Here we are trucking along finding out about our topics.  Today you'll all be getting some summaries of some great articles I found.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ859274.pdf

In this article Bryan Wehrli writes of his and his colleagues opinions about the technology students themselves are bringing into the classroom.  He starts off by saying that when kids have the laptops open, they aren't paying attention to him.  Bryan is hurt when students would rather be checking their email than listening to him.  Bryan says, "the laptop is both a fence and a bridge."  There are two ways to go about technology, embrace it, or condemn it.  Bryan talks about as opposed to getting to know what the students do in their free time, some schools are making it seem as though they are not interested in the culture of the day.

Wehrli continues by bringing in Michael Wesch to say "the fact that many students are now struggling to find meaning and significance in their education."  Wesch is alluding to the idea of wikipedia and google.  Students can find information about anything, anywhere, anytime.  Not all students learn the same material at the same rate.  Though nothing has been set up, the idea is there that teachers can tailor an education for a specific student or group of students.  With the advent of the NetGen student, the way teachers have taught for the last 100 years or so is out of date and needs to be revamped.  With Web 2.0 teachers have more resources at their fingertips and must find a way to use these to bridge the gap to the student.

I like this article because of the way it looks at the tools and the system.  There is a lot of good ideas and information about how teachers can cope with the fast paced world of technology.  Most articles written by older teachers are staunch and old school.  While Wehrli almost has a sound of giving in, he seems to embrace that this is the way it is, and to make the best of it.  I found a link to this article in another that I did not like at all.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ898518.pdf

This is an Excellence in Research Award grant study.  Twenty teachers from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University were challenged to incorporate social networks and other Web 2.0 technologies into their curriculum.  Since most kids were on social networks, it made sense that the university would keep up with students in the technology world.  The faculty were given an eight hour seminar on how to use and implement the new technology.  They then went and changed the curriculum for use in the social world.  They called this TPACK.  This is the culmination of technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge.  A system of questions were asked of students and teachers after the semester.  About half of the instructors said that using social networks and online sites led to increased feedback and communication with class material.  Students could review and respond to each other's papers throughout the semester, and teachers had more control over just how papers and projects were to be set up and done.  About forty percent of the teachers said there was a shift from a "teacher led" to a more active role by the students.  In addition to this, faculty also found that they could give better feedback also learned as a student would in the ways of technology.  Students with technology skills could help out the teachers when needed.

This study gives a direct correlation between the teacher and the path to utilizing technology.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ936543.pdf

In this study at a private college, students were asked many questions about the inclusion of Web 2.0 technology in the classroom.  Swapna Kumar and Katya Vigil seem to have done the study to see what was being implemented in the classroom.  Their conclusion was that though the NetGen is savvy at social networking and online video, there are plenty of other outlets that could be used for education that they know little or nothing about.  Blogs and Wikis and Social Bookmarking were among those that got the least use.  The look at formal and informal use of the web of these future teachers was alarming.  It is yet to be seen whether using the technology in studies will lead to the classroom in the future, but the more people know, the more apt they will be to use it.

This study was interesting because these are the future teachers of America.  I would think that they would be taking complete advantage of all the tools out there, and they barely touched the surface.