Social networks such as Facebook allow people to stay connected or get connected with physically distant persons in ways not otherwise possible. Recent news from Iran exemplifies this concept in ways most of us probably had not imagined. Navid Mansourian works for Facebook and is an Iranian immigrant. He recently wrote a column posted on Facebook regarding the role of Facebook in Iranian protest organization. In it he reports how in 1999 a protest, similar to the most recent one, was successfully suppressed by the government. Mansourian attributes the Iranian people’s lack of access to major media outlets for the government’s successful suppression then. However, he notes that barrier to major media access is now removed. “As soon as my Iranian friends share an update about what’s happening in their country, their friends are amplifying their voice by sharing it outside of the country to their friends, who then can spread it even further.” Thus, persons are empowered to act and affect change in seemingly impossible circumstances.

Since the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, education policy leaders have worked tirelessly toward an education revolution. Nonetheless, education reform has been disappointingly slow for a bevy of reasons. However, with the example of Iran, perhaps effective educational reform is more imminent. The May issue of Educational Researcher  may be evidence supporting that notion. It is dedicated to the role of Web 2.0 technologies–those that invite and facilitate user participation and interaction–in education and research. The articles and comments explore how these technologies enable knowledge generation, literacy and identity.

For example, educators can easily form, join, and participate in on-line professional learning communities. Teachers can develop lessons inviting student interaction and collaboration in social contexts which contribute to deeper conceptual understandings of content and retention. Parents can monitor and provide feedback regarding student learning activities. But social networking also has its dark side.

News reports of inappropriate content posted to their Facebook page by teachers are not uncommon. For example, see Area teachers post questionable content on Facebook which highlights the findings of a search done on some Florida school districts which turned up some untoward pages of some teachers. When some of those teachers were contacted by the reporter, they reported they thought they had secured their page so that students particularly would not see it.

Cyber socializing differs from real socializing in that on the web we cannot control who is accessing what portion of our personal profile when, as we can in person. In person, we align our social interaction with others depending on our relationship with them, whether they are friends, relatives, colleagues or prospective clients. Unless you consciously adjust your settings, you are not making these distinctions on-line. A NYTimes.com article, On Networking Sites, Learning How Not to Share provides some guidance on how you can adjust your privacy settings for Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn–a professional networking social site.

Middle School Portal 2 (MSP2) http://www.msteacher2.org/Math & Science Portal project has started our own social network - please visit the site and consider joining one of the groups and participating in a discussion.