Why is technology important?

Research is becoming easier online. Not only are there great databases, but those databases contain more current, more affordable information for schools and their libraries. Libraries are adapting to meet the needs of users, which is changing  progressively into being more and more online-based (Cassell &Hiremath, 2011, pgs 13, 50-52).

Inquiry-based activities help to engage students in gaining information and also increasing their technological literacy. Collaboration between teachers and librarians to find these resources will help to make sure that students are being connected with information that can strengthen student achievement in all subjects (Woolls, 2008, p 25).

Technology helps to bring things to life for students. Alvermann and Hagood advocate for diverse media literacy, saying, “… there is a need for including critical media literacy as a regular component of school curricula in the United States… The binaries of in-school and out-of school literacies will need to be blurred if we are to move beyond the current discourse and begin to learn about, and to meet, the changing literacy competencies. To ignore the importance of doing so in these new times is to short-change adolescents destined to live out their lives, literate or otherwise, in a highly technical and global 21^st century” (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000, p. 203).

Alvermann, D.,& Hagood, M. (2000). Critical Media Literacy: Research, Theory, and Practice in “New Times.” Journal of Educational Researcg, 93 (3), 193-205.

Cardon, Phillip L. "At-risk Students and Technology Education: a Qualitative Study." Journal of Technology Studies. 26.1 (2001): 49-57. Print.

Cassell, Kay Ann., and Uma Hiremath. Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2011. Print.

Krashen, Stephen D. The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Libraries Unlimited [u.a., 2004. Print.

Standards for the 21st-century Learner in Action. Chicago, IL: American Association of School Librarians, 2009. Print.

Tama, M. Carrol., and Anita Haley McClain. Guiding Reading and Writing in the Content Areas: Practical Strategies. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt., 2007. Print.

Woolls, Blanche. The School Library Media Manager. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2008. Print.