CCT Director Shelley Pasnik offers her perspective as part of an EdWeek article that explores how online resources can enable teachers to discuss the election and how it plays out in the media in ways that promote students' critical thinking skills.Excerpt and Quote: Using the Web tools provided by the Living Room Candidate initiative, for example, students "can view individual ads, but it also gives you a chance to work across elections and to see thematically how some of the same issues emerge election after election," said Shelley Pasnik, the director of the Center for Children and Technology in New York City. "Rather than teachers' describing what has happened throughout history, seeing the actual ads that ran in different elections can bring that period to life."

"Many teachers are still vying for the In Focus projector [which projects images on a screen], so I don't want to give short shrift to the challenges teachers face in using new technologies," said Ms. Pasnik. "But now, with the more portable technology, like if the teacher has an iPhone, you can pull up [Web] resources in class."

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