Education Needs To Open Up To Consumers As Producers Of Media

Stephen Downes brings back some great stuff from his keynote presentation delivered at ITI in Utah.

The central tenet of his essay is the acknowledgement of a vast, growing tension between the producers of media, both online and traditional, and the consumers of this same media.

"
Greater connectivity and greater capacity for content creation have given the consumers the capacity to produce their own media, and this poses what is deemed to be unacceptable competition to the producers, who find that their traditional modes of production, business models and distribution channels are threatened.

In every domain, it seems, we hear the call for a closed network, whether it be in the form of bundled libraries, proprietary social networking sites, digital rights and authentication, learning design, or media formats.

The developers of processes and standards for these multiple domains, heeding the demands of the producers, are complying with development that have the effect, if not the intent, of preserving a one-way flow of communication.

Slowly, however, the consumers who create are developing their own technologies, standards and communication channels.

This is a development that ought to embraced, not ignored or impeded.

When we in education cease to heed the demands of traditional producers, and open ourselves wholeheartedly to the idea that content is created, distributed and owned by the consumer, only then will the promises of the network age be realized, and the era of online learning truly begun."

original files from keynote:

PowerPoint slides

//www.downes.ca/files/utah.mp3">MP3 audio version of keynote.