In a previous post, I mentioned that government sometimes seems the biggest security threat. This is partly because government often doesn’t the consequences of what it does. Here’s an interesting example of unintended consequences: the No Child Left Behind Act producing incentive for K-12 social network sites.

The exchange of information among the key K–12 decisionmakers — parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and elected school officials — is a huge challenge today. Quality information and communications are becoming more valuable as options increase for parents and accountability increases for teachers, schools, districts, and states. The Internet gives people access to nearly infinite content and information, but with all the additional information and choices, there are more decisions to make for Web browsers and users. Logistical help is needed for reaching people who can be reference points and explanation givers. Being Internet savvy alone will not suffice. The convergence of NCLB realities with the Internet’s ever expanding capabilities offers a window of opportunity to build a social network website service that is suited for K–12.

K–12 encounters the Internet, by Paul DiPerna First Monday, volume 11, number 5 (May 2006),

Many K-12 schools already have floating technical advisors, usually one of their own teachers who is technically savvy who goes around and advises the others. This article seems to be proposing to take the next step of interconnecting such people and information across school systems.

-jsq