Humans love ritual. There’s a style for doing anything. So why would social networks be any different? Of course there’s behavior that’s looked down on in online communities. And leave it to the British to formalize it.

A fancy etiquette organization recently published guidlines for good manners on Facebook. Unfortunately, these aren’t too helpful here on English, baby!. Most of the tips presume that you know your online contacts in real life as well, which usually isn’t the case on a global network like ours.

So with a little help from Jewel, I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a short guide to proper behavior on Ebaby!. Stick to these rules and penpals will be yours in spades!

1. Show yourself! A lot of members post an image of a celebrity (or even a cartoon character) as the only image on their profile. Jewel writes: “I always wonder if they just like the celebrity or are trying to use the photo thinking people from other countries don’t know better.” Well, when we see a photo that obviously came from a magazine, we know! If you want to make friends around the world, show them who you are. It’s even better if you show something about where you live or what you do in the photo as well. For instance, when I had a photo of me playing the trombone, lots of people wrote me about music.

2. No one-liners! I can’t tell you how many messages I get to the effect of: “hi wil u help me lern english i am luv u!” And I just don’t know what to do with that. I suspect these folks send the same message to lots of different people. But think about it for a minute, how is anyone supposed to respond to that? Instead of sending tons of meaningless messages to everyone you come across, why not wait till you see something on someone’s profile that you find interesting and then send him or her a message about that? That’s how to start a conversation.

3. Don’t push your agenda. Ebaby! is about making friends, practicing English, and learning about other cultures. It’s not an appropriate place to try to convert people to your religion or put down people with other beliefs. Be tolerant. Be tactful.

4. Stay on topic, please. There are thousands of forum threads and lessons on English, baby!. Since our members are so eager to converse, most of the pages are really lively. If you want to talk about something, there’s probably a page about it, and if there isn’t, you can start one. But for crying out loud, don’t hijack a totally unrelated topic as your soap box. I don’t need to hear about how much you dislike gypsies in a lesson on country music, OK? Oh, and #2 applies here as well. Posts like “Sbdy talk 2 me!” on a forum about the election aren’t the best way to make friends.

5. Share! Since Ebaby! is all about cultural exchange, you’ll have more fun if you bring more to the table. Make sure your profile is full of information about you. People in Russia are interested in what life is like Mexico and vice versa, so tell them something about you and your life on your profile and get the conversation started! Give details and make yourself stand out.

I have heard about cellphones in the classroom before. Actually, I hear teachers yell at students everyday about their cellphones. But cellphones can be a powerful tool. In an educational settings where technology is scarce, it might just be that every student has technology in his or her pocket– a cellphone.

So how can we take advantage of cellphones in the classroom?

In another blog post I found these ideas:

10 Ideas for Using Cell Phones in Education

1. Student response polling or pop quizzes (no need to invest in additional devices)
2. Use sms to find definitions, currency conversion, math equations, translation and more
3. Use as an internet browser to access endless information
4. Research
5. Read news articles and current events
6. Read books
7. Download and use education programs such as Google Maps and use as GPS
8. Use as a digital or video camera to accompany school projects, publishing, etc.
9. Educate students on appropriate and acceptable social use
10. Use the voice technology to share engaging lectures or lessons

I really love the idea of making movies using phones. It can be hard to get video cameras into class, but it may not be hard to find students that have the technology to make videos on their cellphones. Now, students can do video role-plays, create documentaries and more. They could share the videos in class or videos could easily be posted to your class website or  YouTube.

Another fun way to integrate cellphone technology into the classroom and also to build community and encourage students to ask for help is to implement the “Phone a Friend” option in class. Students can send one text message to the teacher during a take-home test or even an in-class exam. This can really help students from getting stuck. And it builds rapport. What a good way for your students to know that you are always there for them!

Just like everything in life, teachers need to see the positive side of things. It can be fun to think of ways to integrate cellphones into education. In truth, it might be really engaging and educational to make movies or text message the teacher. And it is our job to figure out how to make normal things, like cellphones, benefit the class.

You were never supposed to see the photo to your left. It’s from a lesson that we shot in my semi-abandoned house that we decided never to use because it was “too dark.” But the plot development it inspired stayed in the English, baby! soap opera, much to Devan’s dismay.

See, when the cast arrived to film some scenes at my house–which has holes in the walls and very little furniture– we thought, “What can we do with this apocalyptic setting?” It occurred to me that Devan should be addicted to drugs. We already established her supposed propensity for substance abuse in this drunk driving lesson, and she was recently broken hearted.

So we threw a sheet on the ground and some empty bottles and did a really depressing scene where I come in to Devan’s apartment and discover that she’s sold everything for drugs.

I should say depressing in retrospect because it was actually hilarious at the time. First of all, Devan was supposed to be addicted to pot, which you can’t get addicted to. But in a lot of countries, pot a major crime so no one doe it, so we had a good laugh about people in Asia believing someone could get addicted to pot and sell all their stuff to buy it.

Second of all, Devan and I used to be roommates and I happen to know that pot treats her very poorly (like, vomiting for days) so she never ever smokes it. So it was a little inside joke for us too.

But then we got to the next cast session a month later, filmed on the streets of downtown Portland, and I told Devan we had to shoot a new scene about her being addicted to drugs. Suddenly she really didn’t want to do it! I finally convinced her that she should do it for the members because they need to know a lot of the good drug vocabulary that would come with the lesson and for me because I already had the rest of the plot build around it.

But it took four takes to get the scene we ended up using. Devan kept going silent when someone walked by because she was embarrassed. So if you see Devan around, tease her about her pot addiction for me, will ya?