The term prosumer was coined by Alvin Toffler. Toffler asserts in his book Third Wave that the lines between consumer and producer will blur, so that in fact the consumer will become in part a producer (“Perspectives…”). This was a novel concept in the 1970s or so it would seem. We see this in small examples such as designing your own wedding invitations online and scanning your own food at the grocery store. Yet, in a sense this activity has always existed to a small degree in many areas of society such as farming, music, religious services. People who engage in those activities not only consume but also produce. So the idea behind the term is nothing new rather a prediction about how this concept will expand and change other areas of society.

Looking at the term and concept in that way may make it easier for teachers to find it an appealing process that is useful and has permanence rather than educational jargon and a short- lived teaching fad. As a high school teacher, over the years I have been required to participate in numerous training seminars on a particular “new” way of approaching teaching. After 25 years of teaching, I find that many of these quote “new” things are in fact old and have a new name. They may have been approaches that were tweaked slightly, but the basics I had seen before. I have found many of these concepts are just good teaching practices suddenly given names or new names.

The evolution of the term/concept “prosumer” and what that really means in education intrigues me. If one looks at whom we have considered many of the genius minds in history, they were all prosumers. They studied what they wanted and found interesting, to solve mysteries and problems they saw or to develop a better understanding of an aspect of human life and nature. Scholars and genius such as DaVinci, Einstein, and Jefferson all chose what and who to read to help them develop or formulate their own writings, postulates, and theories. Other groups in society have applied the concept of “prosumer” for a long time as well. The Amish build barns together as a community. They use the wood and manpower (consume) to create (produce) a needed structure for a family or community and in the process, they teach the young men carpentry skills. The main difference in our area of focus today is the incorporation of technology. Yet, as my professor Dr. Bill Cope points out, writing is a technology which has been around a long time that we still use. Indeed, it is one of the first truly revolutionary technologies. So what we are truly looking at is the incorporation of electronic technologies, specifically.

Much of the discussion about e-learning has centered around the ability to facilitate group work. Yet, teachers have had groups of students work together in the classroom to create a project for almost a century, albeit the process has become more and more accepted and used over time. However, I think we in education are very fond of our terms and tend to talk in “educationalease” making things sound unique without really connecting it to actions and processes that have been around for decades. The evolution of the idea is not dealt with as important. But, I believe it is because understanding the evolution of the concept makes it more accessible or understandable.

A precursor to term prosumer is studies in social learning theory done in the 1960s. Social learning theories of the 1960s-80s explain how people learn in social groups and settings from each other. Psychologist Albert Bandurra built on the work of behavior learning theories such as those researched by B. F. Skinner (Mcleod). Skinner explored types of conditioning, while Bandurra added that there is a mediation between stimuli and response and that we learn from our environment through observation.

"Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work. These mental factors mediate (i.e., intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired. Therefore, individuals do not automatically observe the behavior of a model and imitate it. There is some thought prior to imitation, and this consideration is called mediational processes. This occurs between observing the behavior (stimulus) and imitating it or not (response)"(Mcleod).

Bandura’s theories look at learning as having four medial areas 1. attention, 2. retention, 3. reproduction, 4. motivation (Mcleod). This would in fact support that cognition is largely long- term memory as asserted by the e-Learning Ecologies course. Yet, I find value in that type of learning as it seems to be similar to the adage “Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day but teach him to fish and he will never go hungry.” Yet, perhaps you have only taught him to get food by fishing and we have not taught him how to explore ways in which he could catch or grow food. This seems to me the crux of what we are discussing when we speak of building prosumers. While we talk about traditional teaching being instructor focused and the student having a consumer relationship with his or her education, I believe that it is at least on one level also a producing relationship. It seems to me that we now seek to expand that relationship so that more of consuming is student directed and the student produces a unique product rather than simply meeting the terms of a rubric on the assignment.

Lev Vygotsky is another psychologist and teacher who extended the work on social learning theory in 1960s believes that learning is a result of our interactions and communication with our peers. He is a proponent of cooperative learning and states learning is affected by language and culture. “Lev Vygotsky (1962), a Russian teacher and psychologist, first stated that we learn through our interactions and communications with others” (Qtd Neff). Vygotsky’s view of learning is that knowledge construction is accomplished through the lens of culture. It is the main factor in constructing our knowledge. He goes on to say that language is the key to learning within the context of culture and that with this understanding teachers can create learning environments that improve student learning by supporting peer interaction through using cooperative groups (Neff).

The challenge in online learning for public school K-12 is continuing to develop relationships with our students, addressing technology issues, and engendering student motivation. Much of what I have found in the lectures of the e-Learning Ecologies course addresses online learning directed more at the adult learner level. I think it is very important to acknowledge that often motivation is greater for the adult learner, for a variety of reasons such as paid tuition, job requirements, desire to improve skills to acquire a higher paying job, etc. Public school learners do not have those intrinsic motivators yet. It falls to the teacher to provide or awaken motivation in the students. The online culture which the current generation has grown up in has also amplified that phenomenon. The current public-school student is use to immediate feedback and real time results from video games. Often students find it harder to wait for feedback and results, so long term multi-step projects or papers can be harder for them and for the teacher to get buy in. It seems building the prosumer in public-school students is a process which requires more work on the part of the teacher. My personal view is that when an adult learner pays for a course, he or she should be a consumer in large part. The cognitive process a learner does assigning value, drawing conclusions, and making connections from the information, he or she has consumed are a product as well. I do not subscribe to the idea that application is just a memory process. Understanding how to use an apply something is a higher order process than rote memory recall. As an online student, I expect that the institution and professor will impart to me their knowledge and expertise and not just give me a video and some references and say go see what you can find out. I could do that on my own without paying tuition.

Works Cited

McLeod, S. A. (2016, February 05). “Bandura - social learning theory.” Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsycholoLgy.org/bandura.html.

Neff, Linda S. “Lev Vygotsky and Social Learning Theories.” Educational Technology 547 Learning Theories Website. https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/lsn/educator/edtech/learningtheorieswebsite/vygotsky.htm.

"Perspectives in Digital Culture/The Prosumer Society." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 26 Apr 2021, 16:05 UTC. 20 Jul 2021, 19:23 https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Perspectives_in_Digital_Culture/The_Prosumer_Society&oldid=3831302.