I decided to learn more about this topic because I was not familiar with the term. According to Wikipedia, a prosumer is simultaneously both a producer and consumer of something.

In the Journal of Consumer Culture, I read an article about American capitalism sometimes seeming focused on production, such as during the Industrial Revolution and wartime production, and then shifting toward consumption, such as during the rise of shopping malls and fast food consumption. Yet, the authors propose that our capitalistic culture has always been "prosumer" and it's just since the rise of Web 2.0 resources that it has become central to our culture. They also claim that "there is a wide base on Web 2.0 to resist the efforts by capitalists to control and exploit the prosumers found there. Capitalism will need to deal with both collective and individual resistance on the internet. The likelihood that such resistance will continue means that capitalism will need to adapt in various ways and it is at least possible that what will emerge, at least in this context, is a new form of capitalism. Such a transformation is made even more likely by the nature of exploitation on Web 2.0" (page 25). This makes me consider how education has evolved and will continue to evolve.

While we were forced to learn remotely as a result of COVID-19, my children are currently completing assignments from home. The basic platform is still predominantly didactic, with teacher assigning worksheets via Google Classroom and the students completing and submitting work. However, my high school age daughter recently told me that the student in her high school, led by a senior (12th grade), established a Discord site with sections for every course in the school. A student moderates the forum and students are there to support each other on school assignments. She told me that it is well run and respectful and that students are not cheating. She does not believe the administration is aware that students have collectively used social media to support their own learning. I was amazed at first at the collaboration of the students, but then not surprised at all given that their generation has a social learning mindset already and it is really the school that is ill equipped to roll out something like that. This led me to invision students as the prosumers of school itself. They are consumers of school from the teachers' perspectives but here they are producing school structures to support their own learning. It appears the students themselves may be shifting the way we teach by teaching school leadership about methods that work better for them. I have been inspired to ask my students to vote on a platform that may better support their learning. I have been trying to get students to join into the platform used by school but for the everyday support of their learning, I should turn to them.

In an effort to learn more about student perspectives, I read Jacobson's article on student perspectives on remote learning. One of the things students wanted was access to video instruction by teachers. At first I thought this reflected a respect for the teacher-student relationship since that back and forth of class discussion is a recursive experience, however I also think it could be a reflection of a student need for the norm of the didactic experience to which they are accustomed. Either way, the students find a need for such instruction and it is important that they be heard. After all, they are likely prosumers whether we realize it or not.

Sources: Ritzer & Jurgenson. (2010). Production, Consumption, Prosumption The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer’. Journal of Consumer Culture.  https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3f5a/564e69d7ea92f12605a603c32303af037527.pdf