The suggestion has been made recently that increased internet use is having a deleterious effect on reading. Articles such as Is Google Making Us Stupid? and a recent USA Today article on reading villify electronic print as an inferior reading experience to traditional books. As an educator in a region where "below basic" and "far below basic" are the prevalent monikers attached to school aged readers, I hope that the administrators and teachers in my area have been "vacationing" from such thoughts.

I know how sparse book opportunities are in our rural school and public libraries. Where I live, intergrated technology and internet use directly correlates with student engagement. I call it the kid "wow" factor. When kids get to see and read about places they may never otherwise experience like Tokyo or even the ocean, their engagement is heightened. With engagement there is thinking, and thinking while reading in reading parlance is called metacognition. All reading comprehension strategies bow to metacogntiton. Internet connectedness helps establish meaning in our lives. It is still a predominantly print environment. Lets take advantage of its use of print in our teaching.