The grants will be used to develop resources to help "enhance secondary students' academic experiences and improve educators' abilities to engage and stimulate their students" in STEM subjects. All of the proposed programs focus particularly on NASA-themed content.

oday's teens say that the freedom to Facebook and Twitter at work could influence their future job decisions

t at the same time that many organizations have begun implementing policies to curb social networking during the workday, over half of the teens polled said that their ability to access those networks could factor into what jobs they decide to accept in the future.

It really shows that there is a need for the additional education of our young people in terms of appropriate behavior

That potential for instant feedback adds a new edge and depth to the class

Hotseat probably helps most in large classes, where he says it "can give voice to the silent student body and help stimulate discussion.

And because Hotseat allows anonymous posts, says senior Tim Cummings, 21, students are more likely to ask questions they wouldn't if they had to speak out in person.

In addition to helping people who are deaf or do not speak English, the captions will make it easier for anyone to search text inside videos and find specific snippets within a video.

But if companies are to make the most of virtual collaboration, employees will have to learn that what works a bricks-and-mortar workplace may not be right for the virtual world.

Another issue is that virtual teams can't take advantage of the kind of impromptu "water cooler" conversations that occur in a real workplace, where colleagues can share information they may have forgotten to communicate in meetings.

Kahai says that lack of human contact can also lead to feelings of isolation, but adds that virtual worlds such as Second Life can help by recreating the water-cooler experience.

Suddenly, I’m not just the one at the front just dispensing everything, and the students aren’t just sort of milling about doing their thing — we’ve actually got a team of people working together. And Twitter is the glue that holds the team together.”

It’s also a data-gathering resource. Live discussion threads, Campbell noted, give professors loads of data on the previously mysterious question of what exactly is going on inside the heads of students during a lecture. No longer is a student’s ability to participate in classroom discussions contingent upon whether he is willing to raise his hand and has the good fortune to be called on, he said.

Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People's use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks.

Our survey results challenge the finding that an increasing number of Americans have no one with whom they can discuss important matters. However, our findings support existing research that suggests that the average size and diversity of core discussion networks have declined.

ownership of a mobile phone and participation in a variety of internet activities were associated with larger and more diverse core discussion networks.