Understanding, Fostering,
and Supporting Cultures
of Participation
Gerhard Fischer
University of Colorado | gerhard@colorado.edu
May + June 2011
interactions
Cultures are defined in part by
their media and their tools for
thinking, working, learning, and
collaborating. In the past, the
design of most media emphasized
a clear distinction between producers and consumers [ 1]. Television
is the medium that most obviously
exhibits this orientation and has
contributed to the degeneration
of humans into “couch potatoes”
[ 2], for whom remote controls are
the most important instruments
of their cognitive activities. In a
similar manner, our current educational institutions often treat
learners as consumers, fostering in
students a mind-set of consumerism rather than of ownership of
problems, which they carry with
them for the rest of their lives. As
a result, learners, workers, and
citizens often feel left out of decisions by teachers, managers, and
policymakers, denied opportunities
to take active roles.
The rise in social computing
(based on social production and
mass collaboration) has facilitated
a shift from consumer cultures
(specialized in producing finished
artifacts to be consumed pas-
sively) to cultures of participation
(in which all people are provided
with the means to participate
and to contribute actively in per-
sonally meaningful problems)
