I agree with your assessment that integrating technical competency, as suggested by 21st century skills, into school curriculum should be an important feature in the future of education. Social media is a part of that technical competency, and as such, has a role to play in the education of youth. You then connect your comment about 21st century skills to your discussion of the role social media might play in classrooms. I also agree that optional use of social media may be the best way forward. Some students may naturally gravitate toward social media as an arena for learning and collaboration; however, others might be more comfortable using other tools and resources for learning. I my response I talk about schools’ acceptable use policies (AUPs; Ahn el al, 2011). I imagine that school might write AUPs specifically to encourage this type of social media use in the classroom. Finally, although I think you make a creative comparison between public utilities and social media, I am not yet convinced that social media is a “public good” which requires the same sort of protections that utilities receive. If internet access it not yet a utility, it seems difficult to conclude that specific websites be considered of commodification. Could you say more about the role you see regulations and laws playing in social media use in the future?

If I were given the power to dictate policy, I would swing away from mandatory use of social media within the classroom for reasons such as cyberbullying (Ahn, Bivona, & Discala, 2011; Krutka et al., 2019) but push toward optional assignments that encourage participation within students’ communities. The use of social media would aid in the accomplishment of these tasks but would not be required.

I did not find the argument made in Krutka et al. (2019) about suggestions for a democratic online space credible. Adding competition for a social media platform the size of Twitter or Facebook would be like saying we need another energy company in Lansing, the infrastructure needed would be too significant to be realistic. The policy conversation that needs to happen in the future is deciding at what point the decommodification of a service needs to happen. When is a service a public good instead of a private one? When does the need of the public outweigh private interest? These will be the policy questions of the future as we continue to discuss social media.

One area of the readings I found compelling, and which also highlighted an area where progress might be made is from the Krutka et al. (2019) paper. This piece encouraged individuals to think at a high level about what role social media plays, and what role it should play, in society more broadly, and education more specifically. It is compelling to me because considering the extent to which social media influences many aspects of society little has been done to reflect on the ethical implications of social media’s reach. The article makes numerous comparisons between laws regarding information collection and privacy in the USA and in Europe. It appears that European laws might be a good starting point for American and international laws and policies as they place more emphasis on individuals’ right to privacy and their right to choose how their data is used, instead of corporate profits.

I also found Ahn et al.’s study of AUPs to be compelling, and an area worthy of policy focus. Krutka et al. discussed the role that educators may play in helping students to understand how social media might influence individuals, and how they might protect themselves and their privacy while using social media. This directly connects to Ahn et al.’s study of AUPs at various K-12 school districts around the country. With a district level policy focus on creating strong AUPs which emphasis teaching students about privacy and data concerns when using social media those same students may start to demand more comprehensive regulations and policies at a national or international level. Pressure directly from users, and from governmental laws and regulations, would most likely change the way social media companies deal with privacy and user data.

I like the idea of AUPs to guide schools’ stance towards technology; however, I found the Ahn et al. article’s connection between AUPs and actual implementation of technology in classrooms to be less than compelling. I question how many teachers have actually read a school’s AUP, let alone implement it with fidelity in their teaching. So, although AUPs focused on teaching students social media literacy is a useful start, teachers must embrace and internalize the message of AUPs for true change to occur.