In a recent study conducted by MTV, Microsoft and Nickelodeon, it was found that children use digital technology as a tool for communicating with their friends, expressing themselves and to be entertained, but technology in and of itself is not something that they particularly care to learn about. The technology itself isn’t the reason they own cell phones, computers and video games, but it is used as a way to enable them to communicate with their friends, whether online through IM programs, email, and social networking sites or text messaging them through their cell phones.

According to Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President of Research for MTV Networks, “Technology is adopted and adapted in different ways in different parts of the world — and that depends as much on local culture as on the technology itself.”

In Japan, children normally do not own a computer until they enter college, while in China fewer young people use mobile devices. Whereas globally, the average young person that utilizes digital technology has 94 phone numbers in their cell phone, 78 people on their messenger buddy list and about 86 people in their social networking community.

A frequent online activity for over half of the children studied was social networks. 35% of kids are claiming they use these sites because their friends are on them. While there have been amazing advances in communication technology, children use the technology not to the exclusion of spending time with their friends but to enhance the face-to-face interaction.

Students used to have to take classes to learn how to use computers, but that is no longer the case. A wide variety of classes are now using technology programs to help their children succeed in the classrooms. The programs are used for creating posters and instructional guides or used in art class to create self-portraits. There are also library programs and many music programs, to help stimulate the learning process for more than just computer classrooms.

Technology in schools is a way to engage the chidlren in more ways than just having them read information. It is stimulating an environment that will help them remember the information they are learning while providing remote access while students are at home. Schools are moving toward helping their studetns share information online with teachers and other students which will provide a more interactive environment for the students.

Teachers and parents are using collaborative technology to grant parents access to grades, homework assignments and absences. As technology advances, different and varied classes will find programs and opportunities to utilize the most cutting-edge program to benefit children’s education. Technology will continue to improve teacher productivity and student learning with the increase in new technology and software.

Rand McNally, in a bid to spark children’s imaginations, has created an online service to engage children in geography content and interactive games and activity. It will also provide teachers with skill-based lesson plans and assessments.

Joel Minister, chief cartographer of Rand McNally said, “With so much information on the Internet it is important that teachers know their material is coming from a reliable source. Rand McNally Classroom provides teachers with the comprehensive, interactive data they need from a name they know and trust.”

A benefit of the program is that because it is offered through a user name and password setup, the students can access the information at home to help them with their homework. The program also offers an interactive area where the students can be exposed to hands-on projects like place-the-states puzzle, continent quizzes and building their own map. There is also an area on the site that will help with the difficult to answer questions; this is “Ask the Experts”. It is an area where teachers, students and entire classes can receive answers to questions from the Rand McNally’s Geographic Information Services and editorial departments.

Geography is a core academic subject under the No Child Left Behind Act and this is a program that will help administrators, teachers, and students receive the information they need to succeed within a safe and entertaining environment.

In an article written by Julia Silverman, Oregon schools are looking at adopting a cyberbullying policy. Instead of children bullying other children at school, more are turning toward the Internet to bully their fellow classmates through social media websites. Cyberbullying is defined as the use of any electronic communication device to harass, intimidate or bully.

People are questioning whether schools have jurisdiction over what kids post while they are home. Currently the bill that is being proposed states that in order for the school to step in, the destructive posts would have to be conducted “on or immediately adjacent to school grounds, at any school-sponosored activity, on school-provided transportation or at any official school bus stop.”

The challenge school officials will have is verifying exactly who is behind the site, who posted the comments or pictures and where the person was at when the information was uploaded before any disciplinary action is proposed. Without proper evidence and legislation backing up the institutions, school boards could find themselves dealing with expensive legal disputes.

Teachers are using blogging as a way for children as young as kindergarteners to keep a daily journal. By providing a real audience to children, blogging is touted as inspiring children to quickly improve their writing skills and increase how often they write. In classrooms where the children are too young to write, students draw their entries instead,  and then narrate their entries for teachers to transcribe or consolidate thoughts from the class into one entry.

But considering the transparency of blogs, it is paramount that the children’s safety be of utmost importance when children are allowed online in whatever capacity. The need for their safety outweighs the emergence of critical skills through blogging. Teachers should have the final say of what goes online so that they can edit out any identifying information before it is released to the public. Various types of software can ensure identity protection for the students, involving teachers in the final review process before publishing to the Web. Examples of this hierarchal control include Blogmeister, KidzLog and Think.com. Blogging can be a great resource for teachers to inspire their children to write and create stories and news articles, but it should always be tempered with safety in mind.

The way that students are learning is changing. They aren’t tied to their desks or even to a classroom any longer. According to a study released recently by the Sloan Consortium, almost two-thirds of U.S. school districts had one or more students enrolled in online courses during the 2005 - 2006 school year, with over 20% planning to introduce students to them in the next three years. An alternative to online courses is blended courses - a combination of online courses and face-to-face instruction with a teacher. Districts believe that students taking blended courses will grow by almost 23% over the next two years.

The benefits to online and blended learning are that the school districts are able to provide classes that they wouldn’t normally be able to offer. Special courses - such as advanced and remedial - suddenly become available to students without previous access to these courses. Some students are also able to enroll in dual credit college courses with allows them to receive college credit for the courses they are taking online with their high school. Online learning also provides an opportunity to students who have failed a class to retake the class without being held behind in their grade. In school districts with growing population trends yet now enough funds for new schools, the addition of online classes provides an option for some students, freeing up seats for classroom-bound students.

Some of the issues dealing with online courses are concerns for the quality of the course, development and cost of the course and the need for teacher training. School districts have to work on improving their technological infrastructure to be able to handle the influx of students accessing their intranets.

Connectivity infrastructure is one area that requires forethought: if Internet services are spotty or overloaded, students might not be able to access their online test at a critical time. Securing a backup Internet service is an important step for schools launching into e-learning. They will also have to work with the policies that have been put into place by federal, state and local laws: not all students are able to take online courses. They need to have discipline to be able to succeed in online courses versus face-to-face courses.

Clearly, with a child’s future at stake, school districts need to make sure that online and blended courses are comparable in educational value to the courses they offer within the school. Their teachers and parents need to fully accept the presence of online and blended courses and support it - not doing so can make it difficult for the children to delve in with their full attention and succeed.

Online schooling serves a vital role in allowing students not only the flexibility in their schedules but also the large array of courses that are at their disposal. E-learning is playing a significant role in meeting the needs of school districts and students for rural and poorly funded communities and districts that would like to focus on the individual students instead of the whole student body. Those schools that enter this space will be able to provide a well-rounded education for the students to help them achieve their golas in education and life.

Schools across the nation are working on removing harmful cleaners from the halls of academia. The school districts believe by eliminating these cleaners they can reduce the health problems for teachers, students and staff.

Administration is improving their school’s cleaning process for several reasons. They believe the health of the children and staff is directly affected by the daily exposure of chemicals. Their motivation is to improve the health of their faculty and students which should cut down on absenteeism and improve performance and behavior. According to Claire L. Barnett, Exectuive Director of the Healthy Schools Network, “when schools take steps to reduce chemicals, they often see behavior and attendance improve.”

There are several factors contributing to the removal of chemical cleaning in schools. With schools being open longer because of meetings held at the schools and after school activities, more cleaning was needed which caused more exposure to chemicals to not only students and faculty but also the custodial staff. Many schools are also overcrowded wich could lead to poor air ciculation resulting in an unhealthy enviornment in the schools.

With schools able to purchase supplies easier, for comparable prices to their chemical heavy counterparts, it stands to reason that schools will do everything they can to improve the health and well-being of the students. By implementing programs like this, schools should be able to reduce chemical related health problems which will improve attendance, behavior and performance of both students and faculty.

Students used to write on their hands, create small notes to look at or ask the person sitting next to them to find out the answers to a test. Today, students are still asking other students for the answer just in a different way: they are using their cell phones to text message friends who have already taken the test to find out the answer. They also use their cell phones to access the Internet during the exams or download information to their MP3 players to help them find out the answers.

Technology is being used to help students to pass exams without the rigorous studying that is needed to answer the questions presented. Some students, instead of using technology to help them study, i.e. using information provided on the Internet or researching books online, are abusing the same advances that have helped others succeed. By utilizing the technology to help them cheat, students are undermining the examinations completely.

Educators are working on providing ideas to overcome the use of technology as used by cheaters. Some professors believe students should be fingerprinted to stop other individuals from taking exams for them. Many schools already ban cell phones, but students are still able to sneak them into the exam halls. An alternative to get around this is to install airport-style security scanners to aid in eliminating cell phones and other electronic devices into the testing area. Another alternative would be to install a Faraday cage, named after its inventor, Michael Faraday. This method is to have metal built into the walls of a room, which block electromagnetic waves. There are different technology methods that can be used to help stop cheating, but the most important method is to teach students that cheating is wrong and they will be penalized for the offense.

Educators and parents need to work together to overcome this obstacle in the furthering of the education of the children. If the students can be taught at an early age the benefits of technology and informed of the appropriate behavior when using it, then administrators will be able to embrace further advances in technology. They will be able to utilize it in the way it was meant to be used, to benefit the learning experience and enhance the student’s overall education.