Edupunk Manifesto?

Noticed, just yesterday, that a number of unusual suspects of some online educational circles were using Edupunk as a way to identify a major movement toward openness in educational material. This video doesn’t “say it all” but it can help.

Changing Expectations

Like Lindsea, I wish more diverse voices were heard. Bakhtin FTW!

Unlike Lindsea, I don’t see it as mainly a generational thing or a “teacher vs. student” issue. In fact, I’m hoping that the social movements labelled by the term “edupunk” will move beyond those issues into a broader phenomenon.

The age/generation component is still interesting, to a Post-Buster like me. Baby Boomers are still the primary target of Punk. Lindsea even talks about Boomer classics:

Don’t you teachers remember when you were young? Hippies? Protesters? Implementers of change? Controllers of the cool, anti-establishment, nonconformist underground culture?

Baby Busters (the earlier part of the so-called “GenX”) have long been anti-Boomers. Not that everyone born during those years readily identify themselves with that “Generation.” But in terms of identity negotiation, the “Us/Them” often follows a concept of generational divide.

But I sincerely hope we can go way beyond age and generation. After all, there are learners of all ages, some of them older than their “teachers” (formally named or not).

Call me a teacher, if you really must. But, please, could we listen to diverse voices without labelling their sources?