Research: Educational Benefits of Socialnetworking Are Found

Now that our kids fletch train and buses to go early to school it's very important that studies like this one give parents and educators the peace to keep building up socialnetworks thanks to the knowledge and skills kids and teenagers have acquired. Catherine Gewertz reports in Education Week and says the survey was commissioned by the Alexandria, Va.-based National School Boards Association and among other things they've found that 96 percent of adolescents with access to cellphones and Internet-capable computers use them to build and maintain social networks(Nothing new here, though).

She also states: "The online survey of 1,277 9- to 17-year-olds found that 50 percent said they talk specifically about their schoolwork when they text-message by cellphone, or use their computers to instant-message, blog, or visit social-connection sites such as Facebook. Nearly six in 10 said they discuss education-related topics, including college or college planning, careers, and jobs"

Two points are being recommended: 1) Find ways to harness the educational value of social networking, such as setting up chat rooms or online journals that allow students to talk about and collaborate on their classwork, and; 2) Re-evaluate policies that ban or tightly restrict the use of the Internet or social-networking sites at school.

So, for God sake if you have a computer, let these guys learn how to use it! Still they'll be learning something new that very day.