The Edupunk Educator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edupunk
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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. The term was first used on May 25, 2008 by Jim Groom in his blog, [1] and covered less than a week later in the Chronicle of Higher Education[2].

Examples of Edupunk are Legos, Edusim, chalk, Hypercard, Moodle, use of the Bliki (blog and wiki mashups), students' art work on the outside wall of the classroom, and students teaching their teachers how to use technology.

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.

http://edupunk.ning.com
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Your reactions (Good, Bad, or Indifferent)?

Tags: Edupunk

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on June 3, 2008 at 9:18am

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 10:35am

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 2:15pm

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.