| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
|
|
Buckingham (2002) summarized both the positive and negative influences reported in earlier studies from computer games and the “online culture” of the Internet. He argued it has been too simplistic to explain the “effects” on children from this new medium based upon “conceptual and methodological approaches” originating from the traditional media, such as film and television (p. 81). Buckingham maintained that the social context of their use and the interactivity characteristics of these new media often are not taken into consideration. He urged that “policymakers need to take much fuller account of the social context in which children encounter new media, and the kinds of support which are necessary in order to use them most effectively” (p. 86).
The Modern-Orthodox movement worldwide provides an interesting combination of practicing traditional Jewish values while living and participating in the largely non-Jewish broader societies. The various Jewish movements in the United States would best be described as adhering to Jewish law (Halakhah) and custom, on a continuum from the Orthodox—the most strictly observant—to the Reform—those following Jewish rituals from a more broad-based interpretation of Halakhah (“Facts About Israel: Society—Jewish Society,” 2004, p. 3). However, even among the Orthodox, there are distinctions between what is called “Modern Orthodoxy” and “ultra-Orthodoxy.” Rabbi Mayer Schiller (1997) aptly described the educational representation of these differences in relation to the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Upper Manhattan: