A school board in P.E.I. is drafting a new policy that sets rules on using Facebook in class. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Educators in North America are debating the merits of social media sites like Facebook and whether they belong in classrooms.

P.E.I.'s Western School Board sees potential in social media to be a valuable learning tool and is drafting a new policy that sets rules on how teachers and students can use it.

"Teachers do use blogs, they do use wikis, they do have Facebook pages, and we certainly want to encourage that," board superintendent Dale Sabean told CBC News on Thursday.

Sabean suggests that teachers could use Facebook for class discussions or for homework assignments, and that students could use their cellphones in class to do research.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania's Harrisburg University of Science and Technology have taken a different approach and banned the use of social media on campus this week.

Students and teachers were barred from updating their Facebook and Twitter accounts or sending instant messages, the Associated Foreign Press reported.

School administrators said the social media blackout was not a punishment but an experiment to see how people would cope without web communication.

Do you think social media sites like Facebook can be a valuable learning tool, or would it merely be a distraction? Could you go without social media for a week? Let us know.