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Post by: The CNN Wire Filed under: Afghanistan • Security Brief • WikiLeaks

Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- In the halls of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice facility, players can be seen carrying iPads everywhere they go. They're not goofing off or taking a break, it's part of their weekly football practice.

He is not a household name, but he should be. The 38-year-old Rhodes scholar and humanitarian worker turned U.S. Navy SEAL served multiple tours overseas fighting terrorist cells and received several military awards. Today, he is the CEO of the Mission Continues, a nonprofit foundation he created to help wounded and disabled veterans find ways to serve their communities at home.

The explosive growth of social media, smartphones and digital devices is transforming our kids' lives, in school and at home. Research tells us that even the youngest of our children are migrating online, using tablets and smartphones, downloading apps.

All adults know that the teen years are a critical time for identity exploration and experimentation. Yet this important developmental phase can be dramatically twisted when that identity experimentation, however personal and private, appears permanently on one's digital record for all to see.

Howard Gardner, a professor and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who developed the concept of multiple intelligences, calls kids' use of digital media and technology "epochal change." He compares the revolution in digital media to the invention of the printing press because of its extraordinary impact on the way we communicate, share information and interact with one another. As a society, we have no choice but to engage with this new reality and work to ensure that it affects our kids in healthy, responsible ways.

The evolving Olympic athlete - 200m freestyle swim Since the advent of the modern-day Olympics in 1896, athletes have redefined limits in pursuit of the Olympic ideal: "Faster, higher, stronger." Through a combination of training, better regimen and technology, they've continued to advance their sports -- shattering records along the way. The graph below shows the progression of gold medalists' times for the 200-meter freestyle swim since 1896. Use the zoom controls at the top right to get a closer look, and hover over the points to learn each year's result. While zoomed, click and drag the timeline to view later years.