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In Priscilla Griffith and Mary Olson's article, Phonemic Awareness helps beginning readers break the code, the authors give examples of how phonemics help children learn to read. In the article they quote Cunningham as saying "Phonemic awareness has been defined as the ability to examine language independently of meaning and to manipulate its component sounds." This is important because a child is able to break down a word to find out what it is. The authors also state that when children know how to rhyme or can recognize rhymes they have an easier time reading (516). Another example the authors give is when a child is able to break apart the phonemes of a word to create spelling by assigning the letters to represent the sounds (518). The authors believe phonemic awareness is important because "while phonemic awareness is not needed to speak or understand language, it plays a critical role in learning skills requiring the manipulation of phonemes-specifically word recognition and spelling." (518). This is important because the kids should be learning to read and spell by breaking words apart and not just by memorizing whole words.

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 "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.

The article focuses on the increased popularity in online social networks like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, social media, and user generated content. The author states that these sites have redefined the way the Internet functions because they incorporate the features that allow Internet users to publish opinions, connect, build community, or produce and share content. Video sharing is the fastest-growing platform in history, according to the author. The author also explains how this social revolution is impacting the field of marketing research.

In the article Technology and Media Literacy: What Do Teachers Need to Know?, by Dana L. Grisham, the author poses many questions about how well teachers are able to understand, teach, and learn about media literacy. The author believes, "When considering the proliferation of technology and its instructional applications, teachers need to focus on both hardware and software, but move beyond the simple "how to" focus into the whys, when, and for whom issues of curriculum." She also discusses the need for students to learn the history behind multimedia literacy to learn the importance it poses in society today.

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.

This author makes many arguments like the author does in my second Annotation. For example, he or she describes or teachers should create a separate Facebook profile for their work from their personal life in order to help manage privacy settings. Keeping a separate profile helps teachers keep their personal lives private.

In "The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption" by various authors, the authors discuss that 21 states are reviewing the textbooks usage in schools.

In an article co-authored by Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff, distance learning is viewed as a revolution in education where if you do not adapt, you will become extinct. Universities nationwide must substitute "face-to-face interaction and teacher-centered pedagogy" with "hybrid courses using student-centered pedagogy"(2) Emphasizing the fact that a good percentage of students prefer distance learning, the authors call for new and innovative developments for the online course systems offered today. Hiltz and Turoff end with a very appropriate quote from Charles Darwin about the importance of flexibility and ability to adjust to changing times, ""It's not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

In this chapter, Whispers in the Classsroom, the author Sarita Yardi discusses how we can import kids internet use home into the classroom, through simple procedure's such as chartrooms and exploring the internet. The author uses various studies to show simple tools could enhance student learning as well as motivate them to try to learn. On study in particular was done at a university, where a chat room was created. As the year progresses students began to log onto to the chat room more and at the end of the year there were over "300,000 user entries."

The article, How to Use Social-Networking Technology for Learning, tries to get teachers to understand how to get students to interact with others by being "effective collaborators." It also goes into how to keep students engaged since many students can become easily distracted. By having open discussions about why students are using or abusing their social network, students can hopefully find a better way to portray themselves online.

The author is discussing this new classroom idea that will actually promote Social networking sites helping students create accounts, organize and share interest with others. The author shares a valid point, "Schools should reflect the world we live in today". The evolving world of Internet communication -- blogs, podcasts, tags, file swapping -- offers students radically new ways to research, create, and learn.

In this article, the author is explaining how lying gestures mean something, as well as the way a person's speech is. On the average, the effectiveness of uncovering a lie ranges from 45% to 70%. In most cases the suspicion that someone is lying can improve revealing the truth. I thought it was very interesting how they had an experiment where people went about their everyday lies, and still a few came out with a lie. I just don't understand how we can take something so small and stretch it to something large and grand, and for what? Is it the attention? Or is is the deception we want others to grasp upon? It stated that women are consistently more accurate than men at detecting lying and what the underlying truth really is. I was surprised to find out that women actually do fall for a man's lie more than vise versa. This article gave many small reason as to why people, and what was funny is that I, myself have heard them almost everyday or quite frequently.

Meade, the author, discusses the difference in lying when it comes to the opposite sex. She also discusses how growing we were not able to understand the differences in the types of lies.

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.

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.

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.

After reading David O'Brien and Cassandra Scharber's article "Digital Literacies: Digital Literacies Go to School: Potholes and Possibilities Digital Literacies," one will come away with a better understanding of the definition of "digital literacies" as well as how and why to implement this concept in classrooms. The authors discuss the importance of digital literacy's presence in the classroom and how to make that presence the most beneficial for both the students and the teachers.

In the article "Identity Management: Multiple Presentations of Self in Facebook", by Joan Morris DiMicco and David R. Millen, the authors primarily address the concept of social networking becoming increasingly popular. They wanted to study how people maintain their self-presentation while also maintaining social relationships in heterogeneous networks. Otherwise known as maintaining a professional and social persona in one network.

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.

One question that I wanted to find more information on was what types of digital media can be used in a classroom. I found a online video clip at http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-new-media-classroom-tips that had seven different clips with six different authors who were educators themselves using technology in their classrooms. Each clip talked about some type of way to communicate to students by using technology and they explained their way of teaching in four minutes or less. It seemed like these people were trying to get teachers comfortable with the media world and letting them know that in order to have a good connection with your students you are going to have to get on their level.