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How should teachers manage their students' social networking with Facebook, MySpace and other sites? Is it good for students to have the freedom to communicate with others without being supervised or asked to conform to some kind of social code? Is it okay for teachers to limit some student's social networking?

I think that any group that asks its members to participate in social networking can say no. Certainly, there are many reasons why we choose to limit our online interactions. For example, students are on their own and they need to learn to make their own decisions when it comes to their personal online behavior.

Of course, parents and educators will have different views on the issue of social networking. But it's probably not a good idea for a teacher to limit the use of social networking for her students. After all, students are so much younger than most of us, and we do want them to be learning, developing and growing as individuals, rather than being manipulated by peer pressure.

Perhaps students will grow up and decide they do not want to continue communicating online. Or maybe students will become "too" dependent on social networking to have limitations placed on them. Some schools and organizations are actually asking teachers to impose restrictions on student use of social networking.

And many teachers would probably disagree that they should limit students' social networking because it is a challenge to keep pace with the changing way that teenagers are communicating on the Internet. The problems with privacy and security concerns are many.

Still, teachers might wonder if their job is better served by making their students more independent, or if it is better to limit students' interaction with others, to "raise their awareness". What if students are spending a lot of time on Facebook, where, unlike in school, they feel they are not in a "real" classroom situation. Isn't the goal really just to raise awareness about the fact that teens do not really need to be held accountable for their choices online?

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Given all the debates surrounding the topic of social networking, I would suspect that there will be quite a bit of internal debate among educators as to how teachers should manage their students' online activities. The social networks have clearly proven that the past does not always mean the future.

If you want to make sure that your students are not damaging themselves on Facebook, keep an eye on your students' online behavior. You may even need to impose some restrictions on them, because ultimately it is their kids and you want them to learn, grow and develop.