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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.

From the authors' abstract: "The purpose of this study was to examine the practices of two teachers who had chosen to use the social network site (SNS) Ning to create online classrooms as supplements to their physical classrooms in order to bridge the self and school-selected literacies of adolescents. The study further aimed to identify whether the ways in which the teachers were using the SNS constituted a new literacy practice and if so in what ways. It supports and adds to the new literacies theory in four ways: 1. by revisiting the notion of what constitutes literacy, 2. by identifying attributes that do and do not constitute new literacies, 3. by supporting the view that new technologies do not automatically correspond to new literacies, and 4. by showing that new technologies may end up devaluing other modes of learning."

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.

Sexting and cyber bullying are the new "in" thing that happens on school campuses whether it be middle school or high school. Our schools cannot keep up with what is going on in our day in age with all the new technology that is going on. In my article it states that teachers and other school administrators are trying to figure out a way to keep children from doing this type of thing in school.

This little article talks about the new art of this time. The new art now and day are done with digital technology that create picture or anything desire.

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 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.

Orff, an architect talks about a new way to help us to have a better, cleaning environment. She explain about a hero that change make a differences to our water sources and the species around us. This new hero that she introduce are OYSTER!!!

Sara Corbett's New York Times article Learning by Playing, focuses on a New York City non-charter public school that uses an educational program called Quest to Learn. The school uses video games to help teach kids and sometimes the kids make video games. Quest to Learn was created by a game designer named Katie Salen with the intention of making schools more appealing and relevant to kids today. Classes often combine multiple subjects into quests, "where the quests blend skills from different subject areas" (Corbett). Teachers do not do as much instruction as they do guidance. The article talks about how most kids who drop out of high school simply found it too boring. Schools today do not permit the use of cell phones and internet use is only allowed to do school related work, which cuts students off from the world. According to Katie Salen, "there's been this assumption that school is the only place that learning is happening, that everything a kid is supposed to know is delivered between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., and it happens in the confines of a building" (Corbett). Kids today do so much more interesting things outside of school.

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.

With starting kids off young have we caused a new problem with laptops in the classroom? Kathy McManus blogged on August 14, 2008 about the banning of laptops from university classrooms. Within her blog she mentioned that "The laptop--the favorite in-class tool for college and university students across the country-is coming unplugged." Have we been abusing our laptops in class? I am not going to lie when I bring my laptop my browser ends up on facebook, or youtube checking out the newest funny stunt that some kids posted. The blog talks about how when used correctly the laptop can be a wonderful resource for a classroom but teachers cant monitor every laptop all the time.

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.

This website is made of a survey done by The National Campaign. This sight has all of the facts. The articles states that this "sexting is the new craze" . These students aren't even high school. I like this website because it gives me facts of the people in this world, I know it is a small survey compared to the entire world but they are good statistics to work with. There is a movie called The Odd Girl Out. This movie portrays how harmful this subject is. This teenage girl starts high school and "makes friends". She soon finds out that these friends are fakes. She chops her hair off, she over doses on sleeping medication all because these "friends" are calling her fat and other degrading words.

For those of you researching Facebook...interesting article

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1613,156178-252192,00.html here is a glazed donuts recipe, use a chocolate glaze and a voodoo cookie cutter, put a crazy design, fill the middle with red jam, and stick a pretzel stick through the heart!!

In this article, distance learning is viewed as a great way to reach adult learners and give students flexibility never before experienced with traditional learning. The main focus though is the obstacles and barriers present in this new method of higher education. Galusha names five areas of concern for student learning, responsibilities of faculty members for facilitating this new method, and possible organizational and course complications. Along with these are explanations of the motivations certain students and teachers have towards taking on distance education, and what institutions can do to provide the most successful online education experience for students.

In the book "Digital Nation: toward an inclusive information society" by Anthony G. Wilhelm, he states that "a new provision of national education policy in the United States states that every eighth-grader must be technology-literate regardless of socioeconomic status or race". Wilhelm argues that the way we look at education as a whole nation needs to change. It might be difficult because we will be both "integrating these new skills into traditional subject areas and, more fundamentally, in transcending disciplines and school walls in pursuit of a more rewarding relationship to knowledge", but the whole world is transforming be more technologically savvy. Wilhelm also talks about the staff for schools and how they too need to adapt to the changing environment. He talks about people who use the internet "engage in self-directed work" because they want to. They go on this website because they want to learn but didn't always get the chance to in school.

This article talks about how young adolescents are constantly trying to find their own identity. They are always trying new roles to find out who they are. In this day and age many people are doing this by the use of technology. It talks about how people shape their image through myspace and other social networks. One girl named Isabella makes her site very elaborate and full of colors while boys of her age usually base their site around sports heros and masculine things. It further goes on to describe how adolescents shape their identities through technology.