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The professor, Gloria Gadsden, thought she was only confiding sarcastically in her friends. But she told Inside Higher Ed she believed Facebook altered her settings so she had unknowingly allowed the "friends" of her online "friends" to read her postings.

Should teachers become virtual "friends" with their students?

Opinions are mixed. Opponents fear innocent educators will be branded sexual predators for chatting with students online, while proponents caution against overreacting to a powerful communication tool.

Most school districts, however, have yet to define the rules of virtual engagement. In the Houston area, many districts block access to social-networking sites on campus computers, but they don't have policies addressing after-hours use between educators and students.

An attorney for a suspended Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher said Thursday she never intended for the public to view negative comments she made about students on Facebook.

But the case is now part of a national debate that pits teachers' right to free expression against how communities expect them to behave.

She now faces possible firing for listing “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte” among her activities.

e district allows teachers to post personal information online, but had to take action because it affected the teacher's ability to interact with students and parents. She called the comments racially insensitive or offensive to students at Thomasboro Elementary School, where she teaches.

As a whole, the education industry is usually relatively slow to integrate technology into the classroom. In lots of schools nationwide, unbridled access to computers and the Internet is still the exception rather than the rule.

The moment students get outside of the classroom, on the other hand, social networking is almost a daily ritual.

Dedicated commercial Web 2.0 products and social networking applications are still too new and too rich for typical school leaders to afford. So third-party providers are more likely to offer technology services to students and their schools to expand their horizons in ways never before possible. For example, some school districts are going beyond e-mail technology and using collaboration software and online services to share information, host Web conferences and assign tasks and projects.