Right now, I am planning to write my seminar paper on the use of Facebook as a teaching tool. I had never thought of using Facebook for teaching, but it makes a lot of sense. While Blackboard has an academic, "teacher-ish" feel to its interface, Facebook has plenty of "street-cred" with college students. They are accustomed to using Facebook to connect and interact with friends, often through silly applets, groups, status updates, etc. Whereas students usually feel obligated to get on Blackboard for class purposes, they may actually enjoy getting on Facebook since they can do so many non-class related things on it. At the least, they may not mind taking the time to visit the course Facebook group while they're sending people bumper-stickers or writing on someone's wall. The increased social capital of Facebook would be one its biggest advantages. Its only disadvantage (that I can think of right now) would be the lack of a "gradebook." Other than that, I think a Facebook group can accomplish everything else you can do on Blackboard.
I've found a surprising number of articles on the use of Facebook in teaching. I haven't had time to actually read through them yet, but the titles are promising.
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