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The National School Boards Association (USA) in partnership with research firm Grunwald Associates LLC, and the support of Microsoft, Newscorp and Verizon has just published a data-rich survey dissecting social and education related activity patterns by American students. ...And the results are more than interesting.

"China has been a notoriously difficult market to crack for overseas Web companies. Google, eBay and Yahoo, not to mention social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, have all struggled there, because of strong domestic competition as well as government blocking and censorship. But in its push into China, Softbank has avoided many of these headaches by focusing on e-commerce, local social networking sites and online games - sidestepping the difficulties of government censorship."

This article makes me wonder whether Softbank can bring new media and social networking, broadband Internet, etc. to China and allow China to continue it's censorship practices... IV

A Utah school district wants teachers and students to keep their distance when it comes to social networking on the Web. Many schools in Utah already have social networking policies in place, but Granite is the first to take so clear a stand. The Ogden School District already prevents employees and students from using any social media sites while school is in session.

While Facebook and MySpace are popular among students in Anderson County, you're not likely to see many teachers on the social networking sites. At least three school districts in Anderson County discourage teachers from having social networking sites at all. In Williamston-based Anderson School District 1, teachers are "strongly discouraged" from having social networking accounts, said Jane Harrison, spokeswoman for the district.

Despite Staples' libertarian attitude towards availability of print materials, many websites remain off-limits to students operating on the Staples network. These sites range from social networking sites such as Facebook to pornographic content.

China's extremely popular social networking site

The ban of Facebook and Twitter just served to strenghthen Chinese run social networks. One of which has "borrowed" the interface of Facebook. This article talks about a few of the popular Chinese social networking sites.

Ogden School District may be one of the next districts to propose a policy that would ban students and teachers from connecting on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Granite School District officials already proposed a similar policy in hopes of preventing inappropriate relationships between students and teachers or other faculty members.

Part III: How do these problems relate to activities across different areas of life - not only in formal educational institutions per se, but also in informal contexts and activities of learning? Using fresh data from the Trendstream Global Web Index-a recurring survey of more than 50,000 users of social platforms in 18 markets-we mapped by country how people are sharing information about themselves online. We looked at five broadcast behaviors: blogging, managing a social-network profile, sharing photos, sharing videos, and microblogging.

Great graphic of how various countries across the world are using social Internet or social media. Includes China and the U.S.

Social media and social networking sites are here to stay, and with or without rules, kids are going to use them. These are four tips for educators on how to develop a technology policy that seizes on social networking as a learning tool and teaches children how to use it responsibly.

""We'll work to produce a technology that is good for humanity, which will be good for democracy, which will be good for science.""

A group called the World Wide Web Foundation started to make sure the Internet is meeting society's needs.

Scaring children about the dangers of the Internet and blocking access to social-networking sites can do more harm than good, according to a report released Friday by a committee tasked by the U.S. government to explore online safety.

This report was published in July 2007 by the National School Boards Association, in conjunction with Verizon, Microsoft, and News Corporation. It is a 12 page report outlining the positives, gaps, expectations, and interests surrounding the use of social media in education.

Sample from PBWorks: The X School District realizes that part of 21st century learning is adapting to the changing methods of communication. The importance of teachers, students and parents engaging, collaborating, learning, and sharing in these digital environments is a part of of 21st century learning . To this aim, X School District has developed the following guideline to provide direction for instructional employees, students and the school district community when participating in online social media activities. Whether or not an employee chooses to participate in a blog, wiki, online social network or any other form of online publishing or discussion it is his or her own decision. Free speech protects educators who want to participate in social media, but the laws and courts have ruled that schools can discipline teachers if their speech, including online postings, disrupts school operations. The X School District social media guidelines encourage employees to participate in online social activities.

Social networking outside of the educational context is huge. Facebook is the 3rd most popular site in Turkey.

blocking of social networking "should be avoided"

Finding the right balance between acceptable use and what is unacceptable use in schools can be a difficult task for school administrators. That said, technologies designed for network security can help schools take advantage of these technologies while ensuring students aren't districted while in class.