People of all ages use social media like Facebook, Twitter and Blogspot. Students, in particular, make good use of it; and since it has become mobile, it can be difficult to deter tweeting and posting during class. Some teachers, however, have opted to not deter, but encourage the use of social media in the classroom. There are a number of educators who utilize applications like twitter to take questions from students, conduct in-class research and do classroom activities.

The arguments for applying social media in schools can be very compelling:

• Many social media skills apply to job skills.
• Students can be taught to to use social media in a constructive way.
• Social media can engage students that wouldn't normally speak up in class.

Facebook and other sites like it use a lot of applications that actually build skills for web-based learning. Social media could help to "fine-tune" students' web-based conduct and communication skills. Project New Media Literacies believes that if social media is being used, we should prepare students for it. They bring up a good point that even though many students may already know how to use computers and other media, that doesn't mean all students do. New Media Literacies teaches students cultural proficiency in using new media.

Students who do not speak in class may be more comfortable using Facebook or Twitter to communicate with their teachers. In fact, a number of teachers have already begun using Twitter to accept comments, questions and answers from students who don't normally get involved in discussions. Qwizdom sells devices that can be used by students to interact with the teacher during a lecture, but each device must be purchased individually and cared for by the students and the school administration. Twitter could be used as a free means to do the same thing with a technology that most students already have in their pockets.

What do you think, in the ClearLab Community? Tracking scores through Facebook has been a successful mechanic used by many games. Perhaps doing so with a game like Atomic Hero would encourage student activity. Can we use social media to enhance the learning experience? Do you think social media could help or hurt students who may be taking online courses or other web-based learning?

Education Closet.com actually provides some good ideas on using these web-based tools in class. Teachers: Could you see yourselves implementing any of these techniques?