The Edupunk Educator

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on June 3, 2008 at 8:18am

Very interesting, and very in line with things you might hear Doc Searls or John Seely Brown say (see my interviews with them at www.edtechlive.com). DIY education will, I think, be the great question-mark raised by the "long tail" effects in education. Interestingly enough, I think we'll continue to find that the homeschool world will end up informing some of this debate, having already produced a body of information that relates to highly individualized education.

Not sure I love the Edupunk name because it engenders an immediate edgy connotation--but maybe that is what will give it power. BTW, I've found that it's harder to build discussion when you don't use your real name here at CR 2.0 (and other networks).

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Permalink Reply by Scott Beiter on June 3, 2008 at 9:35am

Follow this link for where it all began. I tend to agree with much of the edupunk philosophy. Like punk itself, edupunk is against government and capitalism and in favor of developing independent thinking. Big government and corporations are squeezing the life out of education imho. Not sure how much staying power the edupunk movement has. At the moment it seems more of a catchphrase for bloggers to gab about. With that said, I am writing a song about it.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on June 4, 2008 at 1:15pm

Seems like the definition is a mashup in itself. As much as I appreciate "students teaching their teachers how to use technology" in that list, the examples seem random, if not contradictory to the rest of the definition. What does any particular use of technology have to do with questioning business or corporate control over a public institution? And why is resistance to marketing hype equivalent to DIY? At best, this is a meme, not an ideology.

For example, you could point to a teacher creating their own math worksheets as an example of DIY and rejection of having to purchase them from publishers. But that's probably not cool enough to qualify as edupunk.

I just wonder if the rush to stake a claim about a new word is pushing this. Can't wait for the conference sessions next year trumpeting Edupunk 2.0.

That said, I hear that Jim Groom is doing some good work and doesn't seem to be involved in the hype.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Schultz on June 10, 2008 at 5:45am

I have just found this meme and think it might be useful. The issue of DIY being inherently political is interesting. Perhaps the issue is that of being a consumer or producer. Using technology in the classroom is often a project of making good consumers, teaching kids little more than how to click around an interface.

DIY is about making things, hacking, and using tools in new ways. Its about taking what is fed to you as a consumer and producing something new from it. It is expressive and educational.

I think Edupunk might be a useful term to some because there seem to be lots of smart folks out there using technology in creative ways by their own design NOT in some prepackaged format created through some corporate marketing strategy.

For example I teach media technologies as part of a dance curriculum. There are no out of the box tools in this work. Its about experimentation and creating your own physical/digital interfaces.

dancemachines.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Tony Schultz on June 10, 2008 at 5:54am

http://edupunk.ning.com

The website seems pretty useless thus far.

We will see what happens to the term. I think it has to due more with whether the folks doing good work associate with it. I like it.

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