Week 8: Summary of Peers' Articles

Adolescents’ Web-Based Literacies, Identity Construction, and Skill Development

This article presents interesting primary research on the creation of online identities by five high school students.  As most adolescents have historically struggled to create their identities in the ‘real’ world, many of today’s connected teenagers are compelled to create online personas that share their interests, lifestyles, and personalities.  The five case studies in this article show how the process of creating and maintaining online identities and utilizing the internet for communication, learning, and research can vary as widely as individual interests.  It was not surprising that the online identities support their offline activities and interests.  While the research does not concretely identify implications for academic achievement in literacy skills, it does open the door for further supportive research.

TECHnology and Literacy for Adolescents With Disabilities

As technology becomes available and accessible to assist educators and students in reaching learning goals and achieving academically, a process is needed to formalize how and which tools are used.  This article presents such a structured process called TECH which helps select the appropriate technology to meet students’ needs.  To start, educators should target students’ needs before evaluating available technology options.  This is followed by the critical step of incorporating the selected technology into instructional practices before implementing it and assessing student performance.  The article shares how the real world application of TECH has helped students improve writing skills and overcome comprehension challenges utilizing existing Web 2.0 tools and educational websites.

The iPad Effect: Leveraging Engagement, Collaboration, and Perseverance

This is an interesting and relevant article given the relative explosion in the adoption of iPads and similar tablet devices in some schools.  While the examples are still a small minority of all schools, there are some classes, schools and even entire districts where students are utilizing these technology tools in classrooms and/or at home.  This article opens the debate of the effectiveness of these devices on academic achievement.  While there hasn’t been enough time to measure any gains on achievement, this article points how teachers are using this technology to encourage students’ creativity and that a more effective implementation limits the ratio of tablet device to students to 1:2.  More research is needed to determine if students are more persistent and collaborative in the learning and classroom behavior with the use of this technology.