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At New Milford High School in New Jersey, the school鈥檚 official page keeps its 1,100 fans updated on sports events and academic achievements. Students who traveled to Europe this spring for a tour of Holocaust sites blogged daily about their experiences, and received comments from all over the world. Other students have used the video voice service Skype to talk to their peers in states like Iowa for school projects.

For Principal Eric C. Sheninger, the micro-blogging tool has become his mainstay for professional development as well as school promotion. Through Twitter contacts, he formed a partnership with a company that donated technology equipment and training to the school, and he linked up with CBS News, which brought national exposure to the high school鈥檚 programs.

鈥淚 used to be the administrator that blocked every social-media site, and now I鈥檓 the biggest champion,鈥� Sheninger says. 鈥淚鈥檓 just someone who is passionate about engaging students and growing professionally, and I鈥檓 using these free tools to do it.鈥�

Just a few years ago, social networking meant little more to educators than the headache of determining whether to penalize students for inappropriate activities captured on Facebook or . Now, teachers and students have a vast array of social-networking sites and tools鈥攆rom to and 鈥攖o draw on for such serious uses as professional development and project collaboration. Educators who support using social networking for education say it has become so ubiquitous for students鈥攚ho start using sites like and when they are in elementary school鈥攖hat it just makes sense to engage them this way.

Though teachers and students are now pushing learning beyond the borders of the classroom through social networking, that move also comes with hurdles, including the fact that many schools still block access to such sites within their walls. School officials must also confront the uncertainties and questions surrounding privacy issues, proper management, and cyber security when they open their doors to social-networking sites.

But it鈥檚 a world that some educators are realizing students feel at home in and is unlikely to disappear. A study by the Washington-based released early this year found that 73 percent of Americans ages 12 to 17 now use social-networking websites, up from 55 percent in 2006.

鈥淪ocial networking is not going to go away,鈥� says Steve Hargadon, the creator of the 42,000-member network on Ning, a popular site among educators. (鈥淓ducators Eye Ning鈥檚 Move to Pay Model,鈥� this issue.) He鈥檚 also a social-learning consultant for the ed-tech company , based in Pleasanton, Calif.

鈥淭hese are so powerful in terms of learning,鈥� Hargadon says of such tools.

In some schools, social networking has changed the way educators teach and students learn, says Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, the 21st-century-learning specialist at the private, K-8 Martin J. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Fla.

In January 2009, Tolisano launched her . The goal was to introduce her school鈥檚 students to peers in countries around the globe. She built a social-networking site using Ning for teachers from all countries who wanted to participate, eventually attracting 300 members.

Tolisano says she sets up a meeting between classes using . Students prepare a list of questions (What鈥檚 the weather like there? How big is your town or city? What continent are you on?) and chat with students in Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and Spain, among a long list of others.

The Florida students also have different jobs to do during the call. One might be a photographer, documenting the meet-and-greet. Others place the location of the class they鈥檙e talking with on a . Still other students might serve as Twitter 鈥渂ackchannelers,鈥� who send out tweets鈥攖he short messages Twitter is designed to convey鈥攁s the live event is happening. Classes even added 鈥渇act checkers,鈥� who go back to make sure the information provided is accurate.

One group of Gottlieb students had just read a book about Orca whales, Tolisano says, and wanted to know more, so they contacted a class in British Columbia, where whale watching is a common pastime. Within a week, the British Columbia students hopped on a boat and shot video of a pod of Orcas, which they sent to the students in Florida, Tolisano says.

鈥淚t creates a global awareness that there is a wider world out there and that we are not alone,鈥� Tolisano says. 鈥淭hey find it鈥檚 just as easy to collaborate with a class in England as with the class next door.鈥�

In addition, Skype is so simple to use that just about any teacher can typically handle it with a few minutes of training and minimal equipment. It鈥檚 nearly as simple as dialing the phone, but on the computer.

Social networking can mean using ready-made platforms like Ning or Facebook, but it can also be about networks that schools create specifically for their students. , a grant-funded program that uses smartphones as teaching tools in a handful of North Carolina school districts, allows students to instant-message their peers and teachers with questions on math homework at any time of the day or night. Students can also post questions and answers to school math blogs, where a student struggling with algebra could find several classmates willing to walk him or her through a problem or even post video of the best way to solve it.

鈥淭he idea that kids would post blog items on solving linear equations was treated as a laughable concept鈥� by the adults before the project launched, says Shawn Gross, the managing director for , an educational technology firm based in Arlington, Va., that oversees Project K-Nect. 鈥淭he first week we had 75 students post videos on solving linear equations.鈥�

Social networking among students has become one of Project K-Nect鈥檚 most popular features, he says.

At New Milford High School, it was the idea of keeping in touch with parents that first prompted Principal Sheninger to look into Twitter during the last school year. That first foray changed his professional life. After tweeting to parents for a few months, he began to reach out to other educators and collaborate. 鈥淎t that point, the way I used social media鈥� metamorphosed, he says. 鈥淚 used it to look for new ideas and new resources, to forge new relationships, and as a means of public relations.鈥�

But Sheninger found his students weren鈥檛 as entranced by Twitter as he was. In fact, the Pew study bears that out: It found that only 8 percent of teenagers online say they ever use Twitter. The Pew study found that 37 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds were using Twitter, the largest percentage of any age group. Members of New Milford鈥檚 student government suggested Sheninger create a Facebook page for the high school instead. In April, the school site was born.

While students haven鈥檛 become enamored with Twitter yet, it has become a hot spot for educators to find professional development and resources. One of the most popular types of educator events on Twitter are 鈥淓dChats鈥濃�攐ne-hour conversations that take place every Tuesday around a particular topic. The chats are the brainchild of several educators, including Thomas Whitby, a co-creator of a 3,700-member Ning site called , for 鈥減rofessional-learning network.鈥�

Social networking is allowing teachers, who often feel isolated in their classrooms, to revolutionize the way they connect with others, says Whitby, a former English teacher who is now an adjunct professor of education for secondary English at St. Joseph鈥檚 College in New York City.

Teachers are 鈥渇inding out about a whole wide range of options beyond what is done in their own building,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople are trying more things based on recommendations from teachers around the world.鈥�

They can get those recommendations every Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time during EdChat. Moderators choose a topic, and for an hour educators everywhere can ask questions and chime in. All chat contributors 鈥渉ashtag鈥� or label their comments with 鈥�#edchat,鈥� to make sure they appear on a Twitterstream. The event was so popular that creators had to set up an EdChat for earlier in the day (starting at noon Eastern time) to accommodate international teachers in differing time zones.

A recent EdChat tackled alternatives to traditional grading. Some of the comments, limited to Twitter鈥檚 140 characters per tweet, included a suggestion for rating creativity and innovation. One tweet mentioned a pilot program evaluating students on individual learning goals. Someone else asked, if a student is 鈥渨orking at 100% of his ability and is failing, do we grade on achievement or ability?鈥�

Whitby says that after the chats, which sometimes receive more than 2,000 tweets in an hour, many educators discuss the topics in greater depth on their blogs.

Steven W. Anderson, an instructional technologist at Clemmons Middle School in the 52,000-student Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system in North Carolina, says social networking is revolutionizing the way teachers improve their skills.

鈥淚n the past, professional development has been so formal and rigid. You go to these events scheduled by the district because this is what they think you need,鈥� says Anderson, an EdChat moderator. 鈥淲ith social networking allowing teachers to connect one-to-one and one-to-many, they have the professional development that they really desire.鈥�

In fact, Ning, a social-networking platform, is full of sites dedicated to different specialties鈥攅verything from geography to teaching English as a second language or first-year teachers.

On Twitter, Anderson says, he鈥檚 constantly being pointed to different Web sites and applications that can aid teachers. And if a teacher has a question or needs a recommendation for a site, Twitter can help with instant suggestions.

鈥淭witter is like a giant conference that鈥檚 on all the time,鈥� Anderson says. 鈥淚 always know I can find something I can use. That鈥檚 huge.鈥�

Teacher Shelly Terrell, who writes the blog , says she鈥檚 found value in different types of social-networking sites when it comes to professional development. Terrell, who is currently teaching in Germany at the German-American Institute, also holds weekly field trips into the virtual world of Second Life for teachers new to the site.

鈥淚 take the teachers to a safe ground,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e on your own in Second Life, you might end up where you don鈥檛 want to be as an educator.鈥�

In Second Life, a virtual world where users interact as avatars, or electronic representations of themselves, the North Carolina Community College System has developed an island for teachers to show them how to work with audio and video. Though Terrell can鈥檛 visit that world with her students, since users are required to be at least 18 years old, she says the virtual field trips can be beneficial for teachers, particularly in 鈥渆xperiencing鈥� other countries.

If she takes teachers to Second Life鈥檚 virtual Venice, for example, they can ride a gondola, meet people speaking Italian, and observe the way people dress and the culture.

But many educators who see the value in social networking face significant obstacles to incorporating it into their school days.

Both Twitter and Facebook are blocked by many school computer networks. Even Sheninger, who has had great success withhis school鈥檚 official Facebook page, says the site still isn鈥檛 accessible from inside the school鈥檚 walls.

鈥淥ne thing I ran into a lot in the U.S. was filtering or blocking,鈥� says Terrell. To use some social-networking sites or tools, 鈥淚 had to get the technology director and let him know specifically what I was using it for, and it was a long process getting sites unblocked.鈥�

In addition, some district officials remain skeptical that such social-networking tools really benefit education, worried that they just open the door to Internet-security problems and the possibility of cyberbullying.

In April, the principal of Ridgewood, N.J.鈥檚 Benjamin Franklin Middle School, Anthony Orsini, sent out an e-mail to his students鈥� parents asking them to bar their children from using social-networking sites to prevent online bullying. 鈥淭here is absolutely no reason for any middle school student to be a part of a social-networking site,鈥� Orsini wrote in the e-mail.

Also in April, Utah鈥檚 68,300-student Granite school district barred teachers and students from 鈥渇riending鈥� each other on Facebook. And Louisiana state law requires all school districts to document every electronic interaction between teachers and students through a 鈥渘onschool-issued device, such as a cellphone or e-mail account.鈥�

But it remains unclear what all of that means for social-networking tools and sites being used for purely educational purposes.

Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University, in Ohio, and a Facebook expert, says not only have educators put their careers at risk with inappropriate exchanges with students on sites like Facebook, but shealso believes it鈥檚 not the sort of place for any educational exchange.

鈥淔acebook is too much of an intrusion into students鈥� personal and social lives for educators to be using it as an educational method,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 not against collaborative, online education with students, but I am against merging their personal home, private family world with something that is required for a class activity. Millions of things can go wrong.鈥�

Schools also need to pay close attention to federal laws like the Children鈥檚 Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, or COPPA, which seeks to protect children鈥檚 privacy and bars most children under 13 from participating in many websites. 91制片厂视频 officials should also consider other federal laws like the Children鈥檚 Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, which requires schools to provide Internet filtering to prevent access by students to offensive content over the Internet, and the Family 91制片厂视频al Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, which protects the privacy of student information.

In fact, most social-networking sites like Facebook and Ning require users to be at least 13 to participate. That鈥檚 why private wikis or blogs or other social-networking tools designed for school use can often be more beneficial in such situations, says Terrell, the teacher and blogger. For example, she often uses a tool called VoiceThread with even her youngest students. That free service allows users to leave voice comments about pictures, video, or drawings, and it enables users to doodle or draw on the screen as they comment.

In Terrell鈥檚 case, she had her kindergartners create a book in VoiceThread with a kindergarten class in Turkey. The youngsters drew 鈥減ages鈥� and then spoke into a microphone to record parts of the story.

鈥淧arents are very big on privacy, and this can be private,鈥� Terrell says of VoiceThread. 鈥淚t gives the teacher control in terms of filtering.鈥�

But Terrell says fears about how to proceed with social-networking sites and tools should not prevent educators from using them.

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 take that golden opportunity to teach students about the responsibility of using these things, you lose a teachable moment,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f schools block them, they鈥檙e preventing students from learning the skills they need to know.鈥�