Someday soon, like the pencil, projector, and word processor before them, the smart board and smartphone will simply be things that teachers and students use on the way to learning. Until then, teachers will struggle to answer a myriad of difficult questions about a wide range of new digital tools that have burst forth on the educational landscape. What makes a new tool worth learning and adopting? How is it best learned? Who can help?

To answer these questions and more, Dave Saltman, an experienced education journalist and Tech Talk columnist for Harvard Education Letter,...

Someday soon, like the pencil, projector, and word processor before them, the smart board and smartphone will simply be things that teachers and students use on the way to learning. Until then, teachers will struggle to answer a myriad of difficult questions about a wide range of new digital tools that have burst forth on the educational landscape. What makes a new tool worth learning and adopting? How is it best learned? Who can help?

To answer these questions and more, Dave Saltman, an experienced education journalist and Tech Talk columnist for Harvard Education Letter,...