Research Journal--Contemplating my research question

I am deciding on a research question for LIBR 285, to guide my selection of five articles to abstract, and ultimately to guide my literature review and research proposal. The topic I chose is Youth & Technology. I want to reflect a little bit on my interests and find some readings to help me develop my ideas, so I decided to use this space as a brainstorm area so I could record my thoughts.

At my school, we have an absolute rule: NO ELECTRONICS on campus. No phones, electronic games, music players, or even visible headphones. Nothing. We are supposed to confiscate electronics and return them at the end of the day, or turn them in to the office. What are the consequences? Nothing, as far as I can tell. It's time consuming for everyone and often takes away from instruction.

At my old middle school where I taught, I was super strict about this, and I would confiscate almost anytime I saw electronics in my classroom. Of course, I was teaching, and it was so hard to spot everyone using phones. So I know I missed a ton of stuff and it felt unfair. However, I believed that electronics (this is pretty much before kids had smartphones) were a distraction, and I also knew that kids were texting students in other classes, thereby interrupting at least TWO peoples' educations. Plus kids got stuff stolen all the time, so keeping things put away and out of temptation's reach seemed better. But now? Now, I'm starting to think that strict electronics policies that involve confiscation are one, super impractical and unrealistic, and two, not necessarily what we want to promote. Why can't kids use their phones or iPods to access the Internet to do research for class? There is soooo much amazing information online, and yet we are barring kids from accessing it anywhere at school besides some dinosaur computers in the library and and a few classrooms.

I think there should be wireless in every classroom and technology should be intelligently, and heavily, used in school. But how can we go from this draconian NO TECHNOLOGY policy to a 21st century model that actually prepares students for the reality of our world--work, high school, college, etc. So I guess one research question idea is, How can individual electronics, either furnished by students or something like iPads, be used productively in schools and enhance instruction?

A related question is how can individual electronics use in classrooms shrink the digital divide? How can it improve educational outcomes for low-income youth?

Another idea, more directly related to the library: What type(s) of information literacy instruction will truly teach kids to safely and productively use technology?

How are flipped classrooms impacting educational outcomes?

I'm most interested in technology in the classroom and library, so I'm going to start there, but if I get really stuck I think I'll come back to these questions and tweak or change.

Now that I'm thinking about my research question, I am looking for relevant articles. I found two articles that seemed directly relevant to personal technology use in the classroom, but they have been published in the last few months and are not yet online. My search terms so far:
youth
technology
school
learning
personal technology
technology use
educatio

After seeing one of my group member's ideas, I also realized that maybe I could include the names of specific devices or categories of devices in my keyword searches, such as:
iphone
smart phone
tablet
ipad

Turner, K.C.N. 2011. "Rap universal": Using multimodal media production to develop ICT literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(8), 613-623. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.54.5.6.

Williams, B. Leading double lives: Literacy and technology in and out of school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(8), 702-706. doi: 10.1598/aJAAL.48.8.7

Md, M. H., & Aydin, H. (2011). A web 2.0-based collaborative model for multicultural education. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 5(2), 116-128. doi: 10.1108/17504971111142655
http://search.proquest.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/docview/872348776?accountid=10361

Porcaro, D. (2011). Applying constructivism in instructivist learning cultures. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 5(1), 39-54. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17504971111121919
 http://search.proquest.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/docview/864099151?accountid=10361

Eteokleous, N. (2011). Developing youth's cultural and social skills through a social-virtual curriculum. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 5(3), 221-238. doi: 

http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1108/17504971111166947

http://search.proquest.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/docview/888255347?accountid=10361

Skouge, J., Boisvert, P., & Rao, K. (2007). Pacific voices: Educational technologies for literacy learning. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 1(1), 25-35. doi: 10.1108/17504970710745184

http://search.proquest.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/docview/229035740?accountid=10361