President Obama used it to get elected. Dell will recruit new hires with it. Microsoft’s new operating system borrows from it. No question, Facebook has friends in high places. Can CEO Mark Zuckerberg make those connections pay off?

Facebook held no appeal for Peter Lichtenstein. The New Paltz, N.Y., resident had checked out so-called social networking sites before, and he wasn’t impressed. (”MySpace,” he recalls, “was ridiculous.”)

A chiropractor and acupuncturist, Lichtenstein was already a member of a few professional web-based user groups. The last thing he needed was another message box to check. Then a buddy posted a link to photos from a trip to Thailand and India on his Facebook page and flatly refused to distribute them any other way. The friend’s assumption: Duh - everyone’s on Facebook.

And so Lichtenstein, 57, recently became an official member of the Facebook army, 175 million strong and, Facebook says, growing at the astounding rate of about five million new users a week, making it a rare bright spot in a dismal economy. If Facebook were a country, it would have a population nearly as large as Brazil’s. It even edges out the U.S. television audience for Super Bowl XLIII, which drew a record-setting 152 million eyeballs.

When a report of a possible explosive device on the roof of a city parking garage came in to the Lakeland, Florida, Police Department, public safety officials there sprang into action.

They sent out a squad to investigate and they posted a notice on Twitter.

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are mostly used by those who want to keep their friends and families informed about their lives and activities.

But increasingly, police and fire departments across the country are tapping into social networking to disseminate information to the public.

If the half-dozen Twitter messages Jimmy Fallon sends most days aren’t enough, the talk show host cemented his geek credibility last week by interviewing a gadget blogger and the creators of a Web-only show most Americans have never heard of.

On Wednesday, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, hosts of the techie favorite “Diggnation,” bantered with Fallon on the same love seat previously graced by such celebrities as Robert De Niro, Van Morrison and Cameron Diaz.

Two days earlier, Engadget Editor Joshua Topolsky talked operating systems and accelerometers while he showed off an early version of the hotly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone.

“Geek out, man,” Fallon told him after Topolsky looked sheepish for mentioning the term “user interface.”

That’s what “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” is doing. As he tries to build a loyal audience for his 2-week-old NBC show, Fallon, 34, is embracing gadgets and digital media more than any of his peers.

At the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, a Wall Street Journal columnist set out to tell the story of the colossal merger between America Online and Time Warner, the Web’s biggest deal ever, one that promised to shape the new communications medium. But by the time the book came out several years

Filipino exchange teacher Ferdinand Nakila landed in Los Angeles expecting “Pretty Woman” scenes of swank Beverly Hills boulevards and glittering celebrities. What he got was Inglewood, where he stayed for two weeks in temporary housing and encountered drunkards, beggars, trash-filled streets and nightly police sirens.

It got worse. In training sessions about American classrooms he received in the Philippines, he was told his students might not be quite as polite and respectful as those in his homeland. Nothing, however, prepared him for the furious brawl that broke out in one of his Los Angeles classrooms, where two girls rolled around on the floor clawing at each other while the other students jumped on the desks and cheered.

But Nakila said his American sojourn has transformed him into a far better educator than when he arrived in August 2007. In the Philippines, he was imperious and demanding, throwing students out of his classroom for inadequate preparation with little thought of their plight.

In Los Angeles, his daily encounters with students struggling to learn despite shattered homes, sexual abuse, physical violence or hunger have humbled him into a new vision of teaching.

Thanks to a speech by President Obama, a class video on the effects of the recession, ‘Is Anyone Listening,’ has the nation talking.

Chris Schultz breaks down as he worries that his younger brothers will become homeless because his family is four months behind in rent.

Evelyn Aguilar’s home was foreclosed, so her family is among a dozen people sharing a one-bedroom apartment.

Victoria Gonzalez may delaycollege for a year to support her family.

HELENA - State lawmakers have endorsed a measure to create a new distance learning program that would give students in every school district virtual access to both basic and advanced classes.

House Bill 459 was supported on a 63-34 vote Saturday.

The measure, introduced by Democratic Rep. Wanda Grinde of Billings, would allocate about $4.2 million to establish a virtual academy for Montana schoolkids. One-time startup costs account for about $2.2 million of that amount.

“The outcome of this bill is to put high quality education into every home in this state no matter where that home is,” said Rep. Brady Wiseman, D-Bozeman.

Democrats voted as a party in favor of the schoolteacher-endorsed measure, which also picked up 13 Republican votes.

“This program is set up basically for one thing, and that’s to comply with the Constitution,” said Republican Rep. William Glaser of Huntley. “The Constitution says that there will be equal opportunity to education for every child in Montana.”

Under the measure, distance learning classes would be available in core subjects and advanced areas. The classes, taught by licensed instructors, would be offered for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

In what could be a way of the future, primary students in Tokyo are being taught by a robot. Saya is the result of 15 years of research and is being tested as a teacher after working as a receptionist. It is multilingual, can organize set tasks for pupils, call the roll, and get angry when the kids misbehave.

Saya is just one example of Japan’s determination to put a robot in every home by 2015.

If a tree doesn’t fall in the forest, online technology could deserve some of the credit.

Officials at B.C.’s Sprott-Shaw Community College estimate their efforts to cut textbooks from a range of business classes have saved 26 trees since last September. Textbooks are now passe in 11 courses at seven of Sprott-Shaw’s B.C. campuses, including those in Victoria, Duncan and Nanaimo.

Sprott-Shaw president Dean Duperron said the college is on the leading edge of a move away from textbooks, the so-called “greening” of classes in the post-secondary realm.

Enrollment in distance-learning programs at the University of Cincinnati has increased 15 percent since last year, reflecting a national trend of increased reliance on Internet learning.

In 2008, just under 3,000 students participated in distance education at UC according to the Office of Institutional Research. Distance learning means more than 70 percent of the teaching and learning activities occur away from the classroom.