Harold Jarche adds an intriguing educational content twist to Umair Haque’s post and paper on user generated context. Haque argues the positive value to content publishers from the context created by users (complementors) of the original works. Haque suggests that the greater the user generated context surrounding the work, the greater the demand for the work.
For content players and publishers, user generated context means that connected consumers aren’t their competitors – but are vital, essential complementors, who create very real value for them. The more context there is, the greater demand for their content is likely to be. That means that it’s vital for content players to explode the amount of context connected consumers create about them.
Jarche suggests a similar opportunity for educational content producers when the learning content is “hackable” by teachers and learners:
Creating good content on a platform that lets users (teachers & learners) add context may be the real killer application in education. Content developers and institutions have been so concerned with protecting their content that they don’t see where the real value lies. Letting others add more context will only increase the value of their content.
