One way I would like to use social networking in my classroom is as a literary response. I like the idea of having students create Facebook (or other social networking pages) for characters from a novel we have read in class. Students could create profiles detailing interests and basic personal information for each character, could add friends for the character that are plausible, and also add pictures and video to supplement each literary person. You could also have students comment on each other's pages as if they were the character they are representing. The benefits to this I think are that it would be engaging to students because they love and are comfortable with social networking. The literary benefits are that it would require that students have a deep understanding of the character in order to represent them on a page and communicate in character with other students. In addition, it would be a social activity since the students would be communicating with each other while they are "in character".
Another fun way to include Facebook would be to use the weRead application, which sounds like an online book group. This would be a fun way for students to keep track of books they read in and out of class during the school year. It would also be a good place for students to discuss these books and recommend the interesting ones to each other. This might motivate reluctant readers to try books since recommendations from peers carries more weight than a teacher's does. It would also give me a chance to see what my students are reading and what they like, which will give me insight into their interests and help me suggest books that they might enjoy.
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