My husband is a techie. An education techie, to be exact. His job is to help public school teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. Increasingly, those tools include social media platforms, from teacher blogs that inform parents of day-to-day happenings to using Twitter as a student engagement tool.

Here are examples from the education world:  

• 8^th grade teacher Enrique Legaspi uses Twitter to enhance history lessons, according to a CNN report. Kids use their own connected devices or school computers to answer questions in class or comment on material being presented.
• The University of Arizona’s computer science department is working on a social networking-based tool that will engage middle and high school students in problem-solving activities. Kids will receive points for doing homework and helping fellow students. Eventually, the points might be redeemable for tangible goods or perhaps even college credit.

To be sure, there are those who feel social media doesn’t belong in the classroom. The CNN article cites a Pearson Learning Solutions study that found half of polled teachers believe in-class use of Facebook and Twitter harms learning. And, of course, the digital divide continues to prevent many students from accessing the Internet, much less social media.

For years, we’ve been talking about digital natives: those who were raised to click a mouse. As social media becomes increasingly integrated into education and everyday life, within a few years we’ll likely find ourselves marketing to social media natives.

How do you think social media will affect how today’s little ones interact with brands years from now?