The digital landscape that you and your kids have to navigate has exploded. Mobile technology, apps, instant access, digital content. The stuff is everywhere. And all of that stuff is changing how we do school.

But sometimes it feels like there is just too much. Sometimes it’s easier to just throw up our hands and try to ignore everything out there. How do we sort through all of it? We need unbiased and relevant information that can help us find the best of what we’re looking for.

And now there’s help. Enter Graphite, a free tool designed just for educators.

Graphite is a service from nonprofit Common Sense Media designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital content for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers.

You can trust Common Sense Media. It is the largest, independent nonprofit organization committed to helping kids, teachers, and families manage media and technology in life and learning. Their technology education curriculum is being used in more than 55,000 schools across the U.S.

Graphite was built by teachers for teachers. Their team of professional educators –- early childhood development experts, doctorates in education, and teachers with hands-on classroom experience –- rates each website, game, and app on Graphite based on our detailed rubric. Every product on Graphite is rigorously reviewed to dig deeper into what and how your students will learn with it.

Graphite makes it easy for teachers to find the best digital learning tools by presenting them with independent ratings and reviews based on rigorous rubric that evaluates learning potential. The site couples in-depth analysis of ed-tech products with insights from teachers on how best to use them in a classroom. Reading a review on the site is like listening to advice from a valued mentor with deep experience leveraging technology in the classroom.

You start with a ton of apps, software, and websites. Use the filters located at the top to narrow down what you see.

Once you get a decent list, clicking on the individual items brings up a detailed review of that item. Each review is tagged with a wide range of keywords allowing you to expand your search. You get screenshots, related items, teacher field notes, and detailed suggestions for classroom use.

You can also do a keyword search that brings up tons of results. Don’t like the filter / keyword search options? Take advantage of the Pinterest-like action in Graphite. Logged-in users create their own boards of their favorites – you get access to these boards. And as a logged-in user yourself, you can create your own fav boards, making it easy to find your stuff.

Need more reason to use Graphite? Check out their video.