technology and innovation

New research shows the mere presence of your smartphone – even if it isn’t ringing and you aren't staring at it – undermines your ability to perform certain tasks.

While its record of battling propaganda online is not a strong one, the U.S. government has enlisted Pakistani, American, and Italian college students to counter violent extremist groups like white nationalist organizations and ISIS.

Summer melt. That's what college counselors call it when high school students make a tuition deposit at the end of their senior year, but don't start their freshman year in college. It's a major problem in the U.S., especially for low-income, first generation college students. Now, a Boston-based nonprofit is taking a tech-savvy approach to combat summer melt.

* This story originally aired on WGBH News on September 20, 2016.

This month, as parents packed up minivans and then dropped their kids off at college, unpacking their teenager’s brain might have been their biggest challenge. New research shows the teenage brain is not fully mature, even at the end of college.

Employers in America are having a crisis in confidence when it comes to college graduates and their preparation for the workplace. The latest Gallup poll shows only 11 percent of U.S. business leaders ‘strongly agree’ college graduates have the skills they need to succeed. That’s why our On Campus team traveled to Germany, where a different approach to higher education is yielding strong results.

It's a stressful time of year for students who are preparing to make their college decisions. But the next step - figuring out how much it's all going to cost - can be even more stressful. Now there's a new effort to make that complicated process a little simpler.

On campus, many cybersecurity threats are introduced by students, professors, administrators, prompting some universities to look beyond protections on the technical side and focus on educating their user communities on safer computing habits.

Libraries on college campuses around the country are upgrading their facilities and rethinking their physical and digital collections. 

Colleges and universities are embracing new software to supplement existing systems -- including the phonathon -- and reach potential donors.