Are you friends with your kids on Facebook? Whether out of concern for their online safety, or simple curiosity about their online (and offline) activities, the majority of parents who use social media (92%) say that they monitor their kids’ Facebook use to some extent.

The problem is that the presence of so many adults on Facebook is, in part, causing teens to leave the social network in droves.

Many of these teens are migrating instead to new, smaller networks, where adults have less of a presence. Apps and social networks like Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat, are still tiny compared to the Facebook juggernaut, but they are rapidly growing, with teens making up a large percentage of their user bases.

Social media is popular with the vast majority of teens; 90% have used a social networking site. However for students in online schools in particular, whose friendships may form and grow online, and whose friends may be located far away geographically, social networks can play an even more important role in their lives. It’s so important then for kids to understand how to use these networks safely and responsibly, and for parents to be aware of what their kids are up to online.

Online students want flexibility. They want the freedom to do their work when they want, where they want, without being tied to a desk in a classroom. One tool that can help provide that flexibility is Google Drive. Drive is a cloud-based tool for creating, storing, and sharing files. It gives you the freedom to bring your files anywhere, no matter what device you’re using. Here are 7 reasons Google Drive is an awesome tool for students attending an online school.

Access your documents anywhere

Your files no longer live only on your home computer’s hard drive. Now they’re on your phone, your tablet, the library computer, or anywhere you are. Drive takes the place of gadgets like thumb drives which can easily break or get lost, and which aren’t compatible with mobile devices.

What led you to choose an online school?

For some parents, it’s a student who learns in a different way or struggles in a classroom setting. For others, it’s the need for a safer environment or a more personalized learning experience. Some choose an online school right from the start of their child’s education; others come to it after the traditional options have failed.

For the Hostetler family, the journey to K¹² began 14 years ago, before their children were even born. Tennille, a mom of two, shared that she was a senior in college when she made the decision to give her future children a different kind of school experience. While still in college, Tennille taught biology (her major) to an extraordinary group of homeschooled students. She observed their eagerness to learn, their maturity, and their kindness towards one another, and decided she wanted the same for her own children someday.

Years later, despite a background in teaching and a Master’s degree in Education, Tennille found that homeschooling on her own was not working for her family. The expense and time-commitment involved in choosing and purchasing curriculum and lesson-planning for multiple grade levels was taking its toll. That’s when she found K¹², and our partner school, Oregon Virtual Academy.

In our interview, Tennille shares her thoughts on the K¹² program, and offers some advice for other parents on transitioning from homeschooling to an online school.

The mobile photography explosion has revolutionized the way we capture the important (and not so important) events in our lives. Smartphone owners (and a great many “dumb phone” users too) now carry cameras with them everywhere they go, cameras with the ability to share photos with the world in an instant.

As a result, people today take many more pictures than we used to. We take photos of ourselves, our kids, and the big and small events in our day, right down to what we ate for lunch.

While camera phone technology is continually improving, these devices do have their limitations. Still, the best camera is the one you have with you. An iPhone is better than a Canon DSLR when the Canon is at home in a bag!

Ah, SimCity, the game in which you are mayor and architect, urban planner, zoning commissioner, and city treasurer, all rolled into one. For those of us who played the original games in the 1990s, SimCity might bring back fond memories of skillfully creating and managing your urban utopia, or frustration as you struggled to build a metropolis and keep those fickle citizens happy, while dealing with the occasional natural disaster (or Godzilla attack.)

Originally released in 1989 and spawning numerous spin-offs and successors over the years, a new 2013 edition of the iconic city-building game was launched last month.