From a teacher's point of view, if we're going to TALK about how we need to teach students 21st Century skills and use 21st Century technology, then we need to actually DO it, or we're being pretty hypocritical. Social networking is one of the major ways students will communicate and learn in the 21st century, so how can we justify NOT allowing its use in schools? Instead of expending our energy as educators preventing students from using social networking for inappropriate, unproductive purposes, we should be encouraging students to use social networking for productive, useful, appropriate purposes.

Even though I can't get to Facebook at school (although I know many students DO know how to get there, which means teachers are the only ones who don't), I do use it with my students from home in many helpful ways. When I took students to Greece and Rome 2 summers ago, I posted all my photos with captions to Facebook, and many of my world history students visited the photos, commented on them, asked me questions, and learned far more about these places than they would have in a traditional classroom. When we missed so many snow days last year, I communicated with my students and gave assignments via Facebook. When students didn't understand something on their summer projects, many of them messaged me on Facebook for clarification. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what could be done! The possibilities for learning are endless!

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