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304 Mizuko ItoA father who is raising his two daughters on his own also voices a commitmentto educational goals, though he does support his daughters’ useof the Internet for personal communication. Juan has been in the UnitedStates for almost thirty years, and he is raising his two younger daughters(eleven and twelve years old) on his own while working in a restaurant.They have an older computer at home that they acquired secondhand, butit is not connected to the Internet (though it once was) because of the cost.Lisa: ¿Usted que cree que la Internet es una buena manera para los niñoscomunicarse entre ellos, o le preocupa esto?(Do you think that the Internet is a good way for your kids to communicatewith their friends or are you worried about that?)Juan: No, es mejor que se comuniquen de esa forma porque les ayuda más asalir adelante. Y también cómo lo tomen ellos. Si lo van a tomar como un juego,esto y lo otro, no. La cosa es que vayan a la cosa seria, que vayan aprendiendo.Con ánimos de seguir adelante en sus estudios, de salir adelante. Sabes queahorita sin estudios uno no es nada. No es nada. A trabajar, andar limpiando yhaciendo acá, sufriendo más si un día no te necesitan. Salir adelante.(No, it is better for them to communicate that way because it is going tohelp them get ahead. And it also depends how they treat it. If they aregoing to treat it like a game, then no. But if they take it seriously, they willbe learning from it, and it will help them with their studies, and help themget ahead. You know that now without an education you are nothing,nothing. You have to work, clean places, do odd jobs, suffering if one daythey don’t need you anymore. [It’s important to try] to get ahead.)(Translation by Lisa Tripp)In their work in Los Angeles, Tripp, Herr-Stephenson, and Martínezinteracted with parents, teachers, and kids in both the classroom and athome, affording a rare opportunity to look across multiple contexts ofmedia use for particular kids. In the multimedia course that the kids wereengaged in, teachers occasionally spoke of the possibility of careers inmedia, but their goals were generally more immediate and less ambitious.They saw new media production as a way of keeping kids engaged inthe classroom, which could in turn keep them from dropping out. Theyalso thought that one side effect of this engagement was that kids wouldpick up basic reading and writing skills. One teacher describes his first yearwith the multimedia curriculum: “I think this year, in terms of behavior