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we find that ownership of a mobile phone and participation in a variety of internet activities are associated with larger and more diverse core discussion networks. (Discussion networks are a key measure of people’s most important social ties.)

having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds.

For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race.

Librarians have the highest level of participation in online social networking sites, with 89 percent participation;

Women have slightly higher rates of participation in social networks than men;

Social Justice Teacher Preparation Technology Integration Networked Learning Twitter Parents as Partners – Building Learning Networks Posted by Shannon Smith on 2/20/12 • Categorized as Best Educational Practices,Distributed Leadership,Parental Involvement,Twitter 5 "fist bump" cc by Mark H. Anbinder on flickr Many schools are beginning to use social media to send out information to parents. Examples include twitter feeds and facebook pages. These initial forays into social media are a first step. They provide parents and the community with greater access to information regarding the school and the learning happening within its walls. A key facet of school leadership is developing relationships, both within staff and also with families and the community. This relationship building must include seeking feedback and listening. Most of this work is done face to face, through school events or outreach programs and even through informal conversations in the hallways or at drop off or pick up time. We live in a time w

Develop guidelines for use and share with your staff. Update your acceptable-use policy as well as personnel policies to reflect the district’s position on appropriate use of social networking sites. For ideas, check out the Social Media Guidelines for Schools wiki (http://socialmediaguidelines.pbworks.com). Many of the ideas presented here are adapted from this resource, which is meant to be shared and expanded as new information becomes available.

reate an official site for your school or district. To protect others’ privacy, set it up as a fan page so people can post comments or become a fan without giving you access to their personal pages. Commit staff time or resources to daily updates. Keep the tone conversational, but represent your organization and your position respectfully and responsibly. According to Pew Research, “44 percent of online adults have searched for information about someone whose services or advice they seek in a professional capacity.”

By forbidding the use of social media sites in 52% of our nation’s classrooms, schools are suppressing a learning revolution that is characterized by several truths: 1) facility with social media tools is critical to learning and working in the 21st century; 2) 75% of online adolescents are already social networking outside of school; 3) many students hack through Internet filters during class; and 4) exploration of social media sites is part of the adolescent identity.

Workshop reports that, on average, kids can actually stuff eight hours of media exposure into five hours of non-school time by media multitasking—phone texting while participating in seven separate Facebook chats and posting to Tumblr.

Dr. Howard Rheingold, on his final exam, asked his Stanford students to demonstrate their understanding of the literacies that accompany new media by creating, rather than writing, an essay. B

First, who will be regulated by the policy—i.e., will certain job titles or departments be excluded altogether or subject to less restrictions?

Second, what will be regulated—will all online activity be subject to the policy or only when the employee somehow associates himself with your organization (for example, by using his company e-mail account in his Twitter profile).

Third, why are you writing a policy in the first place? Is it to encourage employees to get out there and embrace social media, hopefully with some resulting benefits returning to the employer? Or are you trying to regulate online use of social-networking sites because productivity has become an issue? There are infinite variations of those two choices and your organization needs to settle on one before you start hashing out actual policy provisions.

Their new policy said school employees are not allowed to knowingly "friend" a student on Facebook or connect on any social networking site. School board members said they hope this helps eliminate acts of cyber-bullying, violent threats, and internet sexual predators.

Mecklenburg County does not have a section for social media, but all personnel must follow the policy guide for the code of ethics or action will be taken.

You market, and your students share, books using social networking tools like Shelfari, Good Reads, or LibraryThing.

Your students blog or tweet or network in some way about what they are reading

You review and promote books in your own blogs and wikis and other websites. (Also Reading2.0 and BookLeads Wiki for book promotion ideas)

GIVES EDUCATORS REAL-TIME PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Rather than waiting for school-sanctioned PD events and rather than having to locate experts on their own, Twitter gives educators access to a vast social network of other like-minded professionals. Questions posed to Twitter are often answered quickly, and special hashtags, such as #edchat, provide a forum for where teachers to address specific topics at scheduled times.

CREATES CUSTOMIZED PROFESSIONAL NETWORK: It isn’t just educators that are using Twitter to expand their access to experts. Twitter has become a key tool for creating personal learning networks, enabling anyone to build their own connections with other Twitter users, sharing learning resources and support. This support has been shown in several studies to help boost student achievement.