Willozap, I’m looking for studies. I’ve based my opinion on my own experience in school, and I’m in touch with students at several universities that have expressed interest. Granted, it could be a biased opinion given their tech leanings, but a part of the issue comes from so many students not having a better understanding of what technologies are available. We’re talking about communication/collaboration tools, technologies that will enhance what students traditionally do within classrooms.

Corrinew, that’s an excellent point. Social media is changing at a rate that few can keep up with, and each new application blurs lines, often legal, that haven’t faced ambiguous challenges. I’d like to reach out to some legal experts to get their thoughts and will share them in a future post.

Barry, one can only hope…but as time lapses, what’s considered innovative today becomes mainstream tomorrow. The challenge lies in understanding how to adapt to the constantly changing digital landscape, and to understand the principles behind the tools.

To all, teachers are having a hard time just plain teaching. It’s true that it takes an investment of time and effort to learn, but what we’re ultimately doing is trying to equip both teachers and students with an understanding of what’s going on now and what will become the norm soon. Change is happening, slowly in some places, but inevitable in all.

One can hope that social media affects these teachers personally (probably best demo group for Facebook) and they bring it to work..

For years we put up walls around our classrooms in an effort to protect our students’ privacy, mainly because noone really knew how to interpret the Family Rights and Privacy Act (Ferpa). In the past, some professors got into trouble for seemingly little things such as having students provide feedback to one another through in-class peer grading exercises. Students complained it was a violation of Ferpa laws. Granted, the courts ruled it wasn’t, but the point is that lots of professors around the country have had FERPA hammered into their heads and might be fearful of getting themselves into hot waters for removing the physical walls of their classrooms and sharing the students’ work with the rest of the world.

FERPA laws were revised in December 2008 to clarify a lot of these things, but it may take a while for universities and professors to feel comfortable enough to fully embrace social media as a learning tool. That said, there are a lot of educators out there who already fully embrace these technologies and I’m currently guest editing a special issue of the Electronic Journal of Communication that will feature some of the best practices in social media education. So keep your eyes open for that special issue!

Just asking, but some data would be nice.