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The article, Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, is arguing the point that the types of literacies are expanding every day, and people need to be kept up on them. The authors, Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan, state that to be a fully functioning member of society, you must acquire and understand a new literacy; a digital one. They also state, "Today, we still seek better communication methods, only now we have myriad more choices, along with new tools and strategies and greater knowledge of effective communication". Technologies will not just be used to communicate though anymore, it is being to "create, to manipulate, to design, to self-actualize". In the New Literacy and Education paragraphs, it is stated that classrooms today are less advanced for the students who are being put in them. Almost all of these students are digitally literate, but teachers are presenting ideas in the ways they always have. Maybe, it is not just the classrooms that need remodeling, but the teachers need to attend workshops and become more accustomed to dealing with these new types of literacies. Schools who are looking to hire teachers need to look at what background the interviewees have, or require a pre-requisite for computer literacy. The authors also state that today, students are "digitally savvy". They don't believe that teachers should be re-typing overheads into PowerPoint's. There are so many different technological ways to teach things to students. It just isn't the same anymore to just use a whiteboard and an overhead projector. "As an example, now teachers can do a PowerPoint presentation with streaming video, instant Internet access, and real-time audio-video interaction, and they can do it with relative speed and ease".

Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan in their article "Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century" state the reason the definition of literacy has gradually changed through time, will always be changed, and that the history behind why it has changed leads to the definition itself. They assert that through the technological advancements the thought processes in the humans mind have drastically changed; and in order for literacy to keep up with this rapidly changing "E-generation" Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan express that our minds need to be open to this change. They state that "vision combined with practical, recognizable goals and incentives that encourage people to embrace new digital and visual literacy skills individually and collectively" will allow there to actually be a change universally.

This article discusses how literate once meant a person's ability to read and write. Now that technology is rapidly changing, our society is learning to adjust to it. Now, literacy has a new definition. According to the authors, "Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media (text, sound, images), to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments." Older generations are having a more difficult time adjusting to it than the teenage generation. Learning technology is starting to seem like learning a new language. Although, it's a priority for society to learn to acclimate to these changes in order to learn and communicate effectively.

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 article talks about how children are changing their own literacy experiences in chat rooms, blogs, and emails. It is saying that now a days children sit in these structured classrooms and correct teachers and listen to lectures when their world they are living in is more technologically updated and high speed and better for their learning than these structured classrooms. It is based on how we can now have these things called "constructivist classrooms" which are classrooms with different levels of learning so that every child can learn this new world in all kinds of different ways says the article. It ties in how the internet can changes ways of teaching and can help teachers from everywhere learn more about their own teaching. This article hits all the highlights of how the internet affects us in daily lives and it talks about all the uses of it that can be used.

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.

In You Can't Learn Much from Books You Can't Read by Richard L. Allington, the author discusses the roles of textbooks in the classroom. The textbooks that are used in grades fifth through twelfth don't match the reading levels of the students reading them. Classrooms use one textbook and go off the "one-size-fits-all" approach and now classrooms are using textbooks with a reading level two or more levels more advanced. This approached is shown by the achievements of US fourth graders shown to be the best in the US and then when they hit the misuse of textbooks, the achievements go down. The solutions to change this problem is to have multiple levels of text in the classroom, have student choice, and have individualized instruction. Student choice consists of having an assignment that can be done multiple ways so the student can pick the way they can excel and be interested in. Teaching the students different techniques to solve problems is part of the individualized instruction and seems to work very well.

In the chapter "Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences" from Marina Umaschi Bers book, Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth, the author claims that online games, such as Zora, help our youth engage in community and civics. Zora allows it's players to create their own individual avatar, with physical, mental, and emotional traits that the players choose. Bers argues that Zora is a great way for children to think about their identity and civic life by making choices that will show them how to acquire certain sills and attitudes to become good citizens. Like many other researchers, Bers agrees that it is easiest to learn by doing, and games like Zora are helping to improve the youths social awareness. This chapter describes engagement in society not only by voting and being political, but by forming communities and volunteering.

In "Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences" by Marina Umaschi Bers, Bers discusses a scenario that is being used all across the country. Zora is a three dimensional multiuser environment that students use to think about identity and civic life. Students make avatars and are in charge of everything going on in the city or summer camp. This came to life after identity construction environments (ICEs) were found that creative things to do on the computer make children learn better. The students work mostly with different civic identities like police, Jewish people, etc. along with real life, controversial community related issues which the students try to solve. Many of the tools used in Zora can then beused in real life and the moral values can be used both on the computer and in real life. Zora is different than traditional learning because "Children are put in the role of producers, instead of consumers, of information, knowledge, and habits of mind."

This article starts with talking about how students want to think outside of class. It states that they are scared sometimes of being judged on what they say or how they say it. Chat rooms or Backchannels is what they call them can help these students. In the article it shows some graphs about how the students used these chat rooms that were set up and how often they used them. according to the graphs as school seemed to continue, the students seemed to go in less. This article was great to understand the difference between in a classroom learning, and the way the web can teach the students and they can open up more and feel more safe in it. They don't want to learn between four walls all the time is stated in the article, and i think this is a great way to look at learning. broaden their horizons, because they all ready are and want to know that it is ok.

This entire article was about online chat rooms and how we can incorporate chat channels into schooling for collaboration, explanations, and discussion about topics in class. It talked about many of the good things and the bad things about chatting online and how we should be able to use chatting in school. The word backchannel is used for anything going on in the background while a teacher is lecturing or presenting. This idea of backchannel is talked about throughout the article. It explains what backchannel is, how we need to change schooling to work with it, what problems it creates, what things it works well with, why kids are using it so much, and how it could be used positively for classrooms.

In Social Anxiety and Technology the author Tamira Pierce did a study by examining teens, and the use of the socially interactive technologies. For example social sites, cell phone/ text messaging, and instant messaging. The position that social anxiety plays on how teenagers communicate with others from technology or face to face.

Annotation 1: In Social Anxiety and Technology the author Tamira Pierce did a study by examining teens, and the use of the socially interactive technologies, for example social sites, cell phone/ text messaging and instant messaging. The position that social anxiety plays is how teenagers communicate with others from technology or face to face. The people that participated were 280 high school students, statistics indicate that from those students, 35%-40% said they use cell phones/text messaging and online sites around one and four hours daily . In which females use more cell phones and social networks than males. After these results it comes to a conclusion and affirms a relationship between social anxiety, meaning students seem to be more comfortable to talk through phone, text or use social networks than talking face to face. Females tend to feel more comfortable communicating through phone or computer than males.

The article "Using Instructional Technology in Transformed Learning Environments: An Evaluation of Project CHILD," by Sarah Butzin, claims that students are able to learn more and are more motivated when they are able to use technology and implement the Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development (CHILD) project. Butzin studied the effects of technology by comparing two schools that were both technology-rich. One school implemented project CHILD and the other school implemented a more traditional design. According to the author, the CHILD method involves a cluster of three grades that are broken into smaller groups and remain with the same teachers throughout those three grades (K-2 and 3-5.) The more traditional learning style still involved the use of technology in day to day learning, but every year the students changed teachers and only worked within their grade level. The CHILD implementation makes it so that children can learn at their own pace and switch stations that include bookwork, one on one or small group time with the teacher, working with technology, and hands-on experience. Butzin claims that this style of learning showed positive outcomes for testing scores, classroom motivation, improvement in behavior, and increased parent involvement.

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.

This article describes what the Language Immersion Program is (specifically talks about spanish), how it is beneficial, what the drawbacks are, research studies, and how children are effected by using the program. The author's opinion is clear, so in her whole article she has a slightly persuasive tone and she makes the program look and sound amazing to probably everyone who reads it. There is some good information about the program and some research studies, and the benefits/drawback are very interesting.

Annotation: Benefits of Using Multimedia in Education, and "Kids views on technology in the classroom" On this website, Benefits of Using Multimedia in Education, it states many benefits of using technology within the classroom from the professor's point of view as well as the student's perspective. It states how educators believe that "multimedia tools provide students with opportunities to represent and express their prior knowledge" and "empower students to create and design rather than absorbing representations created by others". These observations are seen through researches that have been made on other websites and are linked right next to each statement of observation and benefit. Furthermore, it shows how multimedia tools benefit students work from "four perspectives: 1) as researchers, they must locate and select the information needed to understand the chosen topic;2) as authors, they must consider their intended audience and decide what amount of information is needed to give their readers an understanding of the topic;3) as designers, they must select the appropriate media to share the concepts selected; and 4) as writers, they must find a way to fit the information to the container including the manner of linking the information for others to retrieve(Smith,1993)".

Student's favorite ways of expressing themselves is through Facebook because social networking sites allow us to create a version of ourselves that to a certain extent adequately represent ourselves. There aren't many things restricting us from twisting things around a little bit. Facebook allows many people to see others through a third person perspective, and allows us to see ourselves in a third person perspective as well. We choose how to display ourselves and if we don't display ourselves properly in the work place or even at college, it can come back to haunt us. Your profile is like a résumé, you can change it so you are popular with your friend's, and appealing to their wants and interests or you can change it to be more appealing to your professional provider.

In Technology a Key Tool in Writing Instruction the author, Maya Prabhu, explains how a report done by the National Writing Project and College Board shows that "teachers play a critical role in driving the use of technology, to teach writing." For this report nine teachers, who were selected for various reasons, were observed by a writer for a day and then interviewed. Results showed that the use of such things like blogs, podcasts, and other software can actually increase students' engagement and improve their writing and thinking skills in all grade levels and in all subjects. These results help fuel the argument that more teaching needs to be done with technology in this new digital age. The NWP and College Board claims that there are ". . . three things [that need to] be done to meet the challenges of teaching and learning in the digital age at all levels of education." A child cannot learn or be impacted by technology if they do not have access, so therefore it is suggested that a child have one-on-one interactions with a computer or some time type of similar technology.

In "The New Writing Pedagogy" the authors, Angela Pascopella and Will Richardson, discuss how technology and the Web are creating a new emphasis on student's writing process. This is creating teachers to no longer fear upcoming technology, but embrace them within the classroom. Due to this teachers are using "Web-based social networking tools like blogs and wikis, YouTube and Facebook as digital spaces, multimedia texts, global audiences and linked conversations among passionate readers." Furthermore, "The New Writing Pedagogy" has many comments and quotes from professors and teachers of all levels that comment on how they are adapting to "this new pedagogy" and how we are the creators of it.

In this article it states some facts that about who bullies, what cyber bullying is and if there is a way to stop it. Attacking someone on the internet is a lot easier to do because it can be from someone anonymous. It states in the article that most of the time the victim is someone that goes to the bully's school. The parents so be involved in the children's lives and ask question. Do not assume they are doing something bad on the internet. "All school children in the UK are taught to "zip it, block it and flag it" -- don't share information, block contacts and tell an adult."

Users share a commonality in the various ways they represent themselves on Facebook. These vary from the way people structure their privacy settings, to the way they represent themselves through their pictures, to what groups they identify with, and how they define themselves through text on their profile pages. It is something which when analyzed can be recognized as constructed in order to portray the desired image of each individual. With a Facebook page you use its different features to create yourself from nothing and in heart design yourself. The freedom that the virtual world provides allows people to construct their identity in any way they wish. With the freedom of constructing identity in multiple ways comes the freedom to socialize in multiple ways. Therefore, Facebook is a space where people may construct and share their identities, rather than being just a platform where one "'keeps in touch."

In Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom by Shelly Cashman discusses how teachers are able to bring benefit students learning by the use of technology within the classroom. This book, analysis's every part of technology and gives the reader many definitions of terms and literacy's that are needed to use technology in the classroom. Cashman "explains the difference between computers, information, and integration literacy", as well as points out why 21st century skills are needed to be incorporated in k-12 curriculum. In the first chapter she points out how teachers themselves can improve their "professional development, productivity tools in the classroom, and integrate technology and digital media in their instrumental strategies, lessons, and student-based projects.