The trick to knowing what social networking sites are right for students

Parents often come to innovative educators for advice about the online spaces their children are or should be using. Is Snapchat ok? What about Instagram? Should my child be using Facebook and Twitter? What is a safe site for my pre-teen to engage socially?

If you consider yourself an innovative educator you may be wondering how you can be expected to keep up with all the different options out there.
Don't despair.  You can!
Common Sense Media (http://www.commonsensemedia.org) allows you to look up any digital product and find out just about anything a parent or teacher would want to know.  

4 Ways Graphite Review Program Connects Educators #CE13

Ever wonder which app or website would be best to meet your student’s learning objectives? 

What better way to find out than to connect with other educators using these resources? Well now you can do just that. Graphite, a new service from Common Sense Media, features over 500 reviews of apps and websites, rated for learning potential with tips for how to integrate them into your curriculum. 

But, it’s not only a place to learn about resources. Graphite also provides a venue for educators to share their own insights for using these products effectively. There are lots of ways that educators can share best practices for integrating technology into the classroom and to connect with one another on the site. Read on to discover four of them.

Four ways educators are leveraging Graphite

5 ways to increase chances of a successful #1to1 implementation

As more and more schools hop on the 1:1 or BYOD bandwagon in one way or another it is important to deeply consider proper implementation.  While there is the promise for engaged and inspired learning, these large-scale implementations also present potential pitfalls for school districts that must watch the bottom line, provide adequate support for teachers new to the technology, and engage families in a dialogue about these powerful pieces of equipment that are going to be coming home in Johnny’s backpack each night.

There is no shortage of advice for effective use of technology in the classroom, but for the first time, Common Sense Media, a national non-profit that provides curriculum support for schools around safe technology use by kids, has created a soup-to-nuts planning program that includes resources for all phases of a 1:1 implementation. And since they’re experts in Digital Citizenship there are plenty of resources in the program geared towards on-boarding students for safe and responsible use of their new devices.

You can check out an overview of the program in this video.

Common Sense Media partnered with expert 1:1 educators to develop the program, which highlights best practices and lessons-learned and provides turnkey tools for schools to leverage. To follow are some of their key findings.