Digital Smarts - NPR’s Podcast Challenge Set to Open

Learning how to conduct online searches safely and effectively is a skill that is important for young people to have.   A student-friendly interactive map of the research process, called “How To Do Research,” spells out the steps for making the most of the research process, from planning to searching to taking notes and ultimately using gathered information effectively..

Microsoft has decided to put out free mobile editions of Office products, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The free software for iPads, iPhones and Android tablets will have most of the essential functions of the computer versions of the products..

As technology continues to evolve, a number of mobile applications have been created that are designed to help students with their homework. However, in some cases the apps are doing much of the work – sometimes even all of the work -- for students, leading some to question whether the high-tech helpers equate to cheating...

If you have a teen driver in your household, you may find the parent resources on the Toyota web site very useful in starting your discussions about texting or talking on the phone and driving...

If you have a teen driver in your household, you may find the parent resources on the Toyota web site very useful in starting your discussions about texting or talking on the phone and driving...

If you have a child who has been recently diagnosed as dyslexic, or if you have been supporting a child with dyslexia though the pitfalls of your local school district, you may want to take a look at the resources for parents on the Headstrong Nation site...

While tablets and smartphones seem like objects of the future, they can also offer a window to the past. Timeline-U.S. History is a free app for iOS and Android devices that highlights over 1,500 events throughout US history with descriptions and pictures...

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, once famously was quoted as saying that privacy was no longer a "social norm" in a society that seemed compelled to share everything. Since then Facebook has had a tricky relationship with privacy. The company often seems to have a very hard time understanding what users do and don’t want to share with particular people, or the whole world for that matter, and has made a number of faux pas by changing its privacy settings without letting users know that their pages were suddenly accessible by more groups of people.

More than 20% of the US population has some form of dyslexia and there are now apps emerging that are aimed at helping dyslexic students maintain the same level of learning as their peers...

School is still a way off but it is never too early to figure out what technologies can help kids succeed...