Using Social Media in the Classroom

As with most things where control is handed over to the students, utilizing social media in the classroom makes me apprehensive.  By the eighth grade, which I teach, most of my students are utilizing different social media platforms.  As a building our technology policies do not allow teachers to communicate with students through these means.  I'm pretty sure from the administration's point of view, there is more that can go wrong with these interactions than benefit their learning.  Our Internet security system Lightspeed comes with My Big Campus.  This is a safe and educational online environment similar to Facebook.  Students utilize this to save papers, access homework, upload projects, connect with groups, and message teachers.  It has all the same features of non educational sites, but goes through the school's filtering system.  We have had to remove computer priveliges from students for innappropriate usage of the site.  They know that communication is monitored thoroughlyI can only imagine the problems that might come with allowing the students non school regulated social media.  As a parent, I would not want my children interacting with their teachers through mediums like Facebook or Twitter.  We do not allow teachers to contact students directly via cell numbers or any other type of private communication out of safety concerns.  I have given students the opportunity to "create" Facebook pages for famous historical figures.  I have a PowerPoint template which simulates a Facebook page and the students input information for that person based on who they were and what they did.  This type of project straddles the line, because it allows the students to bring in what they know about social media, but allows for the professional teacher student relationship to stay intact.