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

What are literacy skills? Literacy skills help students gain knowledge through reading as well as using media and technology. These skills also help students create knowledge through writing as well as developing media and technology.

Technology Literacy We are living through a technological revolution, with huge changes taking place over brief spans of time. A decade ago, Facebook didn't exist, but now many people could not live without it. The average cellphone is now more powerful than computers from several years ago. We are surrounded by technology, and most of it performs multiple functions. In Growing Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World, Don Tapscott outlines the following eight expectations that students have of technology. Freedom to express their views, personalities, and identities Ability to customize and personalize technology to their own tastes Ability to dig deeper, finding whatever information they want Honesty in interactions with others and with organizations Fun to be part of learning, work, and socialization as well as entertainment Connecting to others and collaborating in everything Speed and responsiveness in communication and searching for answers Innovation and change, not settling for familiar technologies but seeking and using what is new and better

The Ten Fundamental Reasons for technology in education

It is amazing how technology has changed the whole world giving rise to new forms of education we never thought of. Our students are more digitally focused than any time before. They spend more time interacting with their mobile devices than they do with their parents or close relatives. Admittedly, this digital boom has both  positive and negative impact on our students. Lack of concentration, short attention span, distraction, visual  stimulus overload, identity theft, lack of real world socializing, privacy issues, depression, and many more are but a direct result of the growing exposure to this technology. Studies have even proved that multitasking, which some educational technology experts brag about in relation to the use of today's technology, reduces the power of our concentration to the half.  We should not, However, only look at the empty side of the cup, the other side is way bigger.

Thanks to the rise of in-classroom technology, the focus in education tends to be on student engagement and how to improve learning. It becomes easy to forget the importance of great teachers. Startups, entrepreneurs, businesses (and the rest) need to remember that technology doesn’t have to put teachers in jeopardy; it can help them lead the education evolution, even if their traditional role in the classroom becomes obsolete.