• Edupunk: WTF?

I am not white, not male, and not over forty. Can I still be one?

Here's Steve Wheeler's PowerPoint presentation for the Edupunk session - 'How Edupunk can save the world...'.

Steve Wheelers post on the session

& Jim Grooms follow up comments on the session

Here are the Flickr pics


Facilitator: Graham Attwell
Speakers: Steve Wheeler, Helen Keegan

Who is going to be there: (add your name) Captain Simian, Graham Attwell, Frances Bell, Cristina Costa, Helen Keegan, Josie Fraser, Steve Wheeler, Joss Winn, Kath Trinder, asher

Here are the notes from the session. Please feel free to edit!

Helen - EduPunk: Yes it is a white, male, middle-aged thing. Our students would be ashamed of us. (Helen then had to leave to chair a session)

Steve - Steve spoilt us with his EduPunk manifesto - he threw in a presentation & finished with a poem. He argued its all about the attitude, about challenging and smashing structures. EduPunk is a minimalist, less is more, DIY approach, similar to making and distributing your own records. It's about breaking down the distance between the audience and the performers, about making things more personal & original.

Edupunk in context is against the commodification of learning. Education should be free. Down with the walled garden of institutionally approved VLE provision and up with PLEs (personal learning environments). Edupunk is about unleashing the anarchy - free, open content, open source, not constrained by commerce.

He also threw in Stephen Downes definition: "edupunk is student-centered, resourceful, teacher- or community-created rather than corporate-sourced, and underwritten by a progressive political stance." And an anonymous commentator on his post says: "I can't think of anything more punk than education. For the student, learning gives power to the individual. A society full of mindless drones trained to each do a single task doesn't really have the mental ability to rebel in meaningful ways. For the teacher, every day is an exercise in punk. You're almost completely under the control of your coordinator, your principals, your superintendents, your school board, the media. Often, "the man" passes down restrictive rules and decisions that don't seem to align with what's best for you or your students. Often, you're only equipped with sparse resources you're able to scrap together here and there."

Asher commented that Edupunk shouldn't have to be oppositional & that he wasn't here for a fight, but he objected to the lack of fanzine referencing.

Josie revealed that she had been a baby punker and was at one point committed to the Subhumanz. She wondered if Edupunk was the embarrassing dad of the e-Learning world.

Steven commented that there was a clear gender divide - all of the women round the table disliked the EduPunk label, the people defending it were all white men. He wanted to hear a woman defending the term.

Josie offered to sell out and defend EduPunk for five pounds.

Sam commented on the comodification of protest. He wondered if we weren't in a perpetual state of selling out, seeing that many of the 'free' services we use are predominantly commercial entities, that we allow our data to be brought and sold in the market place.

Graham brought up the example of the School of Everything - a service which allows people to learn and teach without the constrains of the curriculum or having to jump through key skills hoops. He wondered why we need commercial finance in order to fund these kinds of services.

Scott asked us to remember Derek Jarman's 1977 punk classic Jubilee, and ask ourselves if we are Richard O'Brian or Adam Ant.

Josie argued that the important thing about EduPunk wasn't what it was called but the disruptive and creative impulse & ah hoc organisational acivist approach that it represents.

Andy said that the whole discussion is a bit stupid. All we are doing is promoting something that's time has already passed. EduPunk died a couple of weeks ago.

More comments on appropriation & recreation of resources, A call for EduPirates which was met with a hearty round of Arrrs and YoHos.

Steve argued that do these kind of metaphors do have value, and that EduPunk as a label was much better than another acronym.

George commented that in transgression and overstepping the mark is precisely where learning takes place.

Asher admitted his kids didn't think he, personally was very cool but that the era and history of punk did hold fascination and represented something powerful & interesting to them.

Piratebay & bit torrent were cited. More Arrs and YoHos.

Graham wrapping up by commenting that the session had had a great deal of back and forth, people building on, responding and developing arguments in a way that wasn't often possible in the formal conference sessions. He then pimped the 5pm e-Portfolio session.