Sites like twitter & facebook I can see being a help in the classroom since a large number of students are already connected to them, so adding a classroom friend would be pretty simple. Using these for the classroom can help make things more accessible to students and parents, but there are some negatives as well. I really don't want updates on everything my students are doing all the time - sometimes its best to not know what they are doing or thinking. Also, for a person who does not have the best filter in the world, these sites may not be the best. I am more likely to use twitter due to the limitations it places on its users. I've used facebook for personal things in the past, but last year one of my personal posts ended up on my superintendent's desk, so I have stayed away from it (I was defending the actions of our school in my posting and told a friend of mine who is also a parent in our district to move her kids to another school if she felt her kids were unsafe at the school they currently go to).
I've been a member of the Michigan Science Teacher's Association (MSTA) and National Building a Presence in Science (BaP) group for many years. Both groups have placed a high emphasis on using technology to help better educate our students about science. The cost for MSTA is relatively low and you get a quarterly journal be being a member that has many ready to use classroom activities and lesson plans in them. Being a member of these also has helped me in terms of social networking with other science colleagues in other districts.
I'm also currently waiting to hear back on whether or not our school gets a grant that will provide us the means of training some of our more tech savvy teachers to be trainers of teachers in effectively using technology in the classroom. Part of this grant will include membership to MACUL
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