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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.

I also want to tell you and share with you how my team and I have been using mushrooms over the last three years. Not like that. (Laughter) We're using mushrooms to create an entirely new class of materials, which perform a lot like plastics during their use, but are made from crop waste and are totally compostable at the end of their lives.

The news that TiVo is to stop selling its digital video recorders (DVRs) in "Britain looks like final proof that the device has flopped. Best-known for its ad-skipping ability, TiVo also bred a scary new television culture in which the intelligent set-top box guesses your tastes and records viewing on your behalf." This is from the abstract. I found this journal article interesting.

It talks about the Internet with China and kinda relates to the issue in Egypt right now

New(ish) forms of digital music. CHIP music. Made from 8 bit game devices.

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.

This is a very interesting and informative article. I was interested in how texting can affect a students literacy level and this piece answered all my questions. Research has been done to prove that texting does not negate students' literacy levels. Professors all over the world accept the new form of communication and are willing to use it in the classroom

The article I choose to read is very similar to Gee's Book we have been reading. It begins by talking about a teacher in New York, who is teaching a 6th grade class. But, this is no ordinary class, he is teaching these students through video games. These kids not only have the opportunity to watch video games and plot the characters movements, but they also have the chance to create games themselves. I then goes on to talk about what it would be like if the way we educated kids completely changed.

In the online article "Playing Music can be good for your brain/Stanford study finds it helps the understanding of language", by Sturrock it goes over research done by Stanford. In their study they had two groups of adults, musicians and non-musicians. They found that musical experience helps "the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds that are key to understanding and using language."

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 the article, Digital Literacy: A Conceptual Framework for Survival Skills in the Digital Era, by Yoram Eshet-Alkalai, he states that digital literacy is more than just being able to use software and electronic devices. Using digital technology includes complex skills like cognitive, sociological, motor and emotional skills. These skills cause the learner or even scholar to have a new means of communication in designing better environments. This creates a digital framework enhances the understanding the users perform using different types of digital skills.

From the NYTimes: "Last week we asked readers to submit questions to James Paul Gee, an expert on how video games fit within an overall theory of learning and literacy, in response to The New York Times Magazine article "Learning by Playing." It featured a public middle school where every aspect of learning is designed to be game-like."

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

This article shows us what this new thing "race to the top" is all about. In this article you will read about how much money the government is putting into this program for "incentive" to help schools be reformed and gain better test scores. It is a great article to read to get you started on knowing what is race to the top, but it makes you also question, why are we spending all this money just to make test scores higher? is the problem deeper than this? This is what i will be looking more into and hopefully getting some answer to post of here relating to this topic.

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 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.

This article spoke about how scholars believe that children who are read to by their family members will most likely have better literacy practices. They have greater tendencies to try and read without any formal instruction compared to those who wait for instruction. They believe that the "comfortable atmosphere" of their own hom and the soothing voice of their mother (or in some cases their father, grandma...etc) generates as reading being something calm rather than a task. Children get to learn about all new things and can be explained to in a way that they can understand. Their parents are able to speak to them in a language easyly understood by their children and be able to meet their unique needs. The connection between real life situations and that of a storybook are made which makes it more simple for a child to understand and actually be able to personally relate to.

In Rethinking Education in The Age of Technology - The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America, Allan Collins and Richard Halverson jump straight into questioning whether schools are using new technologies to their advantage.