Digital Smarts - [current-page:title-plain]

An interesting new article predicts that Instagram users are beginning to use the site as a social news service instead of just for photo sharing...

Middle-school students who are part of teacher Bill Ferriter's #sugarkills project recently learned some valuable lessons about writing for a public audience when a critic challenged the accuracy of one of their posts. In a blog post written about the class project, Ferriter discusses the lessons learned and shares his growing concerns about using an open forum to garner an authentic audience for student work...

Online security and data breaches are likely taught to your children in school, but if these topics are not being discussed you might want to look at Teaching About Cybersecurity: Taking Steps to Improve Online Safety and Prevent Data Breaches on The New York Times Learning Blog for ideas on how to get a discussion started...

In a study published this year, Pew Research found that 25 percent of cellphone users in a relationship believe their partner was distracted by their cell phone when they were together, and eight percent said they had argued about how much time one party spends online...

Even when parents take practical steps to limit the information they and their children publicly share online, they may not be aware of the magnitude of information that apps and websites can collect from children...

For years, many websites tried to block spammers and bots by making Web users read a distorted series of characters and asking them to type back what they saw, as a way to verify it was a human entering the site...

After years of selling cookies the old-fashioned way, the Girl Scouts are about to go digital, bringing their sales to the internet. The move to allow troopers to have a digital presence and sell cookies online was announced recently by the national organization, and has been met with mixed emotions by parents, officials within the organization and privacy advocates...

A new survey from KidSay reveals YouTube is the number one website amongst “tweens” (ages eight to eleven), despite the policy that you must be 13 or older to create an account...

With winter vacations and snow days ahead, take a look at this list of 12 fun YouTube channels to help keep your kids from clicking something totally age-inappropriate...

The Family Online Safety institute recently released its latest research report, "Parenting in the Digital Age: How Parents Weigh the Potential Benefits and Harms of Their Children's Technology Use"...