I've downloaded a fairly large amount of new material, hoping to transfer it to my iPod for my road trip this Friday. The files will not move. I can highlight them alright, but I cannot move them. Forgive me if this sounds like an elementary problem, but I'm still new to this. Please help.
Thanks.

How are you trying to transfer them? To play on the iPod, you will usually use a particular program or plug-in. If you have iTunes, create a playlist & drop the files you wish into the playlist, then add the playlist to iPod. Personally I'd recommend 'Manual' update which means you only need to drag & drop whatever files you wish from iTunes main library into the iPod's icon at side of iTunes.

Here's some clues: How to transfer music to my iPod (& iTunes) {click on link}. There are some tutorial links for iPod either at bottom of first page or on second page.