For the past few years educators have sought a way to utilize social networking to communicate and collaborate with other teachers, parents and students. From Twitter to Facebook teachers have created streams to alert parents of upcoming assignments, Q&A pages and be available for students long after the school doors have closed
Security and privacy issues have run amuck with teachers ‘friending’ students on Facebook. In fact, teachers have lost their job for placing school administratively deemed inappropriate photos on their wall. My school district has mandated that educators follow certain guidelines for teachers to adhere to when students or their parents attempt to become our social network friend. Some people may call this extreme but I view said guidelines as a form of protection for all involved.
One of the largest cellphone use studies of users in Denmark found no link between cellphone use and brain cancer. However these results should be looked a closely as they did not distinguish between corporate subscriptions or those using cellphones without long term contracts.