Students as Creative Producers

This paper follows two South African Media Studies university students and their activities as producers of online content. It considers the online publication services they chose to express media-related academic and creative interests outside of formal curriculum requirements. Through peer guidance and using online search, both students were able to access educational resources and communities of expertise relevant to varied creative production interests. These relationships supported self-directed and interest-driven learning across academic, civic and career domains. Such cross-linkages are a unique feature of the pedagogical approach of 'Connected Learning' (Ito et al., 2013), which knits together three crucial contexts for learning: peer-supported, interest-powered and academically-oriented. It argues that learners flourish and achieve their potential when they can connect their interests and social engagement to academic studies, civic engagement, and career opportunity. This paper shows how the varied online publication services used by both students provided them with inter-connected and relevant extramural experiences.