Social Networking in Education

I have been doing a lot of reading and a lot of thinking about social networking and if it can be effectively used in the classroom as an educational tool.

I am always surprised to hear how many schools ban social networking in the classroom when it can be used to help improve students' learning.

Instead of banning social networking in the classroom, schools should be working on ways to educate students on the proper use(s) and teachers on the proper way(s) to implement it.

I have been doing a lot of reading this week and found some interesting articles that make the case that social networking needs to be part of a classroom curriculum:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10459983-238.html

http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

http://mashable.com/2010/11/04/twitter-student-engagement/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/10/twitter-in-the-classroom_n...