Holly's Response on Mulitmodal Literacy

I really enjoyed reading about using technology in the classroom.  I thought the article made several interesting points.  The first being that "The majority of students were not reading books for leisure" (217).  I thought it was interesting that students aren't reading for fun.  It surprises me a little since I read for leisure so much, that students aren't reading in that manner.  I do wonder why they aren't reading. If it's just as the author said because they are more interested in technology or if there is another reason that students are not reading for non academic purposes.  I know that during the semesters, when I'm busy studying, I rarely read for fun.  I spend so much time reading for class that I often either don't have time or can't make my eyes focus on text any longer.  I wonder if students have the same feelings when it comes to reading outside of class for fun.

The other thought I found interesting was that the social networking and using of technology in the classroom was engaging the students and motivating them to write more (225).  That thought made me wonder why that was the case.  Is it because many students spend quite a bit of time using social networking sites and find this style of writing to be more comfortable? Or is there another reason students are responding so well to this type of writing?  I think this would be something interesting to explore.  However, I would also then wonder that if this seems to be working well, then how can we implement this in the schools?  This seems like it could be fairly expensive and I wonder if this would be a hindrance to implementing this in the classroom.