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"Common Sense Media's service Graphite, which offers independent ratings and reviews of learning apps and websites, has compiled this list of apps to get young students started on the road to coding. For complete reviews, and for each app's "Learning Rating," visit the Graphite website."

"When students can bring or access devices for learning, teachers want to figure out the best resources. To do that they have Graphite™. Graphite is a free service from Common Sense Education designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers."

When is it cheating? When is it collaboration? This thoughtful article from Common Sense Media provides fine advice for parents (or teachers) on how to talk to kids about digital media and ethics.  

Might help create a blended classroom, even when you have to share the blender.  Common sense advise for the real world of underequipped classrooms and stretched thin teachers.

"Common Sense Media's service Graphite, which offers independent ratings and reviews of learning apps and websites, has compiled this list of the best arts apps for students. For complete reviews, and for each app's "Learning Rating," visit the Graphite website."

"Game-based learning, and the developers who identify with it today, have come a long way since then and gotten much closer to closing the gap. And there's still a need to communicate core content through games, a need that the consumer market just doesn't have incentive to fill. Yet at Common Sense Graphite, when we evaluate games for learning, what we find is that many of the highest scoring 'learning' games aren't aimed at the educational market. They're more at-home, consumer-oriented games. Because these games are free from the constraints of school standards and traditional curriculum, they flourish, featuring rich cross-disciplinary and truly 21st century learning experiences. Here are just a few favorites that reviewed well on Graphite this year:"

"Digital citizenship is an essential 21st century literacy that empowers students to navigate the digital world more safely, respectfully and responsibly. It is a set of interconnected skills that, taken together, form a holistic pedagogical framework to foster students learning in a digitally focused environment. To help teachers incorporate the ethos of digital citizenship in their classrooms, Common Sense Media has put together this interesting resource titled 'Digital Literacy and Citizenship (teacher edition)' . This is a curriculum designed specifically for upper elementary to help students  learn the basics of digital citizenship while also developing their digital literacy skills."

"It's time for my students to make a guess: Where is the class they are meeting for the first time via Skype? "Is it North Carolina?" There is silence in the classroom as my fifth graders crane their necks toward the screen. "No!" shouts a voice from the computer speakers, and my students scramble back together. A buzz of "What could it be then?" envelops them. This is what it sounds like when 23 students engage in what is known as Mystery Skype. The idea is incredibly simple, but how it unfolds can be downright magical. When else can you see students using all of their background knowledge, tech savvy and common sense just to figure out where someone is in the world?"

"You were just getting used to your kid's obsession with Fortnite, and now, all you hear about is V-Bucks. V-Bucks, like Robux on Roblox, are Fortnite's in-game currency. Players use them to buy the fun "skins" (characters and outfits) and "emotes" (those hilarious dances like "Flossing" and "Take the L") that kids will say they totally need to make Fortnite even cooler. For the record: You don't need V-Bucks to play Fortnite, and if you do spring for them, they cost real money. Also, online scammers are all over V-Bucks. Fortnite's incredible popularity among kids has made it an easy target for rip-off artists trying to make some actual bucks while the game is hot. A recent study from online security company ZeroFox discovered more than 4,700 fake Fortnite websites, and the company sent out more than 50,000 security alerts about Fortnite scams in a single month. Kids are particularly vulnerable to requests to turn over personal information, including names and email addresses or even credit card numbers. Here's how you can spot the scam and protect your kids."

"In today's 24/7 digital world, we have instant access to all kinds of information online. Educators need strategies to equip students with the core skills they need to think critically about today's media. We teach foundational skills in news and media literacy through our Digital Citizenship program, specifically through our Creative Credit & Copyright and Information Literacy topics. Built on more than 10 years of expertise and classroom testing, these lessons and related teaching materials give students the essential skills to be smart, savvy media consumers and creators. From lesson plans about fact-checking to clickbait headlines and fake news, we've covered everything. To learn more about our approach, read the Topic Backgrounder on news and media literacy."