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The cellphone industry has a suggestion for improving the math skills of American students: spend more time on cellphones in the classroom.

Katherine Evans said she was frustrated with her English teacher for ignoring her pleas for help with assignments and a brusque reproach when she missed class to attend a school blood drive. So Ms. Evans, who was then a high school senior and honor student, logged onto the networking site Facebook and wrote a rant against the teacher, Sarah Phelps.

This month, three teenage girls, students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., were charged with disseminating child pornography. They had sent nude pictures of themselves by cellphone to their teenage boyfriends, who were charged with possessing child pornography.\n\nThe legal consequences in this case may have been unique, but the behavior is not. About 20 percent of teenagers have posted or sent nude cellphone pictures of themselves, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a nonprofit group.

David Pogue write in The New York Times, "As my own children approach middle school, my own fears align with the documentary's findings in another way: that cyber-bullying is a far more realistic threat. "

Part of a wider effort to use technology to extend learning beyond classroom walls and the six-hour school day. Internet buses may soon be hauling children to school in many other districts, particularly those with long bus routes. The company marketing the router, Autonet Mobile, says it has sold them to schools or districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, D.C.

It's hard enough to make sure the data you send and receive is safe when you're at home or at work. But traveling brings a whole new set of hazards: from publicly accessible computers to unprotected wireless networks to crowded and pickpocket-plagued airports.

When University of Texas researchers began studying Facebook friends, they expected that users also would exaggerate accomplishments and offer an enhanced version of themselves. To their surprise, they discovered that Facebook profiles typically gave an accurate and realistic impression of the user's real-life personality.

The average young American now spends practically every waking minute - except for the time in school - using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research - and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions.

If a stranger came up to you on the street, would you give him your name, Social Security number and e-mail address? Probably not. Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced.

"But there is growing consensus among lawyers and legislators that the child pornography laws are too blunt an instrument to deal with an adolescent cyberculture in which all kinds of sexual pictures circulate on sites like MySpace and Facebook. " But there is growing consensus among lawyers and legislators that the child pornography laws are too blunt an instrument to deal with an adolescent cyberculture in which all kinds of sexual pictures circulate on sites like MySpace and Facebook.

During today's SXSW keynote, social media research Danah Boyd, who works for Microsoft Research New England and is a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, talked about online privacy. Specifically, she focused on how users can navigate issues around online privacy and how developers can help them to do so.

In social networks, people can increase their defenses against identification by adopting tight privacy controls on information in personal profiles. Yet an individual's actions, researchers say, are rarely enough to protect privacy in the interconnected world of the Internet. The FTC is worried that rules to protect privacy have not kept up with technology. The FTC and Congress are weighing steps like tighter industry requirements and the creation of a "do not track" list, similar to the federal "do not call" list, to stop online monitoring.

In the first federal appeals court opinion dealing with "sexting" - the transmission of sexually explicit photographs by cellphone - a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that parents could block the prosecution of their children on child pornography charges for appearing in photographs found on some classmates' cellphones.

In this lesson, students research different types of identity-theft fraud and ways to avoid falling victim to various scams. They then create focused public service announcements in different media, targeted to individuals most susceptible to consumer fraud.

Do Internet search engines point us to the information that we need or confuse us with irrelevant or questionable information? How can Internet users improve their searches to find reliable information? are some ways to perform effective searches? In this lesson, students conduct Web searches on open-ended questions, and draw on their experiences to develop guides to searching effectively and finding reliable information online.

In this lesson, students reflect on the bullying in their community, hold an anonymous discussion about bullying and suggest solutions to the problem.

"In this lesson, students analyze the effects of devices and protocols used to communicate and create posters highlighting their findings. They then write response papers exploring the future of these social networking methods."

In this lesson, students share observations about the nuances of spoken and written language. They then create comic strips that comment on problems that arise in electronic-based communications, and prepare a bill of rights outlining the rights and responsibilities of the online community.

Conversation starters with students from the NYT. Participating in an online discussion on events and issues in the news not only gives students a forum, but it also helps them build critical thinking, writing and news literacy skills and provides an opportunity to write for an authentic audience.