Social Media Labs in the Social Education Degree: Exploring Digital Competences of University Students

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The work presented has a great interest for the special issue, since it tell us the experience of a  medialab in the university with big potential for the development of citizen science.
The theoretical framework regarding the sense and purpose of the medialab, and its differences with other proposals that also induce innovation, such as workshops, for example, is correctly exposed. The references are up to date and give an account of the field of knowledge. All citations are properly referenced.
The description of the methodology used should be improved. The use of digital ethnography is mentioned, but it is not known what tools  were used to collect the data, for how long, in what year it has been done, etc.
Nor is there any mention of how the data were analyzed or what dimensions of analysis or categories were used. In this sense, the results show a description of the work carried out, without an analysis of what happened in the process. It seems that the planning of the innovative proposal is told, not that it has been investigated. That is why they offer little data to be able to answer the questions posed. The discussion offers more of the same, showing the virtues of the media lab, but analyzing the conditions in which it was developed, the organizational conditions, the possible limitations of the methodologies used. Finally, it could also be added how these proposals involve the community to solve social problems. What are the contributions of these medialabs in that sense?

Author Response

The description of the methodology used has been improved by explaining in greater detail:

* The context of the study and the selection of participants

* The categories of analysis

* The data collection instruments

The data discussion section has been modified with the analysis of the implications of the laboratories not only for the educational process but also their contributions to the social context to which the laboratories wanted to respond.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper addresses an interesting and valuable research topic. However, the paper in its current form needs to be improved before publication. In the following, I would like to provide some comments and suggestions, which may be helpful for the authors to further strengthen their work.

-Further research can be included to establish the results of the paper, mainly by discussing relevant contemporary educational learning theories in the context of learning with social media (which is missing in this research)

-The discussion section feels like another literature review or introduction section. The author can re write the discussion and shift its focus to the experiment that they have conducted and how it compares with other relevant studies in the literature

- A final proofreading can be conducted to improve the quality and choice of words throughout the paper 

Author Response

Further details of the research conducted and the process of setting up the social laboratory are provided, and some contemporary learning theories have been referenced to frame these results.

The data discussion section has been modified with the analysis of the implications of the laboratories not only for the educational process but also their contributions to the social context to which the laboratories wanted to respond.

The MDPI service has been used to proofread the text to ensure its quality in English.