Is Facebook a Learning Tool?

Photo from Franco Bouly

So far at ISTE10, I've been hearing a lot about social networking in education. It started at Edubloggercon on Saturday, where there were multiple discussions about learning spaces, PLNs, and then Web 3.0, which is a term I'm sure Ben Grey dislikes.

Here's my takeaway so far:

• If you ask Jeff Utecht, we should be integrating Facebook via the marketing departments at our schools to gain some leverage. His experience is that students asked to use Facebook as a user group tool. Whether his experience in an international school translates to American public schools remains to be seen.

• If you ask David Jakes, students say that they don't want Facebook at school. He says student's say, "stay out of my space."

• If you ask Will Richardson, inspiring students to leverage students to use Facebook, whether it's as group or fan pages, might be the most effective way to incorporate Facebook into learning at this point. He says, "we're in a disruptive phase right now," where everything is basically being sorted out.

I think social networking does have a place in education. But I think the biggest question is, should we be using Facebook?  Or should we be staying out of their space, using alternative tools like Buddy Press or Ning, to inform or shape student uses of Facebook?

What do you think?