The articles that I chose to review were “Synchronous and Asynchronous Text-Based CMC in Educations Context: A Review of Recent Research” by Geneieve Marie Johnson, , “Distance Education Trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration” by Yoany Belarrain and “The Motivations of Adolescents Who are Addicted to Online Games: Cognitive Perspective. The three journals were chosen by me, because they are all issues that I am seeing in my schools on a daily basis. Teachers are struggling with ways to reach their students in their classroom. Today’s students have grown up in the technological era. The traditional ways students are being taught are not reaching how students are learning today; even with the basic use of technology that are being utilized are not sparking an interest in their daily lessons. The three articles mentioned above provide more in-depth techniques to reach our technology generation.
There are two types of instructional technology that can be used in the classroom Asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous instruction is a delayed response instructional technology tool. Asynchronous technology does not require immediate teacher/student response. Asynchronous technology instruction was one of the first forms of computerized instruction programs conceived.
The benefits of utilizing synchronized technology is that is allows for in-depth , thoughtful discussions. This type of communication allows individuals to spend less time at the computer, they can respond and go. There are limitations to this type of instruction. Using asynchronous instruction does not allow for immediate feedback, students make take a longer time to check their computers for feedback from their instructors or other students; the final limitation that this type of instructional technology provides is time for a good discussion to develop. Dede and Kramer (1999) concluded that asynchronous provided “richer, more inclusive types of interchange.”
Synchronous instruction occurs more immediately and requires more teacher/student interactions. Synchronous technology instruction was modeled after the “closed circuit” “video conferencing” “interactive” television era. “Synchronous communication and collaboration tools, such as synchronous text chat, audio-conferencing, and white boards, are increasingly important components of online learning” (National Center for Accessible Media, 2005).
One of the major benefits of synchronized technology instruction is allows for “virtual office hours”, team decision making”, and dealing with “technical issues”. There are limitations with this type instructional technology would be the ability to gather all parties online at the same time, difficulty in moderating a number of student conversations, at the same time, and ones lack of typing speed.
To get the most out of asynchronous and synchronous technology instruction is the ability for combine both technologies. How both instructional tools can be combined is by use of email, use of chat rooms and use of chat and email. Both type of instructional technology can reach many style of student learning.
Distance learning will play a key role in our children’s future. As their time gets busier and education cost go through the roof, we are going to find ourselves in a digital classroom as teachers and administrators. The article by Yoany Belarrain discusses the trends that distance learning will have on out children and students.

With the popularity on the rise with distance learning, online education had forced educators to change the way they instruct their students through distance learning. “As new technologies emerge, instructional designers and educators have unique opportunities to foster interaction and collaboration among learners, thus creating a true learning community. The existence of distance learning relies on the creation true learning communities” (Pallof and Pratt, 1999).
There has always been some degree of concern in the distance learning arena when it comes to how much interactivity is going on with the students. With the new emerging technologies they will provide the opportunities for more advanced instructor-student collaboration. The new technologies will also help to improve the real-time versus delayed activity.
Blogs, whitboards, email and podcasting have all played a key role in getting to enhance their reading and writing skills; they have also played a key role in getting students to be active participants in their education. Blogs, podcasting, whiteboard and email have also allowed students to use their creativity skills on a more frequent basis.
The main problem the researchers see with all of the use of technology is that is always changing and the concern in the digital word is “how will we keep up with all of the ever changing technology products?” With all of the products being up-dated it also becomes a cost issue. Companies also get worried about the bottom line and how will they afford to keep up with all of the technological changes. The other concern with online course work is the cultural differences and learning tendencies. Educators believe that another problem with on;ine courses will be the lack of modeling educational expectations. Using asynchronous distance education could have limitations on educational modeling.
According to Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) when educators and school districts are considering to implement distance learning programs they need to keep in mind these seven goals:

1. Encourage contact between student and faculty.
2. Develop reciprocity.
3. Use active learning techniques.
4. Give prompt feedback.
5. Emphasize time on task.
6. Communicate high expectations.
7. Respect diverse talent and ways of learning.

It is also important to keep in mind; along with the seven goals that when you are implementing an online course for your class or school district, you must make sure that everyone is aware of the purpose of the course and how the course will benefit them.
The final article that I chose to review was “ The Motivations of Adolescents Who are addicted to Online Games: A Cognitive Perspective” by Chin-Sheng Wan and Wen-and Wen-Bin Chiou. The article discusses how Taiwanese students are addicted to online games can be a positive thing due to the fact that research shows that it can bring out different motivators in addicted student than non addicted students.

With the increase of popularity of the internet, students have found a new place to play their video games and in Taiwan online video games have become addictions. The majority of the Taiwanese students researched were addicted to role playing games; such as second life. The Taiwanese researchers found that the students who participated in the role-playing activities were developing better social skills than that of their peers who did not participate in on-line gaming.
There were three models that the researchers used to study the on-line gamers. The disease model, the adaptive model, and the way of life model were part of the study. The main focus of these models was to observe the adaptation or behavioral style of the on-line gamers. The researchers went a step further to study on-line behaviors from a cognitive approach. The cognitive theory focuses more on what motivates individuals either intrinsically or extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation is “ what motivates individuals inside” we do certain activities because we like to do it, extrinsic are motivators from the outside; we do things based on punishments and rewards.
Research has shown that to gamers on-line gaming posses many extrinsic motivators such as praise, money and gifts. The use of extrinsic motivators does supersede intrinsic motivation. There are four areas that will determine if the extrinsic motivator will supersede an intrinsic motivator; expectancy, relevance, tangibility, and contingency; which mean the person will only engage in the activity for the benefit of “what is in it for me?”
In America there has been a lot of discussion about using “on-line gaming” in the classroom. The article by Chin-Sheng Wan and Wan-Bin Chiou provide the evidence that on-line gaming can be a benefit to our students if were are looking to motivate them and also to figure out what our students are motivated by.
As I stated in the opening paragraph, the three articles that I choose to write a review on, were based from what I have observed in my school; when it came to the use of technology. Technology will continue to play an important role on how we are educating our students.