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This article views social networking as practiced distinctly in groups, communities, and networks. Drawing from experience coordinating a teachers’ community of practice for the past decade, the evolution of what was initially a group into a community of practice is illustrated, as well as how social media enables one CoP to interact with others to become part of a distributed learning network. Participants in the networked communities continually leverage each other’s professional development, and what is modeled and practiced in transactions there is applied later in their teaching practices. Recidivism is a problem in technology training for education. Teachers can be shown how to use social media, but unless they use it themselves they are unlikely to change their practices. There is evidence that teachers trained in programs where their instructors used social media (modeled it) are more comfortable with technology than if their instructors did not themselves use these tools. This article suggests how teachers can interact with numerous communities of practice and distributed learning networks where other participants are modeling to and learning from one another optimal ways of using social media in teaching. This strongly suggests that teachers must be trained not only in the use of social media, but through its use.

What is the media we love to hate? Right now, it's social media.

Social Media is an easy target

When people process information that challenges their view of the world, many lose the ability to think critically. They seek cognitive consonance and comfort.

Henderson and Mapp (2002) suggest the following action steps to establish effective family engagement programs:

Recognize that all parents, regardless of income, education level, or cultural background are involved in their children's education and want their children to do well in school;

Link family and community engagement efforts to student learning;

This year's report cited five challenges that the authors identified as "critical." They include: Inadequate digital media literacy training for teachers; Out of date learning materials and teaching practices; Lack of agreement on how education should evolve, despite widespread agreement that change is needed; A failure of education institutions to adapt to informal education, online education, and home-based learning; and Lack of support for or acknowledgement of forms of learning that usually occur outside the classroom. On this last point, the report said: "Beyond the classroom walls, students can take advantage of online resources, explore ideas and practice skills using games and other programs they may have on systems at home, and interact with their extensive--and constantly available--social networks. Within the classroom, learning that incorporates real life experiences like these is not occurring enough and is too often undervalued when it does take place. This challenge is an important one in K-12 schools, because it results in a lack of engagement in learning on the part of students who are seeking some connection between their world, their own lives, and their experience in school."