That doesn't sound that weird at all? "Your homework assignment is to go [home and] use Twitter to [...]". If they were saying "Your in-class project is to use

That doesn't sound that weird at all? "Your homework assignment is to go [home and] use Twitter to [...]". If they were saying "Your in-class project is to use Twitter to find these articles. Also, Twitter is banned on the school network. And you get a 0 if you don't do it", then yes, I'd be agreeing that it's weird. But homework is, sort of by definition, meant to be done at home. When I was in school, I would certainly take advantage of down time to get homework done early, but (until I started getting free blocks in high school) I never felt like homework was meant to be done during school hours on school grounds. Why are teachers assigning work to be done on websites that the school network blocks? Because at home, it's the parent's job to ensure their child doesn't access material that parents object to; at school, it's the administrator's job to ensure that EVERY child doesn't access material that ANY parent can object to. That's a much more challenging proposition, and (for better or for worse), schools tend to paint with a broad brush when it comes to enforcing limits.