I’m listening to the EdTechPosse podcast 4.3, and they’re talking a bit about “edupunk”. I fired a few comments into Twitter, but wanted to flesh them out a little more.
“Edupunk” is not about a bunch of middle-aged geeks reliving their youth. Back in the day, I was much too much of a dork to be a part of punk. I was never a punk as a kid. I’m not “reliving” anything. Edupunk is more than just reminiscing some form of adolescent anarchy. It’s not just trying to recapture lost youth. Although, if there is that angle for some people, more power to them.
“Edupunk” is not about the name. One could call it Super Happy Fun DIY Smiley People and it would be the same thing. The name has been more of a source of confusion than anything – but it has been valuable in that it did cause much conversation about the topic that wouldn’t likely have happened if it had been called Super Happy Fun DIY Smiley People. The *punk portion of the label was also important because it pushed conversation in the direction of tearing down walls and breaking down hegemony. That is important, and needs to be talked about. We need to be talking about these topics that make us uncomfortable.
“Edupunk” did not die a week after the initial discussion. It just went underground. The wordsmithers and people who were hung up on dissecting the “*Punk” portion of the name sucked the soul out of it, and, at least for myself, I’ve decided to just ignore all conversation on the topic and just do it. (says the guy listening to a podcast discussing edupunk, writing yet another blog post on edupunk…)
Anyway, here closes my last post on the topic. No more talking about it. Time to get back to work.
Amen!
edupunk didn’t die after the first week, that was just when we stopped laughing at all the serious analysis about it 😉
edupunk will never die unless you let it. rock on.
@Scott Ain’t that the truth. A few people, and I may have been among them, were taking the edupunk label just a wee bit too seriously. Don’t over analyze the metaphor, sayeth Jen. Edupunk won’t die if we stop talking about or over analyzing it, but it will die if we stop doing it.
@D’arcy I like Super Happy Fun DIY Smiley People, but I don’t think that would have fit on Jim’s fingers in the now iconic photo. But would work on a t-shirt. Hmmm …
I think punk was and is the right term. Most models of education around the globe are oppressive systems of normalisation – especially from elementary through high school. Also, ‘web 2.0’ is not being used enough in a progressive way, especially considering it’s potential.
Basic ideas that are normal to us, like student centred education and learning through process not evaluation are revolutionary in this context – hence the reaction once you label it punk. These ideas have often been called ‘progressive’ and sometimes ‘revolutionary’ but it’s not until Jim called it Punk that a few peeps got shook up – which is good.
Language and meaning is under constant attack from politicians and mainstream media spin – if you find the word that makes people examine our systems in education critically for a change – stick with it – as long as you can.