can be used for this and many other projects and areas in the classroom.
Having had experience with wikis in my past classes I didn't really enjoy having to use or make them. Yes they can be very helpful for teachers in sharing Ideas and concepts and organzing thoughts but I guess because of my past experiences with them I am just not to partial to them. I do, like I said before, Believe that they are a great way to share information with other teachers and for some teachers can be very useful when looking for help or guidance with teaching.
Web 2.0 tools are changing the way teachers learn, train, and educate their students. They provide more interesting, fun, and unique ways for teaching and allows the teachers and the students to be creative. After all I believe that students need to be able to allow their creativity to grow in school and expand as they learn and develop through out their schooling careers.

Learning Styles

After taking the Learning Styles Quiz I didn't really notice anything I did not already know. As an education major I've spent the last three years taking these kinds of quizzes to see my different learning styles. At first I learned something new but now I'm noticing that the results are all coming out the same. Which is nice because at least I know I am consistent. But after looking at these results I was thinking about what types of multimedia are more difficult for me. As a more visual learner than a verbal/auditory I've realized that it is more difficult for me to listen to something than it is to see it in a picture or drawn out. For me if something is in a video or in a picture it is more easily understandable because I can see exactly what the person who came up with the idea or concept wanted. If I am just listening or if it is written out in words I can not always imagine visually what the concept should look like. So for me things that include verbal and auditory types of multimedia are more challenging for me to learn from, or use in a educational type setting. I need things that are visual and that I can grasp the idea mentally from.
One example is that if a professor is going to put a lecture online. For me to have a powerpoint or slides to use with the lecture gives me more of an idea of what the professor is talking about. This way I can follow along and see for myself what his thoughts and what the topic is.

Marc Prensky's Article

After reading Marc Prensky's article I had a few mixed emotions. I really enjoyed reading what Marc was saying about the Digital Natives and the Digital Immigrants and I completely agree how there are some professors that I have been in contact with you just don't agree with the way students learn or feel that they need to learn the language that we use when referring to different medias. It is hard to go into a classroom sometimes with a teacher who feels that the students need to "dumb down" just to be in the class and understand what the teacher is talking about. Students should never have to dumb down or turn off their minds and thinking just to be able to understand a teacher. There needs to be a middle ground that students and teachers can meet at for this area. Digital Natives know alot more about digital topics and are able to speak in a different language than Digital Immigrants.
One of the things that I did not agree with the whole creating a game to allow the students to feel as if they are in the time period of history. One example that Marc Prensky gave was the Holocaust and allowing the students to feel the true horror of what happened. I think that there are better ways to allow students to understand and remember the information from that part of history. Why should such a horrible part of history be simulated for students to understand. Such as a digital field trip to a museum. Some museums have exhibits and things online that you can go through virtually. This was one thing that I did not agree with. I do like the idea of allowing students to use video games and such to learn about topics. There are already games and different medias that are available for students to use. In younger age groups, Leap Frog is a big electronic and media based game that students can use for different subject matter.
There is so much that can be done to bridge the gap between the Digital Native and the Digital Immigrant. The only thing is is that Digital Immigrants need to be willing to meet on this ground as well as the Digital Natives be willing to take some time to explain and teach the Digital Immigrants.

Intro to my world

Czesc..... Hey ya'll welcome to my world. Yeah this is basically what I think and yeah its alright. Yeah so umm not sure exactly what I am suppose to write on here for my first blog so lets take a shot at this. Im in college going for Elementary Education and Ive been to Poland and Im taking Russian so yeah thats basically it.