Connecting personal Facebook accounts between teachers, students, and parents can be problematic for a slew of different reasons. Do students want their teachers knowing they're watching "Glee" instead of studying for their exam? Do teachers want their students to know they're recovering from last night's bender?
Though there are half a billion people using Facebook, it's not the only available social network for educators and students to connect to them and to each other.
Mashable 7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers points out the best ones. Whether they're used for engaging students with assignments, eliciting participation in discussions (some kids prefer to write on "walls" than speak up in class), sharing videos, or using blogs as a medium for school newspaper, class web pages, or journal writing, or for educator sharing their resources with each other, these sites are tremendous tools -- the very embodiment of how Web 2.0 is transforming education.