Internet Texts And The Role Of Technology

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Students identified how they related digital texts to forensics concepts and processes they learned in class. For example, online quizzes on forensics were popular among students because they allowed students to demonstrate their familiarity with forensic tools and procedures and affirm their expertise. Jason took a forensics quiz on Funtrivia.com that consisted of 10 questions assessing forensics vocabulary and recognition of forensics techniques to test his knowledge of forensic science. He reported that this quiz prompted him to reflect on what he learned in Tag Heuer Replica class on how to use bones and dental records to determine the differences between a female's and a male's skeleton. Laura took an "autopsy quiz" with 80% accuracy and a "scene of the crime" quiz with 90% accuracy and received a score of 85% on a "narrowing the suspects" quiz on the ThinkQuest website,. This site allowed her to demonstrate her ability to relate scientific information to real life and engage in science games and quizzes that tested her knowledge of forensics vocabulary ...
... and procedures. She reported that she was able to apply the observation skills that she learned in class to piece together information to solve an online crime.

Other students frequented websites that were extensions of the programs they viewed on television to learn more about the forensics techniques they experienced in class. For example, Thomas went to the CS7 website, which showed forensics tools and fingerprints to watch for each of the 24 episodes in a season of CSI. To supplement the information from the blood spatter lab he did in class, Thomas read an electronic text about how blood stains can help solve crimes. He also visited TruTV's Forensic Files website, which had a glossary of forensic terms, a term of the week, safety tips, videos of episodes, and links to other forensics websites. He said that he engaged with these digital texts every day because he enjoyed predicting and debating with his girlfriend to determine the culprit in each crime by making inferences from small pieces of evidence.

New technologies enabled students to engage with these everyday texts. For example, due to their busy schedules (extracurricular sports, after-school clubs, and part-time jobs), students were frequently unable to view forensic-television programs at their scheduled broadcast time. Therefore, these programs were often viewed with other family members or friends at a later time than the scheduled broadcast by means of TiVo or by the networks' replay on Internet video or through digital recorders.

Other technology enabled these students to interact with media texts, as well. For example, Seth downloaded the Safari web browser so he could access CSI on the Internet and he also viewed these Tag Heuer Replica Watches programs through digital television. Jason and Kevin bought the audio version of their forensics books and downloaded them onto their iPods so they could engage with these texts while driving to and from their part-time jobs and weekend sports activities when they could not ac?cess their books. Other students purchased DVDs of programs and watched them on their DVD players.