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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.

Digital identity, like that presented on Facebook, thrives because it is temporal. You can change your identity, you can become a liberal or conservative change your interests and hobbies at the push of a button. The point is, you're always presenting the identity you want to present you never have to worry about the identity you used to present. Students disclose lots of real information, but they also disclose lots of false information. The reality is, is that you can always change the fake information. Facebook is no longer just a current method of identity presentation; it is an archive of our digital identity. People love exploring each other, but we don't want to leave traces behind. We don't want people to be able to see if we've viewed the profiles of others. We don't want people to know if we decline their friend requests. Facebook, like it or not, has brought to bear a very real issue in online identity.

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 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 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.

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)".

written by Terry Miller just recently this past August. The first part of the article talks about how well students performed on the test and the huge improvement they are making over the years. The results of the test rose at least eight percent over this last year. California's top executive educator, California State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell, visited Cleveland Elementary School in northwest Pasadena. O'Connell said, "The growth in achievement is evident among every subgroup of students. However, we must continue to pay close attention to the achievement gap that shows students of color and poverty are trailing behind their peers. He is concern for those students of the lower class and those of the African American race. O'Connell is trying to figure out a way to help this proficiency and narrow this academic chasm.

This article looks at other articles and gets into some of the social aspects of video games that are being talked about, as well as the effects of the video game industry on everyone. This article also looks at some writers that talk about why more and more people celebrate gaming because of the displays of powerful combination of entertainment, competition, and technology. While on the other hand the other writers talk about the social and moral aspects that they think are important. However, according to Michael Jindra, the author of this article, she thinks that all of them writers that she used agree that video games are a phenomenon that will have social implications. I personally think that we are bettering video games because we are moving more and more to a social way of gaming.

The chapter "The Computer and Active Learning" from the book The Vitrual Classroom by Starr Hiltz really grasps the use of computers in the classroom. "Whether in CIA or in the Virtual Classroom, the student is forced to actively participate" this is one of the main ideas to this book and especially this chapter. Students who use the computer to learn are actively participating by answering questions after they are on the computer. The chapter also develops the idea that computer education works, but teacher and student communication is important, "it appears to be effective only if there is also significant communication between teacher and student". The article holds computer to a high standard by defining computer use as "an active learning situation", instead of taking a quiz later on what a student learned, they get to take a quiz right after they read it online. They response as they go, making computer use active learning. It also develops the idea of the computer as a social process; "this social process of developing shared understanding through interaction is the "natural" way for people to learn". The author believes that responding to peers work creates a process of learning that is never seen in the classroom. All of the ideas are great examples of why technology in the classroom works, and can be used to our advantage as teachers.

The article presents an analyis of the prevalence of piracy in music trade which has affected global sales of CDs. It points out that technological developments such as file sharing, MP3 players, and CDRs have increased music piracy. Accordingly, most common forms of music piracy are Internet piracy and compact disc (CD) piracy. It discusses the association between music piracy and organized crime, which is defined as profit-driven illegal activities motivated by profit maximization. It explores the vulnerabilities of music trade which include the nature of the product, degree of law enforcement, and pricing. It suggests that it is necessary for music companies to change their business plan through music online marketing in order to minimize the incidence of music piracy.

This article explores the influence of teacher's assumptions and attitudes about boys and their learning practices. The introduction of this article begins explaining "overwhelming evidence that boys are falling behind in our education system"(74). It further explains that this problem is crucial to boys everywhere because boys with low literacy skills are less likely to engage, complete and advance their education. Henderson argues that there are multiple factors that are contributing to boy's low level or underachievement in learning. Teachers, students, parents, siblings and friends play a vital role in shaping children's literacy practices outside of school that are then instilled inside of school. Henderson asks an interesting question, why do the literacy practices at school, home and in the community have to be different? Why can't all of these practices be viewed equally important and valuable? Henderson questions whether boy's bad behavior in school is a result of underachievement or is it the cause of it? Do teacher's play the most important role in shaping children, especially boys, learning identity in school?

Young people are increasingly using social networking sites (SNSs) like MySpace and Facebook to engage with others. The use of SNSs can have both positive and negative effects on the individual; however, few studies identify the types of people who frequent these Internet sites. This study sought to predict young adults' use of SNSs and addictive tendency toward the use of SNSs from their personality characteristics and levels of self-esteem.

In The Future of Thinking, Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg question the typical learning practices that we've grown accustomed to today. Before delving into the chapter I planned on writing about, I read a bit of the books introduction and overview, titled The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age. One particular line that stuck me was "How do laptops change the way we learn? And how should they change the way we teach?"(2). Their main focus here was to discuss how technology, and our sources of information has changed drastically, but that our education system hasn't.

They have even looked at a study called "Mistakes Are a Fact of Life: A National Comparative Study" and have found that the number of errors found in writing has remained the same for around a century. In this study Andrea and Karen Lunsford found that the number of errors was in the range of 2.11 to 2.45. The type of errors has changed though. Spelling errors have lessened and wrong word choice has taken the top spot. One explanation for this could be spell check not catching the wrong usage of nouns. Technical writing and composition professor Cindy Raisor said that the only change that she has seen is that students have stopped caring if they make mistakes.

In Christopher Conte's essay, Networking the Classroom Can Computer Technology Reform Education? Conte discusses the roles of computers and other technologies in education. Conte claims that currently the educational system is outdated and should be updated by incorporating the use of computers as well as other types of technology into the classroom.

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.

In this peer-revised journal, the authors give an evaluation and analysis of integrating more technology into classrooms across America. Not only do they bring in material that deals with success stories of some school districts with computer technology but they also look at more in depth matters like the teachers' uses of these new technologies. They give evidence to show how significant of an impact technology has on education as well as why some teachers are frustrated at the idea of more technology.

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."