Produsers?
It seems that as a procrastinator I have discovered many far more interesting things to do this weekend other than my homework. So, I have to ask myself: Is the fact that I’ve been expanding my technological horizons acceptable since that has preoccupied my mind in lieu of the homework that I should be doing at this very moment? Maybe that shouldn’t even be a concern and maybe it should. Regardless, procrastination is not really what I’ve stopped by to discuss. Why, you may ask? Because, I have other pressing issues to share with you at this time.
One of the blogs I try to read fairly regularly is weblogg-ed. This evening, I discovered a post that includes (what I can gather) is a brand new term: produsers. First of all, I have yet to determine exactly how this word is pronounced: prahd-oos-ers, pro-do-sirs, prod-yooz-ers. And the list goes on. Beyond my momentary obsession with the actual pronunciation, I’m not sure exactly how I feel about the usage of the term either. Apparently, it comes from a new book Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage.
Keep in mind that I haven’t actually read this book, just a blog and a bunch of comments about this book. But I have read a quote from the book that Will Richardson included in his blog:
“…teachers are now no longer positioned as experts simply by virtue of
their accredidation as experts, outside of the pordusage process
itself; instead they come to be seen as experts because of their role
as leaders of the produsage community. In other words, the argument
that they should be respected by their students is made no longer on
the basis of their role in the academic hierarchy, their positions and
titles, but by their established track record as produsers themselves.”
Keep in mind that some of the comments seemed to indicate that the idea that teachers could be experts at teaching was far-fetched. Some individuals seemed to think that there was no such area of expertise and that teachers, by necessity, should have an alternate area of expertise. In addition, the above quote seems to indicate that research/scholarship may be more important than actual teacher-student interaction.
In my mind, the students should come first. This means that teachers should be knowledgeable and have the ability to lead students to becoming life-long learners. Pedagogy is pertinent to this end. Frankly, someone who is an expert in a particular subject does not always make a good teacher (we’ve all been in that professor’s classroom at some point or another). While I think it is important that a teacher be well-versed in technology, I believe they also need to have the ability to communicate with and influence their students. That is more important than any amount of knowledge about a particular subject. If you cannot get them interested, how do you expect to get them to learn?
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