Instead of talking about edupunk, or philosophizing about what defines punk culture, Alec just went ahead and lived it. His EC&I 831 course was serious hardcore edupunk, before the term was coined.
He ran a grad course, completely in the open. He invited a whole bunch of people to join the class, where students and guests discussed and explored ideas and strategies, and shared the combined output. He modeled some serious DIY chops, drawing on more free (and non-free) bits of tech than I could track, and pushing the students into the driver’s seat as part of the process.
The course had structure and definition, but was also fluid and organic. Responsive. Adaptive. Open. It was an edtech course, using insane amounts of tech, but the magic was in the non-tech aspect of the course – that students were in control (but not out of control).
Alec Couros is seriously hardcore edupunk, and hopefully his students will have picked up on some of that. Imagine what will happen when his students unleash that philosophy in the classroom…
The cool and exciting thing is that Alec isn’t the only one doing this stuff! Will people that go through this kind of course be able to go back to “traditional” courses? What will happen, down the road, when these people start running the show? Interesting times…
Wow … I’ve been EduPunk’d!
Thanks for the kind words D’arcy from the man that is making so much of this possible through your everyday toil and vision.
Your final question, will people be able to go back to “traditional courses” was already answered in part by one of my former students. Check this out: http://fun7gal.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/online-course-design-some-thoughts-to-consider/
Thanks again!
Oh yea … one more thing … could you have taken a less “deer in the headlights” photo of me?
probably not. and I love the punk polo shirt, too 🙂