This paper provides a strong argument for a shift in pedagogical paradigm toward the development of skills for being successeful in a society where user and producer roles are increasingly blurred.
It describes the new “Generation C” and presents the shift from an industrial setting of production and consumption roles to a new kind of social context where environments that allow people to be producers and users at the same time (produsage environments) are multiplying.
It is an important contribution to rethinking constructivist ideas toward a user(students)-led education in higher education.
It proposes that learning activities should promote the participation of students in the design and development of courses and also as co-creators of content, exploring sharable and reusable learning objects and communication and content generation tools (e.g. blogs, wikis).
Following the idea of a crisis in society and in education where informal or casual tendencies undermine the formal institutions, the author presents 4 pillars for supporting a new pedagogic paradigm. These are the four capabilities (C4C) graduates should learn and develop:
- “creative – gaining the ability to act as collaborative co-creators in flexible roles, participating as one amongst a number of creative produsers rather than as a selfsufficient creative producer;
- collaborative – being able to collaborate effectively and understand the implications and consequences of collaboration;
- critical – maintaining a critical stance both towards potential collaborators and their work as well as towards one’s own creative and collaborative abilities and existing work portfolio;
- communicative – engaging in effective and successful communication between produsage participants, and of ideas generated in the exercise of one’s capacities as a produser.”
The argument is based in the idea that educators should reconceptualise learning design in order to take in to account the capabilities of the new “Generation C” (Creativity, Casual Colapse, Control and Celebrity) and refocus in the C4C capacities considered crucial to successful participation in produsage environments.
Bruns, Axel (2008) The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread
Produsage. Fibreculture Journal(11).
Bruns, Axel and Cobcroft, Rachel and Smith, Jude and Towers, Stephen (2007)
Mobile Learning Technologies and the Move towards ‘User-Led Education’. In
Proceedings Mobile Media, Sydney
Digital Media in Education 
Leave a Reply