Instead of forcing a pattern that attempts to liken technology with technology, this paper tells a number of individual, more complicated stories about how certain technologies entered the classroom and differed drastically in terms of their potential as teaching aids. In doing so, the paper investigates the historical, political and economic…

This case study investigates the commercialized nature of Internet content and the ways educators and students negotiate and talk about such content. In factoring in the economic and historical context of educational Internet content, this case study also addresses educators' evolving attitudes towards commercialism in the classroom. A survey was…

Describes "ZAPME!," a company operating an Internet site geared toward educators, students, and parents offering computer hardware to schools in exchange for student-targeted classroom web advertising. Examines the design and web content of the site, and visits the corporate web site. Finds a calculated attempts to influence pedagogy and the…

This study examined the functions of Instant Messaging (IM) among seven youths who regularly used this digital technology in their daily lives. Grounded in theories of literacy as a social and semiotic practice, this research asked what functions IM served in participants' lives and how their social identities shaped and were shaped by this form…

Reports on research on computer-mediated communication among adolescent females in the United States Midwest, examining the purposes served by a particular kind of Internet communication (Instant Messaging) in the life of one girl and her best friend. Points to the need for new pedagogies that both incorporate and offer critical frames for new…