Conversations about the use of ­social networks in education have become commonplace both online and off. Teachers with Twitter handles, for example, encounter discussions of this topic on a daily basis. Regardless of whether or how social networks are used in schools, mounting evidence shows that social media is already a large part of students' personal lives and most certainly will be a part of their personal and professional lives in the future.

Facebook Without Facebook

• When students see a graphic of a Facebook wall, they likely recognize it for what it is: a means of delivering and receiving information about themselves and others. Their inherent understanding of this connection can be applied to a variety of subjects and classroom learning activities, ­resulting in student-generated content that resembles the ubiquitous Facebook wall.
• Social Studies: Student groups could be assigned a specific ­person, event or historical concept to research. Each group could then build a fake wall that conveys the depth of their understanding of the assigned topic. For example, a group of students could capture the ­similarities and differences among U.S. presidents through role-playing. Each student would embody a different president, and together, they'd build a wall — complete with photos, wall posts, "likes" and comments — that portrays the way the presidents would interact with one another if they all were alive today.
• Science: Students in a chemistry class could be assigned a particular element for which to create a wall. Questions students might ­consider include: Which elements would they classify as "friends"? Which elements would post ­incendiary remarks on their wall? How would they reveal information about their element, such as its melting and boiling points or number of electrons?
• Math: Students could create fake walls for the individuals who ­developed certain mathematical theorems. I once saw a series of posts on a fake wall for Pythagoras about the mathematician's right triangle theorem. The posts' author, who identified himself as "future ­student," commented that Pythagoras had made his life more difficult by forcing him to memorize and understand what a2 + b2 = c2 meant.
• English: Students could create fake walls that reveal similarities and differences between books by the same author, books from different time periods or even books from different genres. What dating advice might Edward from Twilight give to Romeo, for example?

Perhaps more important than the content we teach are the life skills we model by embracing these ­concepts. Using social media in the classroom allows teachers to remind students of the power their words can have online. This understanding will be crucial as they head to ­college, start a career and become adults in a ­digital world.

Written by Elaine Plybon