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Since the mid-1990s, the percentage of publicschools connected to the Internet exploded from 35% to 100%.Public instructional classrooms with Internet access grew to 94%,up from 14% a decade earlier, and the ratio of students perInternet-connected instructional computer decreased from 12:1to 3.8:1 (Wells & Lewis, 2006). Outside of schools, more thantwo thirds of people in the United States have Internet connec-tions at home, more than half of which are broadband (Horrigan, Educational Researcher, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 246–259DOI: 10.3102/0013189X09336671© 2009 AERA. http://er.aera.net  Web 2.0 and Classroom Research: What PathShould We Take Now?  Christine Greenhow, Beth Robelia, and Joan E. Hughes Learning, Teaching, andScholarship in a Digital AgeResearch Newsand Comment educational ReseaRcheR  246  by on June 17, 2009http://er.aera.netDownloaded from  (function() { var pageParams = {"origHeight": 1171, "origWidth": 902, "fonts": [4, 9, 8, 0, 7, 12, 6, 5], "pageNum": 2}; pageParams.containerElem = document.getElementById("outer_page_2"); pageParams.contentUrl = "http://html4.scribdassets.com/9qxvunnpogs3ko6/pages/2-470280afa2.jsonp"; pageParams.blur = false var page = docManager.addPage(pageParams); })();   May 2009 247 2008), and by 2014, it is estimated that 90% of all people in theUnited States will be online with dramatically faster, high-speednetworks (Fox, Anderson, & Rainie, 2005).

Web 2.0,” a term coined in 2004, characterizes a transitionfrom the predominantly read-only Web 1.0 into a “read-and-write” Web 2.0 (McManus, 2005, para. 1). Web 2.0 facilitates “participa-tory,” “collaborative,” and “distributed” practices within Web2.0–enabled formal and nonformal spheres of everyday activities(Lankshear & Knobel, 2006, p. 38). Other terms used to charac-terize Web 2.0 include “relationship” technologies (Schrage, 2001,para. 6), “participatory media” (Bull et al., 2008, p. 106), and“social digital technologies” (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008, p. 1). Web 2.0 is both a platform on which innovative technologieshave been built and a space where users are as important as thecontent they upload and share with others

Activity theory provided a framework for data analysis and interpretation related to the patterns of activities that took place while students used each Web 2.0 tool. Web 2.0 was found to enhance all five information literacy standards. These standards related to collaboration, information organization, creativity, discussion, and technology education.[Copyright &y& Elsevier]

One interpretation of Plants vs. Zombies, for instance, reveals an ironic representation of an ideological battle between the good natural spirit of flora and Zombie-like brainwashing that supposedly comes from entertainment and digital media. Pay close attention to the character design of the zombie villains–football zombies, disco zombies, suit & tie zombies, etc. Suddenly, it becomes clear that, intentional or not, there’s an implicit anti-consumer, non-conformist cultural critique underlying the game. Plants are the good guys. Brainwashed mainstream zombies are the bad guys.

Individualized gameplay might be better than television because they’re more interactive.

These days, in fact, most storytelling is interactive. We consume most of our media through internet connected devices. And technology is so adept at providing ‘adaptive feedback’ that it proves to be an exceptionally effective teaching tool. In fact, a recent SRI study shows that game based learning can boost cognitive learning for students sitting on the median by 12%.