With over 80 million users on MySpace alone, social networking is not going away. And that National School Boards Association report said that 50% of students using these services are specifically talking about schoolwork using these social networking tools.

There is a compelling article at TechLearning.com discussing the proliferation of social networks amongst kids. Of course, much of the press has been bad — cyberstalking, online porn, etc., etc. But, social networking is not going away. And kids are definitely using tools like MySpace and Facebook to keep connected. The above stat is huge: 50% of kids use social networks to chat about homework.

So then, how can it be used to keep kids, and parents, connected to the school community? And how can it be used to drive higher participation? These are huge questions. And we are working hard to try and answer them.

Imagine school events being added to calendars which then automatically feed the information to students on Facebook or MySpace. Students use these sites incessantly, much to the chagrin of parents. And parents should be discerning. But we’d love to help schools use these technologies for the benefit of the school community, which will hopefully filter out the bad.