If a child becomes involved in a dangerous situation because of his/her internet use, parents would likely sue the school, district, teacher(s) involved, and win. Although this would be the rare occurence, it would, nevertheless, be a decisive factor in allowing use of social networking at school. Otherwise, I agree that there are abundant reasons to utilize all opportunities for learning at school. The future is fluid and will definitely include all things electronic.

Schools which do not acknowledge and integrate the new technologies used by children and youth relegate themselves to becoming progressively more irrelevant.

John Dewey said, "If we educate our children today the way we did yesterday, we are robbing them of their future.". WELL. We can find a lot of truth in this, even today, right? Ask yourself that question.

I teach in a high school in which every student, grades 9-12, are issued a laptop computer at the beginning of the year. I teach Spanish, and my textbook is now online. Our math textbooks are also online. I would love to know who thought this was going to be another educational revolution towards preparing students for their lives beyond high school. I would ask him/her if they actually knew the nature of the beast, so to speak, regarding highly social and very savvy computer users.

The value of the plethora of information that we have access to on the world wide web is incredible, I will readily admit. I am continually amazed by what I and my students find. However, I strongly believe that issuing each student a laptop is an educationally irresponsilbe idea. High school students care mostly about one thing...themselves and their social lives. Handing them computers, even with filters and restrictions, has become one more job for teachers to monitor. I feel like a policewoman. No matter how tight a ship I run in my classroom, the minute I ask those screens to open, the students are GONE from my class, and from me, a bilingual Spanish-speaking teacher with a Master's Degree in Spanish to boot! I am irrelevant background noise rather than an educator. The students of today are so tech-savvy that they will find a way to get around the filters and rules in less than 10 seconds, flat.

Then there is the nightmare of technical problems. Broken screens, irresponsible handling of these expensive machines, and the plethora of other problems inundate classrooms, disrupting everyone. It is so much easier to open a book than to get kids online with passwords, usernames, etc. Instructional time is not only diminished, but the focus on the subject as well.

A recent article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, by Michael Buega, of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University, dated Jan. 2007, chronicles a study conducted at William and Mary college. Professors have begun resorting to placing restrictions on the use of laptops in their classrooms, as they have found what I am finding on the high school level.

Across the country professors are seeing failing grades. One professor at the University of Missouri reported that the last straw for her was a student who emailed her complimenting her on her outfit that day. The time stamp on the email was during the time this professor had been lecturing! Obviously, students aren't paying attention.

When some institutions of higher learning either banned or strictly limited computer use in classrooms, grades began to rise significantly. I am quite sure that that would be the case in the school in which I teach. The school in which I teach is on probation for not meeting state standards. I have posters in my classroom that remind students that the state math and reading assessments are approaching. Our target goals? In math, 57%, and reading 73%. If these are the best goals we can set towards reaching for excellence in education, we are probably making John Dewey roll over in his grave. I actually lose sleep over this. I can hardly live with myself!

I do my best every single day. I expect the same of my students. But with their young eyes continually glued and cued into computer screens, focusing more on their social lives than education, my job has become far less satisfying, and as one history professor in Iowa did when cell phones began going off during his classes, I too may submit my resignation soon.

I do think schools should find a way to effectively regulate such networks. As educational institutions, it is our responsibility to help our students develop skills that will assist them in becoming well-rounded citizens. Ignoring social networks is to turn a blind eye to a challenge that faces young people---that is setting adequate boundaries for themselves. As their brains continue the development process, adolescents find it very difficult to make well-informed, logical decisions. It is our job to assist them through this biological hurdle and present them with ways to use the social networks they are accustomed to and have them use them appropriately and perhaps even with educational outcomes. Ignore it and they'll go unchecked. As technology continues to progress by leaps and bounds, teachers, administrators, and parents cannot idly huddle in a corner cowering in fear and thinking about the "good old days"--they never really existed.

Why do students prefer to use these networking sites versus focusing on the pedagogy of the day?

Answer that and you will have taken the first step toward relevant material in an educational context.

May we not learn?

While I whole heartedly agree there is PLENTY of inappropriate material and "stalker" behavior going on, it is a place were all adults can get a quick education on what is going on in the lives of well everyone from the way to young... to --well frankly --professionals. I have been able to peek into the emotional frustrations of my child and her friends as they went thru high school and it gave me lots of opportunity to.. go out for a coffee..... pick up a book and leave it in an obvious spot, or a relavant magazine article under a cute magnet on the fridge door....even an Email with a link.... with out generating too many "mom! you are so nosey!" comments over nearly 7 years.... We as the ADULT have to learn to weave thru this informaiton and discern what is important and what is "static". Frankly, school administratiors could head off a lot of frustrating student behaviors by being the adult instead of the prison warden.... USE THE INFORMATION AS A TEACHING TOOL... wow I feel like I am smacking my forhead like in a V-8 commercial. ME.. .oh im no one in particular.. I am a mom, a subsitiute teacher for 5 years... a PTO officer for... 13 straight years.... no one inparticualr at all

I agree with Armando. However, I also believe we must open our minds to the possibilities and power of social networking. We need to remember that our students are social; often their peers are the most important people in their lives. They must not only become sophisticated about appropriate and safe use of these tools, they must help us to understand how social networking can improve learning.

Remember the days when we used to encourage pen pals? Social networking might be pen pals on steroids!

As Carl Jung said "what you resist persists". The more we try to regulate every move or exposure children get the more they will seek it out. The more they feel restricted the more likely they are to take greater risks. Given the number of users out there and the miniscule number of problems that actually surface it seems out of proportion.

The problem is every new story is a local news story...so if Susie gets in some difficulty in Des Moines, Iowa every newscaster treats it like there is a predator around every keyboard. Lets keep it in perspective and rather than regulate establish a relationship with kids.

An elementary perspective: I think that allowing those social sites needs to be regulated on a case-by-case basis. I don't like the idea of having MySpace or Facebook for use in a classroom because of how it is harder to regulate from a teachers standpoint. I think there are other alternatives that offer very similar products (i.e., Gaggle, for one, which we use) but have a filter feature that allows teachers to more closely watch what is being done inside the school. Using that forum, you are still able to teach the same type of content (what to or not to give out, etc.) and allow similar interaction as those other sites.

I agree with Mr. DiFinzio. Encouraging proper cyber behavior is part of a modern education. Another concern for me has been that students often post their Web projects for school on sites such as Yahoo Geo Cities. Unfortunately, Big Brother often tends to block access to these sites out of fear of inappropriate contact during school time. Although I understand everyone's concern, isn't this cutting off our nose to spite our face? Instead of the 400th sequel of Dateline catches the Internet predator, why don't they do a special on the positive ways that the Net can be used for educating the N Generation.