The Wealth of Networks in university teaching: “Commons-based peer translation” of The Wealth of Networks

Abstract

Cooperative work is one of the most significant competencies in recent University reforms, and is achieving a gradual introduction in university classrooms (may their walls be physical or virtual). This results from extensive psychological and pedagogical research, together with more recent studies on educational uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Nevertheless, the current development of cooperative learning in higher education entails a reflection of the ever-growing prominence of cooperation in academic research as well as in everyday life in our networked environment. The translation project of Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks presented here sits at the ambivalent intersection between these two trends in order to explore the influx of that “wealth of networks” into higher education, bringing together both educational and social production dimensions. In this sense, the main goal of this exposition is to contribute to the debate on teaching/learning processes that, both through methodology and content, enable to link consistently teaching and research work with successful patterns of social cooperation inspired by the free software movement and the fruitful claim for a communication commons.

Keywords

• Aprendizaje cooperativo
• docencia universitaria
• Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC)
• producción entre iguales basada en el procomún