Symphysis
Kinnari Thakker's Personal BlogArchive for Produsage
notes: Produsage
Shift: Production to Produsage
1. {Produce + Use}
2. the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.
Digital divide between those who are already tuned into the produsage process (software designers, niche knowledge enthusiasts), and others who are not motivated or do not have the skills.
Need to involve educational organizations to teach skills required to participate in the produsage process.
Produsage in education: It calls upon new literacies and skills that need one to parse out the palimpsest. Educating children as well as teachers of the benefits and shortcomings of collaborative environments and resources of information.
important points:
- 1. skills of analysis and management of online information
2.read resources as well as understand their origins and modes of production
3. ability to read critically, understand methods and contexts of productions
4. ability to assess and compare the quality of different information and knowledge resources
5. to develop the creativity, experience and the cultural awareness necessary to — take the universe of existing information and resources and convert them into insights, symbols, or representations that are personally or collaboratively meaningful
6. ability to make their own voices heard and to represent their own views and ideas, within the wider community of producers
7. 5 C’s – creative, collaborative, critical, combinatory and communicative
Relevance:
Economic
Social
Individual
Our workplaces have become more collaborative, our political processes have become more decentered, we are living more and more within knowledge cultures based on collective intelligence – How can schools not teach what it means to live and work ins uch communities?
Autonomous learning is still the focus, seeing information from others is still cheating. Our networked culture is that way though – and this needs to be included in schools. “Copying is cool.” (check discussions under Bombaat Dhamaka)
references:
Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation, Dr Axel Bruns
Beyond Difference: Reconfiguring Education for the User-Led Age, Dr Axel Bruns
www.produsage.org
Books: Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage
Social Networking, just a phase?
Social networking began in India with the popularity of Orkut, and teachers complained as teenagers hooked onto these sites to “flirt with their classmates and to talk about meaningless things like movies and actors”. There were several news articles where a member would reveal personal details about themselves and then be harassed, stalked, teased, etc. Social Networking sites were perceived as a place where hackers could easily win peoples trust and take advantage of them. It was viewed as something which was meaningless, just for fun, a passing phase that teens will grow out of…
What if this passing phase was to extend till school, through into college, and further into a career? Today the uses of social networks extend into diverse fields. In Srishti it is sometimes a course requirement to keep a blog, or build a network, or be a part of a network built around a subject. Recently students from Srishti (with others) organized a city-wide movement and demonstration as a response to the attack on women at a pub in Mangalore by the notorious Shri Ram Sene. The movement was initiated and coordinated through the groups application on Facebook and through blogs.
From being a “time-pass” obsession for teenagers addicted to the internet (like how many of us continue to be…) its use and possibilities have expanded laterally as the concept is explored in new, creative, and artistic ways. So then, maybe its just a really long phase!
My diploma project tried to explore some newer concepts and use of social networks and communities. Children using a network (created using NING) were empowered to publish not just their best work, but the many drafts it takes to get there. These received feedback from other members not necessarily involved in the group/activity directly. It also explored the concept of the network as an archive and possibly a bank of material and resources. The children created banks of images/sounds/videos which could be played directly, or downloaded to reuse. The children also explored the idea of creating, managing and distributing roles in groups. Material relevant to that group was then tagged accordingly. Its funny how some children are encouraged to get onto social networks and groups in school, while others, are frowned upon when they spend too much time browsing through them.
Could these networks have a boundary? Is there a point till where they could be pushed, used, reused and would eventually fall off the interest radars of people?
