Teen Tech Week Wiki

I just checked out the Yals Wiki on teen technology week and it it very interesting. After doing presentation on wikis, I realized what an advantage they can be for spreading information.

This wiki is focused on informing people on the web of Teen Tech Week, which I didn’t even know existed. Teen Tech Week is aimed to “encourage teens to use libraries virtually or in person for their computers, DVDs, audiobooks, databases and other electronic resources” (Wiki). Teen Tech Week also aims to have teens learn to appreciate librarians and all that they contribute to the media world. Furthermore, there is a link on this wiki to the official Teen Tech Week website. This wiki also gives contest details and prizes.

This is extremely interesting, and it shows just how much technology is becoming a art in the lives of teens. There is a whole week dedicated to informing teenagers about technology. This is just showing that Friedman’s flat world is more common and important that we may think.

Here is the website for the wiki http://teentechweek.wikispaces.com/

Here is the website for Teen Week http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teentechweek/contests/contests.htm

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are an interesting way to keep weblogs organized. Here are three ways teachers can use the RSS feed in their classrooms.

1. Weblogs and RSS feeds
If your classroom alread has weblogs, it may be a lot of work as a teacher to check out each students work. However, Richardson states, "Instead of checking out all 25 student Weblogs every day, you could just collect their work in your aggregator using their RSS feeds"(81). This is similar to what we se up through bloglines. Now it is more convenient to check the new content on our peers' blogs.

2. RSS News Feed
As teachers, we may want our students to find news weblogs to use as a referance or to use in a paper. Now, Google and Yahoo News allow us to subscribe to news feeds. Both of these sites have made it possible to "track standing searches with RSS feeds"(82). This is a great RSS feed for students to subscribe to. Now they can keep up-to-date with current events while incorporating technology.

3. RSS Feeds for Wbsites
I find this really useful in the classroom. Now you can "create an RSS feed from a search of google sites"(83). This means that if there is new content added to a site or a new site is created ona particular topic, you will get informed in your aggregator. This could help us talk about different topics of research that we may use in our classroom.

Book Talks

I just checked out Nancy Kean's booktalk website, and it made me think of something that my host teacher and I did during student teaching. Every Friday during sixth period study hall, all of the middle school students were required to read for FROG. FROG stand for Friday Reading is Our Goal. the students would have a few weeks to finish their books. This is sort of like the book club that we leanred about in Adolescent literature because the students discussed their books with others.

The main point of this blogis that before we took the students to the library to pick out new books, we would play book talks from the computer, so the students would have direction when they went into the library. The book talks were recorded by another teacher at the middle school, and they were about new young adult literature. The students loved these, and picked a lot of the books mentioned in them.

The Triple Convergence

As, Friedman says, we are in an “era in which technology will literally transform every aspect of business, every aspect of life and every aspect of society” (233). Even though technology has greatly changed our lives, the shift from a 2.0 to a 3.0 flat world will affect society as a whole. Entering globalization 3.0 has made people their own “agents” (202). As a pre service teacher, we must take heed to this 3.0 flat world and prepare our students to function in it. Friedman attributes the 3.0 flat world to something he calls the triple convergence. He defines the triple convergence as “all ten flatteners […] started to converge and work together in ways that created a new, flatter, global playing field”(203). Due to this triple convergence, are students will not only have to compete with members of American society, but people from all over the world. By moving from a vertical to a horizontal “means of creating values,” the playing field flattened out and allowed more competition and collaboration (214).

As teachers, we must prepare students to work and function in this world. Now when students compete for jobs, employers “could look at all its employees […] as a vast pool of individual specialists”(210). The most significant aspect of the 3.0 flat world is that students in America may not be leaders of technology. Students must learn to combine and collaborate with technology to survive the triple convergence.

"What a College Education Buys"

After reading the article “What a College Education Buys” by Christopher Caldwell, I saw a correlation between this article and Friedman’s third convergence.

For Americans, college is “more important that peace in the Middle East” (Caldwell 1). However, in Caldwell’s article, he is saying that Americans try to force the youth to go to college for the wrong reasons. This article illustrates that that American college education is used as a “marriage broker” and “leisure time”(Caldwell 1). According to Caldwell, “a college degree is partly a ‘signaling’ device—it shows not that its holder has learned something but rather that he is the kind of person who could learn something”(Caldwell 2). However, Caldwell thinks that a college education could be “overstated”(Caldwell 2). For example, “the employees who built […] Google in it early stages could never have been trained to do so, because neither the company not the idea existed” (Caldwell 2). Many people view an American college degree as just a “formation.” It does not qualify the student to do anything in particular.

I think that Friedman would agree that Americans are not choosing academic degrees that will benefit them in the 3.0 flat world. For example, during Friedman’s discussion of the third convergence, he describes Indian education. In India, “Most […] students are studying business, math, or computer science”(214). Even though India has a long way to go to become as advanced as the United States, the people there are “hungry” to compete in the 3.0 flat world. I think that Friedman would agree that sometimes education cannot prepare you for something that doesn’t yet exist, like Google, but wee must take 3.0 into consideration. When students go to college, they should become well rounded, but they should also choose a degree program that will make them marketable for the 3.0 flat world.

ELA NCTE Standards

The ELA/NCTE standards are very similiar to the PLS standards. After reading through the standards, I relaized that incorporating media into the English curriculum will help teachers meet these standards. For instance, the first standard,

"Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works" could be accomplished by using media literacy."

I can't think of a better way to get students incolced with society. Media allows students to critically analyze what is goin on around them. It also allows students to play around with different types of texts like videos, billboards, articles, and computer texts.

Another standard that I thought correlated well with medial literacy is standard three.

"Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics)."

Students must learn to analyze and understand texts. Students are familiar with media, so this would be an excellent way for them to interpret texts and what is goin on in the world.

When I was student teaching, I observed a media class. It was offered by the Enlgish department, and it was a senior elective. In this class, students learned about the history of media and they analyzed different types of texts like billboards and advertisements. This just shows that media is being adopted by many districts as a way to interpret and critically analyze texts.

Hobbs and PLS

Renee Hobbs is "one of the nation’s leading authorities on media education." Hobbs is currently investigating how Latinos view and analyze Tobacco advertisements. She is also conduction a study on "the impact of media literacy education on students' academic performance, family communication and civic engagement" at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland. Both of these investigations focus on media and its impact on individuals. By conducting this research, Hobbs can revolutionize the education system in America.

I think that Hobbs research is extremely important in the world of education. I am a firm believer that students need to critically analyze their surroundings. I cannot think of a better way than analyzing media. Media is everywhere. According to the PLS, "Being media literate also entails using media wisely and effectively, including being able to judge the credibility of information from different sources." We are constantly listening to advertisments on the radio and seeing them on the computer, television, or billboards. Media is becoming a major part of our society and we need to learn how to filter the information. Even news broadcasts whould be looked at critically. The goal of educators is to make students aware of what is out there and help them filter the information. As an English teacher, I feel that it's important for students to analyze literature, but it is much more important that students can analyze the environment in which they live. Furthermore, "Media literacy is essential for the development of informed, reflective and active citizens in a democratic society." This es exactly what we want our students to be. Hobbs investigation will show us how to create the classrooms where media exists and how to effectively use media.

Six Principles and Hobbs

After reading the first fifty-nine pages of Hobbs's book and the six principles of media literacy, I realized how important and what an advantage media literacy can be in the classroom. According tot he six principles of media literacy, media literacy promotes "critical thinking, analytical skills, and the ability to express oneself in different ways." Students are accustom to using media, which will make it easier fot them to develop the skills mentioned above.

In Hobbs's research project she illustrates how media literacy helps "educators to incorporate a wide range of texts including films, television, advertising, the Internet, music, and popular culture"(Hobbs 7). Furthermore, similar to the six principles of media literacy, Hobbs is expanding on traditional education by using media. This clearly shows that that Hobbs is using traditional teaching methods but putting a new spin on them. This not only will help students gain a deeper understanding of the material presented in class. As educators our goal is to help students develop analysis and critical thinking skills, and this is exactly what Hobbs is trying to accomplish. Hobbs research project directly connects to the six principles. Even the way the units are set up help address the goals of the six principles. For example, the unit on propaganda and advertising. This activity allows students to use media and the English language to analyze and identify propaganda. Students must develop an understanding of media to do this, but this activity will have a lasting effect on their impression of media.

All The Worlds A Stage

Today I found an article in The New York Times that illustrates just how economically rewarding composing on the internet can be. The article, "All the Worlds a Stage (That Includes the Internet)" by Scott Kirsner shows how people can make money by creating videos on a specific site. The site, Metacafe, allows useres to post short videos, and the composer is paid based on the amount of viewers he or she attracts.

This is a new trend on the internet that is attracting many people. Most of these sites cannot attract experienced movie producers, but it is a jumping off point for amatures that would like to compose material and produce it on the internet. This article also lists other sites that allow people to produce video content. The sites include "Revver, Metacafe and Manhattan-based Blip.tv, generate money from advertising; others, like Brightcove, DivX Stage6 and Cruxy"(Kirsner). Some of these have a transaction fee, but the creators can set a fixed price for their viewers to pay.

This article interested me because I think that this could be an activity we could incorporate into the classroom. If we teach students how to create videos and post them on the internet, they could potentially make money for them! This is an example of authentic learning while incorporating technology.

Here is the link to the article. Check it out! http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/technology/15video.html

ESchool News

After reading the report from eschool news, I saw several links between what we are studying in ENG 307 and the six emerging trends the article discusses. First, I saw a parallel between the user created content and the idea that students will all be teachers. We need to realize that students will need to kno how to create content in order to compete in the world market. I think that this article confirms the importance of promoting blogs, wikis, and other forms of user created content, so students can have an opportunity to experiment with it. Secondly, the article talks about social networking. I think that we need to promote this in our classrooms. We should have students exchange screennames so they can discuss material.

After reading this article I beagn to think about a discussion that we had several times in class about students who do not have access to technology. I think that this article shows that they will need to learn it to compete for jobs. Therefore, as educators we must promote these six things so students can become prepared.

NCTE Position Statement

The NCTE Position Statement on Composing with Non Print Media illustrates that a great technological change is occuring. NCTE is urging educators to:

• "encourage preservice, inservice, and staff development programs that will focus on new literacies, multimedia composition, and a broadened concept of literacy;"
  
• "encourage research and develop models of district, school, and classroom policies that would promote multimedia composition;"
  
• "encourage integrating multimedia composition in English language arts curriculum and teacher education, and in refining related standards at local, state, and national levels;"
  
• "renew the commitment expressed in the 1983 Resolution on Computers in English and Language Arts to achieve equity of access to the full range of composing technologies."

Because students are currently using ipods, mp3 players, video, and other forms of technical composition, educators must integrate these methods into insstruction. Students will be able to use reading and writing through these devices. Educators must set the example of life-long learning. If educators show students that they are taking the iniative to learn about new technology, students will see that learning is a life-long process.

Online Politics

I recently came across an article in the New York Times, "Here’s the Online Line on Online Politics" by Robert Levine, that describes a new site that focuses on online politics. This site wich is located at http://techpresident.com/ is like a group blog for politics. Levine states, Unlike most politics sites, techpresident.com will be the online equivalent of a trade magazine, aimed at political professionals who need to keep up with the Internet and technology executives involved in creating the tools they use." This quotation illustrates that even individuals involved in politics feel it is necessary to communicate through the internet.

On this site, the users can

• View images and videos of the campaign
• generate content on the blogs
• promotes social networking

I thought that this was interesting because educators could use this site in their class. For instance, students must take a class title Participation in Government. What would be a better way to get students involved with politics than having them post on this site and communicate with candidates. This will allow students to voice their opinions, enhance writing skills, and communicate with others.

In Friedman's book, he discussed that the politics profession is using technology to enhance campaigns. This just supports the fact that the world is moving toward technological communication.

Video

After watching the video, I thought about last weeks discussion of a paper less classroom where students will complete all of their written assignments on computers. At the beginning of the video when the individual who is writing keeps erasing the words he writes with the pencil, I thought of how convenient it would be to write on a computer. Not only is it more legible and flexible; students can enhance their writing and content. For instance, if a student is writing a research paper, they can actually link the source they are using in the paper. This would be so helpful for students and teachers. We could actually see the sources and learn more about the topic.

Another interesting aspect of this video is how the Internet connects people. We can directly communicate with people from around the world. I think that students need to learn to have an opinion on something and take a stand for it. What would be a better way than responding to blogs or websites? Students could even create websites. This helps students become producers and helps them become involved in world issues that affect their lives.

Unlearning Curve

After reading Will's blog, I realized just how much the education field must be changed.

The first thing that needs to be unlearned that I found interesting is "We need to unlearn the premise that we know more than our kids, because in many cases, they can now be our teachers as well." This connects with Warlick's statement " This is a realization that we should impart to our students because they will all become teachers, and for that they will need powerful communication skills"(Warlick 64). These quotations illustrate that everyone can be a teacher and a student. Many children and teenagers know more about technology and communication than teachers. As educators, we must provide students with the opportunity to experiment with technology, so they can teach others.

Another thing that educators should unlearn is " that we are the sole content experts in the classroom, because we can now connect our kids to people who know far more than we do about the material we’re teaching." In Warlick's book, he suggests that students to play around with computers because it is [their] only advantage over [educators]"(Warlick 62). Teacher must learn to use students as a resource. We can do that by letting students suggest technologically oriented assignments that are authentic to them. As teachers we must realize that students can be a great source when it comes to technology. It also takes pressure off teachers and allows students to have ownership in the classroom.

The third unlearning strategy that I agreed with is "We need to unlearn the idea that every student needs to learn the same content when really what they need is how to self direct their own learning." This quotation goes back to Warlick's question "What should students be learning?" If we want students to love learning and education, we must make the learning experience authentic. When we allow our students to communicate with others and use the technology that will have meaning in their lives, we are helping them be more marketable to the global community. Every student may not love English, but if we can incorporate a blog or other form of technology that engages them, we can use that as a medium to produce life-long learners.

Podcast

After viewing the podcast of the FETC conference, I realized how important technology is becoming. One thing from the presentation that I found extremely interesting was how technology is changing the world outside of education. Richardosn and Mancabelli talk about how technology is affecting journalism, politics, and business.

In the journalism field, blogging is becoming important. A newspaper in Houston is using a blog to have a conversation model of journalism. This fact alone shows how important blogging can be. Now students who enjoy blogging can become journalists. Furthermore, Richardson and Mancabelli discuss citizen journalism. People, who are not trained photographers or videopgrapher, are using camera phones or video cameras to capture important moments and publish them. They can put them on youtube and broadcat them across the Internet. Journalist now are asking the question how can we incorporate technology?

Blogs are also becomig very popular in politics. In the presentation Moncabelli and Richardson both describe how John Edwards and Hillary Clinton have blogs. Citezens can communicate with these indiviuals and offer suggestions. By having political blogs, canidates can actually see what the citizens awnat and need. Furthermore, canidates will aslo see the public as real people because now what they san can be recorded and broadcasted over the Internet.

Lastly, the business industry has integrated technology to enhance business. In order to be effective in the business world, people now have to look at business as a conversation. The owner of GM even integrated a blog into his business.

Now the question that emerges from all of these examples is why aren't schools integrating technology into the classroom. After hearing about these examples of how technology is changing the world, we should be thinking about Warlicks question, but I think that the answer is apparent. Technology and integrating it into as much instruction as possible is necessary and is what should be taught.

After viewing this podcast I really witnessed the benefits of integrating technology into the classroom. Honestly though, we shouldn't be integrating it; we should be focusing our instruction around it. I thought that the part of the podcast where Mancabelli and Richardson talk about reflection is interesting. HNot only does reflection allow students to thoroughly understand the lesson, but it lets students who have a hard time articulating their thoughts a chance to speak out our blog. By having a blog, students can reflect about world issues, books, class discussions, and have teahcers see their intelligence and involvement in the class.

Another interesting part of the podcast was how technology and media can help with differentiated instruction. For those of you who haven't done student teaching, differentiated instruction is hard. Anything that could help teacher find ways to help students learn is worth trying. Richardson and Mancabelli illustrate how videos can tap into a channel that helps students learn. And while we teach students to work on media we can teach them writing in context of the video. I think that this is a great idea!

This podcast really helped me see the advantages that technology can offer students. Technology is a part of our society. It isn't going anywhere, so as educators we must embrace it and help our students understand it.

Quiz: Flattener 4

The fourth flattener in Friedman's The World is Flat has a strong connection with Warlick's question what should our students be learning? After reading the chapter on uploading one major thing stuck out in my mind. Students should be learning technology because technology will the path to success in the future.

The prime example that Friedman gives in this chapter that illustrates that students should be learning technology is the story about Apache. Friedman starts this chapter on the fourth flattenter by saying that he doesnt know what Apache is. When he researches it, he gives the story of the man who created it. When Friedman speaks to Behlendorf, a creator of Apache, he asked him how he got into technology, Behlendorf said, "from a very early age, I was around a lot of science where it was okay to be kind of geeky. We always had computers around the house"(97). Behlendorf even goes on to say that he knew basic programming in grade school. This shows that bhe was introduced to technology at an early age, and it benefited him in the long run. After he graduated from High School, Behlendorf went to college at Berkley to study Physics. However, "he quickly became frustrated with the disconnect between the abstractions he was learning in the classroom and the excitement that was starting to emerge on the Internet"(98). This is a prime example of what students should be learning. The Internet which was just beginning to become popular was excluded from Behlendorf's education at Berkley, a very prestigious school. Even though Behlendor was not exposed to technology in Physics he used his computer experience as a child and worked with others in computer labs and eventually created Apache.

Now many people may think that technology is unnecessary in classrooms, but the technology that we think isn't important right now will be important in the future. It's essential in our society to teach what kids should learn and that is to incorporate technology into the curriculum. Friedman discusses how uploading is becoming extrmely important and common in the computer world. Students must now learn to compose and add to the technological community. Like he said, geeks from around the world are creating wikis that will replace things like encarta. Our students must learn how to incorporate technology into their work. We must prepare students to survive in the community of the future and that is based on technology.

Quiz 2: Warlick Site

Ok I’m not going to lie I really like the site yahooligans. The address is www.yahooligans.com. This is a really fun and informative site! This could really be a great site to integrate into the classroom. During class discussions and in other articles we’ve read and discussed, we have talked about using technology as a tool to reach out to kids. We have to learn to combine the things that they are interested in to make learning fun. This site can definitely do this!

When you first get on this site, you can watch movies, listen to music, and send ecards. Now these are fun things that can teach kids to use the internet. Another more informative part of this site is the news section. If you click on “news” on the bottom of the page, it will take you to another page that allows you to choose from different types of news topics. You can choose from animals, science, sports, entertainment, and top stories. By having this component to the website, kids can use the internet to stay linked to current events. Isn’t this something that educators try to get students to do? If reading the newspaper is boring, kids can do it online.

Another “educational” component to this site is the “ask Earl” section. You can ask Earl a question, or you can search the questions that were already asked to find out information. In addition, there is a reference section where you can either use an Encyclopedia or a Dictionary to look up answers!

This site combines work and play into one very fun site! Check it out!

Quiz 2: Warlick Site Alltheweb

After reading chapter two in Warlick’s book, I decided to research the multimedia search engine http://multimedia.alltheweb.com/ I ofund this site extremely useful. It works like google in the sense that you can research topics and find images, but you can also search the news, audio clips, and video clips. I read the section “about us” on the site, and it gave me more information about this multimedia search engine.

Alltheweb.com “combines one of the largest and freshest indices with the most powerful search features that allow anyone to find anything faster than with any other search engine.” Alltheweb is powered by yahoo, and it provides users with millions of PDF and Microsoft word files. This site also allows you to specialize your search, and it can be done in 36 different languages.
The most interesting part of Alltheweb is the news search. By using this option, you can get up to date news reports. This could be extremely helpful for students.

After researching this site, I though about Steven Johnson’s article “Don’t Fear the Digital.” In this other article, (look at my other post for more detail) he talks about how many adults don’t see the benefits of the digital world. But after looking at the alltheweb site, I see just how wrong adults are. This site offers advanced and up-to-date services that allow people to stay in contacts with what is going on in the world.

Don't Fear the Digital

I completely agree with Steven Johnson's article "Don't Fear the Digital." Our world is rapidly changing to a society that is dependent on the internet and computers. However a lot of poeple find this chagne to be disaterous. In this article, Johnsol illustrates that kids who use the internet and computer are "mastering interfaces, searchign for information,maintaining, virtual social networks, and multitasking." These are activities that will better prepare students for the "real world." The real world is no longer masteing algebra (which in my opinion it never should have been) its being able to function in a technological society. In this digital society, students, on their own, are learnign to communicate virtually, research topics, write about their opinions, and set up web pages. How could this be a bad thing?

ANother part of the article that I found intersting was the idea that soem people think the computer is weakening the social skills of kids. I think that is absolutely ridiculous. I agree with Stevens that sutdents aren't "using technology to replace their real-world social life; they're using technology to augment it." We can try to ignore the social aspects that technology brings, but those who do will not be able to funtion in the outside world. Kids must be allowed and encouraged to use the internet to communicate.

Girl Power

After reading the article “Literacy & Identity Girl Power in a Digital World: Considering the complexity of Gender, Literacy and Technology, I agree that teachers are more aware of boys in the classroom. Williams states, “girls received less attention in the classroom than boys and les encouragement for their efforts.” After student teaching I realized just how true this is. Boys are far more apt to speak out and express their opinion. Whereas girls seem to be more reserved and let the boys run the show. Suring student teaching I created a rule that both boys and girls had to speak. I thought that this was fair because girls need to speak out. And if I made this rule, I thought that girls would become more comfortable speaking in class.

Another part of this article that I found interesting is when Williams states, “the gender identity expectations of the larger culture often manifests itself in literacy classrooms over issues of narrative violence and resistance to reading and writing that focuses on emotion and fiction over plot and action.” When I was student teaching, I had a discussion about the way Jack kills the pig in Lord of the Flies. During the discussion, the boys were eager to talk and the girls were very quiet with disgusted looks on their faces. Granted, the way he kills the pig is disgusting, but it was a necessary discussion to have. I responded to the girls by asking them why they looked so sick, and one girl responded by saying that girls just aren’t as violent as guys. While I was student teaching about three major fights broke out in the school and all three fights involved girls. So I brought this up to the class. Even thought girls shy away from violence, I find that it’s the girls in school who seem to be more violent than boys.

NCTE but not the English One...

Today I was looking up NCTE, National Council of Teachers of English, when I came across another NCTE. This NCTE is The National Centre for Technology in Education. So looked at this website to see what its about. This site is from Dublin City Unversity in Ireland, but the campus is interested in integrating technology into the classroom. According to this site, the objective of educators is to promote ICT (information and communications technology). This was set up so teachers and leanres could become more familiar with current technology anf integrate it into their classrooms. Take a look at the website http://www.ncte.ie/AbouttheNCTE/ICTPolicy/. This just shows that countries all over the world are seeing the benfits of technology in the classroome

Student Teaching and Tech

After last night's discussion in class, I began to think about the role of technology in the clasrroms in which I did student teaching. I was placed at two very different types of schools. During my placements, I realized how technologically savvy students are. Almost every student had a cell phone, which they tried to use in class frequently. The big thing at my high school placement was text messaging. Not every classroom in this school had computers. There was a lab in the library, but it was hard to schedule. But the one thing that stood out to me during student teaching is the students' lack of interest in writing. I think that students need to feel comfortable with writing, and blogs a a great tool to achieve that.

The unit I taught at the high school was on Lord of the Flies. I think that Lord of the Flies is a wonderful book, but many students did not want to read it. I tried to think of ways to get them interested in it and I realized that gang violence would be a good way. Ok I know what you are thinking you can't talk about violence in school, but it really worked. We looked up cases of peer pressure and group/gang violence on the internet. Then, we discussed bum fights and the actual murder of a homeless man. The students read articles that they found online and connected it to Simon's death in Lord of the Flies.
Even though they didn't make imovies or blog about it, which I wish they could have, they were able to use the information on the internet and a present day form of group violence to connect to the text.

Now that I look back on it, I think a blog would have been wonderful for Lord of the Flies. I taught at an inner city district, and I think that they would have been able to write about their connections to the text more freely. Students are comfortable with using the internet. I would say that they prefer it over pen and paper, so wny way that you can bring it into the classroom gives them a more authentic view of the concepts and the literature being taught in class.