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The rise of Edupunk

Edupunk is a new idea. In fact, the term was coined on May 25, 2008 by Jim Groom in his blog post, "The Glass Beads," and just a week later it appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education. BoardBuzz was intrigued by this allusion to punk music as inspiration for an approach to teaching (and we've always wanted to sport a Mohawk). But what it all comes down to is a rejection of the role that capital plays in new technologies, especially the tendency of corporations to sell us back our ideas and innovations at a price. Edupunk embraces the DIY spirit (do it yourself). As Wikipedia states:

Edupunk is an ideology referring to educators and education strategies with a do it yourself (DIY) spirit. Most instructional uses of blogs, wikis, various mashups, and podcasting among many other uses of emerging technologies might be described as DIY education or Edupunk... Edupunk is also a rejection of efforts by government and corporate interests in using emerging technologies to exercise control over education, its processes, and its stakeholders, somewhat similar to punk ideologies. There is also an element of resistance to large and influential education businesses like Blackboard cooping emerging, collaborative, DIY technologies and techniques and repackaging them as their own product.

Just as punk rock was anti-establishment and rebelled against the predictable sound of pop music, Edupunk arose as a reaction against Blackboard's cookie-cutter tools and appropriation of Web 2.0 ideas. The fear is that the idea of Web 2.0 has itself become something less useful than a meme—a checklist of features. But, not everyone objects to corporate embrace of Web 2.0 tools. Our old friend David Warlick, who has been a classroom teacher, district administrator, and staff consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and for the past 10 years has operated The Landmark Project, adds this to the discussion:

It is certainly one of the most interesting aspects of the read/write web that so much of it has come from very small, garage and dorm-room endeavors, and that the growing toolset lends itself to inventiveness among its users ? emoting a do-it-yourself (DIY) spirit. As we continue to promote the use of a more participatory information landscape for learning environments, I think that we should be explicitly promoting this DIY aspect ? a sense that the information can be shaped and controlled by professional educators, and that sharing this control with students can be an appropriate, information-abundant, learning pedagogy. I do not have any real objection to corporate embrace of these tools. We?re all trying to make a living. What worries me, though, is school officials hearing the buzz, and thinking that they can buy their way into the crowd, rather than learning their way in.

Learn your way in. That's DIY in our book. If you're intrigued by all of this, BoardBuzz suggests registering for NSBA's T+L Conference. David Warlick is one of this year's keynote speakers!

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).