For the prior learning survey, I defined social media from the context of my previous OLTD course on open educational resources. I spoke about social media as media created or shared in social contexts, but left out the big piece of social networking software and applications in relation to social media (“Social Media”, n.d.).

Throughout the readings on social networking services, there were references to the creation or development of trust systems within social networks, which was something I had not thought about previously (“Social Networking Systems”, n.d.). Social media and networking rely heavily on trust between those who are interacting online. In the context of educational use of these systems, there is an additional layer of trust as well – trust that the educator is protecting the interests of the students interacting online.

Trust in the social network itself and how it collects and uses personal data is another layer educators must be consider. As Hengstler (2013) explains, social media services are not free – you are trading your data (or your students’ data) for the service they provide. At this point in the course, I would have a difficult time deciding to what extent I would be willing to trade students’ data for services, but I hope to explore that further as the course continues.

References

J Hengstler. (2013, May 24). What Parents Should Know Part 1: Basic Understanding of Social Media & Digital Communications. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://jhengstler.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/what-parents-should-know-part-1-basic-understanding-of-social-media-digital-communications/

Social Media. (n.d.). Retrieved September 06, 2014 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

Social Networking Service. (n.d.). Retrieved September 07, 2014 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service