Facebook--Denied!!

In today's local newspaper, the Rochester D&C, a guest essayist named Matt Mohnihan writes about his experiences on Facebook. He is a graduate student who studies fusion energy at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Mohnihan writes about his experiences on Facebook, "I found a group of people on Facebook working on fusion research at national labs, universities and in Europe. I was astounded by how much I learned so fast through these exchanges. I gave them ideas about how to conduct their research, experiments to try and how what they do fits with what I do. These connections have definitely helped me at work."
Our schools seem to have a narrow view about what social networking is all about. We should be teaching our kids the power of social learning networks, not denying access to these sites. My school has denied access to Myspace and Facebook. I've used Ning for a class project but maybe by next semester, Ning will be banned too. Our school needs to show students how powerful collaboration (21st Century cooperative learning) can be.
Update: If you are interested in academic social learning networks...start with reading this post.