To use social media in the classroom or not to use social media in the classroom….that is the question. That is a question that has many different answers from many different people. I believe the majority of the opposition to using social media in the classroom is due to its “social” aspects. Control over the classroom is a prized possession for most teachers. The ability to cut background noise on and off by counting backwards from five and to shoot a dirty look in a student’s direction when he is off task is almost a superpower among educators. Being able to control the behavior of students while in the learning environment has long been something highly valued in education–to the point where such control was considered part of having good classroom management skills and creating a safe and orderly learning environment. Well, social media sort of flies in the face of those notions. Though teachers can have some control over what students post on certain social media sites during school hours, they have no control over what students do on social media sites that are not within teacher control. This can be a good or bad thing. It can be good because social media can become an extension of the classroom and lead students toward having extended interaction with one another and with the concepts being learned. It can also be a bad thing when students forget about what they were supposed to be learning and focus more on the socializing–engaging in activities like watching funny video clips, sharing gossip, or figuring out which Star Wars character they are most like according to their Myers-Briggs personality test results (which I did recently and discovered that I am Luke Skywalker–pretty cool, but I wanted to be Yoda). Whatever one’s opinions are on social media and education, the fact is that it is here to stay whether we like it or not. Teachers can choose to use it in the classroom and try to capitalize on its potential benefits for learning, or they can choose to exclude it from the classroom–in which case students will find ways to use it as some part of their education anyway (like discussing an interesting point that came up in class or slamming the teacher for not letting them use social media in class). Though social media may be scary territory for teachers (after all, no one can see us waiting patiently for the online chatter to stop so we can continue class), it is something that the students will do and are doing without our permission. It will be up to us to choose whether we will learn to utilize social media as a new forum for teachers to inspire intelligent academic interaction or if we will try cage the wind. With either choice you make—may the force be with you.