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technology is evolving so quickly that a standard set of skills is hard to set in stone.

"We do have a sense of what [digital communication] skills should be," Kahne says. "The ability to find information, for example, has always been on the list. Also, the ability to judge the credibility of information. But now we're seeing things like the ability to present information online in compelling ways emerging as another basic skill of the digital citizen."

Marble Math is a fun app for practicing basic math skills. The app is best when used as a companion rather than a primary app, as it doesn't explain math concepts and merely sharpens them. Content-wise, the app is geared towards older juniors. The developers specifically mention that the app is designed for kids aged 9 to 12+, and judging from the problem sets, I agree with them. If you have younger juniors, I would suggest getting Marble Math Junior instead, which has the same gameplay but easier problem sets.

The problem is that screens have been misunderstood by society and even by organizations like the APA. This was uncovered earlier this year when APA member Dimitri Christakis revealed that their research was conducted before anyone knew the iPad, or similar interactive screen devices, existed

Would we ever discuss limiting book time? Would we ever tell children they’re spending too much time learning? Would we say think critically, but only in moderation

What’s important is that we stop judging screens and start looking at and guiding young people in their use of screens

Right away, certain patterns emerged. First, great teachers tended to set big goals for their students. They were also perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness. For example, when Farr called up teachers who were making remarkable gains and asked to visit their classrooms, he noticed he’d get a similar response from all of them: “They’d say, ‘You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you—I am in the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure and changing my reading workshop because I think it’s not working as well as it could.’ When you hear that over and over, and you don’t hear that from other teachers, you start to form a hypothesis.” Great teachers, he concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing. Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls. But when Farr took his findings to teachers, they wanted more. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah. Give me the concrete actions. What does this mean for a lesson plan?’” So Farr and his colleagues made lists of specific teacher actions that fell under the high-level principles they had identified. For example, one way that great teachers ensure that kids are learning is to frequently check for understanding: Are the kids—all of the kids—following what you are saying? Asking “Does anyone have any questions?” does not work, and it’s a classic rookie mistake. Students are not always the best judges of their own learning. They might understand a line read aloud from a Shakespeare play, but have no idea what happened in the last act.

Edelson said he'd like to see a forum where senior journalists, judges and lawyers could get together and "throw around ideas" about whether social media tools should be controlled inside the courtroom.

Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant.

This guide identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community’s current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials

This code of best practices does not tell you the limits of fair use rights.