RePondered...

Wired News: Marines Use MySpace to Recruit:

I've blogged before (notes from a NECC session presented by Mark Wagner) about the US military's great ability to educate/train our nation's youth -- often the same youth our K12 system betrays -- using modern techniques of video games and simulations.

Now it looks like they've caught on to the importance of MySp@ce to America's teenagers.

So far, over 12,000 web surfers have signed on as friends of the Corps in response to the latest military recruiting tactic. Other military branches may follow.

MySpace.Com, the internet's most popular social networking site with over 94 million registered users, has helped redefine the way a generation communicates. Users, many in their teens and 20s, post personal profiles and accumulate lists of friends and contacts with common interests.

The Marine Corps' MySpace profile -- featuring streaming video of barking drill sergeants, fresh recruits enduring boot camp and Marines storming beaches -- underscores the growing importance of the internet to advertisers as a medium for reaching America's youth.

"That's definitely the new wave," said Gunnery Sgt. Brian Lancioni at a Hawaii recruiting event. "Everything's technical with these kids, and the internet is a great way to show what the Marine Corps has to offer."

Patrick Baldwin, an 18-year-old recruit from Saratoga, New York, who linked his profile to the Marines' site after hearing about it from a friend, said MySpace was a good place for interested teens to start learning more about the Marines.

Teens get it. The military gets it. And K-12? Um. Not so much. As Will Richardson says, "we need to teach myspace, not ignore, not ban it, not pretend it doesn't exist."