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    • (Mike Kemp/Getty Images)

      Teachers who worry that their students rely on Google and Wikipedia too much use them just as often.

      The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project surveyed 2,462 of America's middle- and high-school teachers last year about the effect of digital technologies in their classrooms. The study found that 76 percent of teachers “strongly agree" that search engines have conditioned students to expect to find information quickly and easily (and “equate research with Googling,” they say), while 71 percent agree that digital technologies "discourage students from finding and using a wide range of sources for their research."

      Yet 87 percent of the teachers surveyed use Wikipedia, compared with 53 percent of U.S. adult Internet users. More than 80 percent of the teachers surveyed say they use the Internet tool to gather material to help them create lesson plans or find content that will engage their students. And virtually all of the teachers surveyed (99 percent) say they use search engines to find information online.

      A similar study released by Pew last fall found that while most teachers said digital search tools had a "mostly positive" impact on their students' work, 87 percent felt the same tools are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” And 64 percent said they “do more to distract students than to help them academically.”

      According to the study released Thursday, more than three in four teachers have students access (79 percent) and submit (76 percent) assignments online. And 73 percent of teachers say "they and/or their students use their cellphones in the classroom or to complete assignments."

      “Digital technologies have become essential instructional tools for the vast majority of teachers in this study,” Kristen Purcell, Pew's associate research director, wrote of the findings.

      At the same time, 84 percent say digital technologies are leading to greater disparities between affluent and disadvantaged schools and school districts. Teachers of low-income students are much less likely than teachers of the highest-income students to use tablet computers (37 percent compared with 56 percent) or e-readers (41 percent vs. 55 percent) in their classrooms.

      From the report:

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    • The Pan Am Worldport in 1965 (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

      NEW YORK—Kal Savi was just 10 years old in 1971 when he took his first flight out of the “flying saucer” terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

      “It was just spectacular,” recalled Savi, the son of a former Pan Am employee who fell in love with the building.

      Built in 1960 as the Pan Am Worldport, the building, now known as JFK’s Terminal 3, was an early icon of New York’s entry into the modern jet age. Its white circular roof and ultrasleek glass-and-steel interior was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, adding an air of glamour to the growing passenger airline industry.

      But Savi, whose group Save the Worldport, plans to file paperwork with the New York State Preservation Office this week to win landmark status for Terminal 3, is the first to admit the building has seen better days. "It's sad to see how the place has deteriorated," he said.

      Now home to Delta Airlines, the Worldport is a shell of what it used to be. Its circular roof is cracked and peeling and, inside, white tarps on the ceiling catch plaster and other debris from falling on passengers. Once considered one of the world’s most stylish airport facilities, it was named the world’s worst airline terminal last year by the travel site Frommer's—and soon, if airport officials get their way, it will be demolished.

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    • Emerson College's Phi Alpha Tau fraternity has raised more than $17,000 for a member seeking to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

      Donnie Collins, 20, is seeking to transition from female to male. After his request to have the "top half" procedure covered by his health plan was denied, his fraternity brothers launched a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo. Collins has posted a video (above) thanking all those who have donated.

      Initially, according to NBC News, the goal was to raise $4,800—enough to surgically remove Collins' breasts. The fraternity has said that it will donate any excess funds to the Jim Collins Foundation, which raises money to help pay for "gender-confirming surgeries for transgender people." Rebekah Spicuglia of the Jim Collins Foundation explained that there is no family relation between Donnie and the late Jim Collins.

      Donnie Collins has said that his life has been transformed by his time with his fraternity brothers. In a YouTube clip uploaded by the

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