Social media labs in the Social Education Degree: Exploring digital competences of university students

Abstract

Social media labs, as spaces for experimentation, have recently become one of the main mechanisms for innovation. The role of universities, with degrees focused on subjects linked to social innovation, can be a fundamental factor in social development. It is essential to transform traditional centres into spaces for dialogue, into creative ecosystems, simultaneously dedicated to reflection and debate, research and production, training, and socialisation. Within this framework, we carried out ethnographic research on the implementation of a social media laboratory developed with social education students during the last two academic years at the faculty of education in Palencia. The results provide evidence of the development by university students in some skills related to creativity, reflection, and debate, as well as various digital skills. In line with the existing literature, we show how the social media laboratory enables the acquisition of knowledge situated in the social reality of the environment that is of great use to future social educators, as well as some of its limitations in these processes of experimentation and social innovation.