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A introduction to a textbook that shows the social significance of popular culture and mass media.

In the Chapter "What Should We Teach? Rethinking Literacy" from the book Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, by Henry Jenkins with Ravi Purushotma, Margaret Weigel, Katie Clinton, and Alice J. Robison, it contemplates what to do about new literacies. The book talks about how it is just as important for students to learn old literacies, like reading and writing, than it is to learn new literacies as well, digital media. They describe the new literacy culture as participatory culture.

In Dara N. Byrn's article, The Future of (the) "Race": Identity, Discourse, and the Rise of Computer - mediated Public Spheres, Byrn argues that social networking on - line encourages the act of racism. The use of social networking increases racial and cultural discrimination, even though everyone seems to think that there are no racial or cultural boundaries when communicating with others on line. It is important to realize that social networking sites, such as AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente, can create racial boundaries for the young people who use them.

The evolution of remix culture and copyright.

A article that is about how rules are use to control fan fiction and remix culture

Talks about social norms in fan fiction and remix culture

This talks about how social medias such as Facebook, texting, and other social networking technologies are used to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning. Students collaborate or "meet" to discuss issues in the "adult world"

This article is about how students are using digital medias as apart of their learning. The authors also define what they believe to be social and cultural tools of technology and how they are used.

The article talked about how three specific norms regulate fan fiction and remix works on the net.

How the tecnology have been debelope during the time

Remix culture on how it changes over time.

In the article Myspace, Facebook promote Literacy, Debra Lau Whelan talks about how social networking sites can help you gain more than just friends. Social networking sites offer e-safety, "Staying safe, keeping personal information safe, protecting yourself and your belongings, making sure that we don't participate in bullying or other antisocial behavior, and helping out other people who might be affected by these issues, is a key part of digital citizenship." Responsibility becomes a central role on these sites because their safety is at risk. Kids are able to control childish behaviors or prevent themselves from making rash decisions by using safe tactics on the internet. These sites broaden horizons for the users, letting them talk to people they may not have talked to otherwise, creating a variety and diverse web culture, driving away from cliques on school playgrounds. "Collaboration, discovery, and becoming a team player are all encouraged because these sites promote working, thinking, and acting together." Social networking sites allow users to create groups online to help find other people with the same interest as you. This allows communication on a topic that many people all over the world share a common interest in. Diversity brings new ideas and helps these users see things in a different point of view. These teens are not trapped in just with their classroom but they can't interact with people all over the world. Teens messing around on the computer on social networking sites is not just leisure time wasted, "Being able to quickly adapt to new technologies, services, and environments is already regarded as a highly valuable skill by employers, and can facilitate both formal and informal learning," Computer skills are adapted from using these sites, making it easier for teens to perform computer tasks in the future at work. This article gave me a new outlook on Facebook and social networking sites. I always thought that these sites w

In the book The Trouble With Boys, author Peg Tyre discusses boy's problems at school and what parents and educators must do. By interviewing hundreds of parents, children, experts and teachers, Tyre offers diverse explanations and facts on why the educational system is failing boys. This book is written in 20 informative chapters that provide important facts on ADHD, the necessity of recess, the vanishing male teacher, single-sex schooling and boys and literacy. In Chapter 11: Boys and Literacy, Tyre begins with scary statistics showing that boys have consistently scored less well than girls on tests measuring reading and writing. She also argues that the "male literacy gap" is not a new problem and may be spawning a national crisis. This is becoming a national crisis because "high-level reading and writing skills are essential not only to economic success but to economic survival" (135). Tyre then asks who or what is to blame for "the male reading deficit." Is it biology? Is it culture? The only clear answer is the "small differences get amplified by the careless, and sometimes crushing, messages that boys often get about the importance of reading from their parents, teachers and communities" (142). Boy's conclusions about reading and writing are shaped through schooling and home attitudes towards literacy.

This chapter was about a topic that I have actually thought about which is being able to tell the "good guy" apart from the "bag guy" and what makes them that way. The fact that there are video games in which you can choose to play as the bad or good character in the story changes the way you play it and how you are perceived, Also as you choose which character to play, in the game alone even if you are the bad guy you are still the good character. In the real world people make out the world to seem black and white, your either the good guy or the bad guy. Who determines what is to be considered bad and good and just because a person makes a bad choice does not make them a bad person. The world is filled with millions of examples of cultural models and rule they way people think and perceive different things making a model of what we should all consider to be good and if we do something otherwise then it is the wrong (or bad) thing to do. Video games can teach the player that there is more meaning to to being the bad or good character and that a gray area exists.

In the article Technology In The Classroom, author Jamshed N. Lam stresses the importance of technology used with children. He states in the beginning of his article, "Currently, there are at least twenty-five million illiterate people in this country and this number is increasing rapidly." He begins to give readers more statistics of how populations will increase and how some cultures struggle and will continue to struggle in school with their literacy practice. Lam then talks about how children growing up in poor homes have a difficult time reading. Since they do not have the money to buy materials to start them early, then they start to fall behind before they even start. "In school, they fall behind at an early age and can never catch up and thus the cycle continues (Bennett, 2002)."

In "using the technology of today, in the classroom of today" authors Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, Jennifer Groff, Jason Haas start to give basis to the argument that technologies such as videogames and social networking sites help shape learning. They focus on how they are learning outside of school but in completely different ways than teachers focus on. They argue, "Nearly all institutions- business, industry, medicine, science and government - have harnessed aspects of these technologies for decades. Games and simulations have been a key component of training doctors and military personnel, but even businesses like PricewaterhouseCoopers used a game about a mining company in outer space to teach its employees about derivatives. Although that may seem a bit "off the wall," the fact is major corporations, the Department of Defense, and the medical community would not use these tools if they were not highly effective" to illustrate how corporations use videogames so the educational system shouldn't reject it them as a learning tool. They point out how videogames can serve as a simulation for real life just as mining in outer space can teach about derivatives. Videogames are also a highly interactive learning environment. Instead of being told information, students are right in the middle of the action and the learning. They also discuss how social networking is a new way of collaborating with other about a wide variety of subjects including school work. The authors write, "Of course, educators have long been aware that learning is a social activity, where learners construct their understanding not just through interaction with the material, but also through collaboratively constructing new knowledge with their peers" but teachers reject the use of social networking as means of learning because of the other aspects included safety or privacy. But what teachers can learn from social sites is that "'knowledge cultures' assembled in these o

This article is very rich with information that has to do with how digital games, social networks, and simulations can be involved in classrooms. With the involvement of them is more than just entertainment that children or people actually learn stuff from them.

Article by danah boyd from the journal First Monday. Abstract from the site: ""Are you my friend? Yes or no?" This question, while fundamentally odd, is a key component of social network sites. Participants must select who on the system they deem to be 'Friends.' Their choice is publicly displayed for all to see and becomes the backbone for networked participation. By examining what different participants groups do on social network sites, this paper investigates what Friendship means and how Friendship affects the culture of the sites. I will argue that Friendship helps people write community into being in social network sites."

From the Amazon site: "From Fear to Facebook is an insider's view of the journey from peril to possibility with digital media in school communities. Matt Levinson gives a clear picture of how communities need to work together to create safe, innovative opportunities for kids to learn with digital media. From Fear to Facebook tells the story of the cultural shift happening in schools with technology and provides a road map for how to navigate this sea change with buy-in from all key stakeholders. "

article focused on the multiple forms of medias a student uses for media purposes and for their role on their local school's board. The article did two case studies, and their goal was to understand how we use technology

Article talks about remixes. Very interesting and it is by David J. Gunkel.

Sanjukta Basu is a Ted Follower who has inspired woman to become from the social world and has expressed her life online and be against her Indian Culture.