Sunday, March 15th at 10:00 AM
Presenters:
Dave Lester – Center for History & New Media
Jim Groom – University of Mary Washington
Gardner Campbell – Baylor University
Stephen Downes – National Research Council Canada
Barbara Ganley – Digital Explorations
The panel started out with a bit of a cheesy video representing themselves(?)
Edupunk brings 70’s rock band attitude to education, and LMS (learning management system).
Learning management systems are "oppressive." Schools started getting on the web in the 90’s and didn’t want to get caught without content online. The tools that came around weren’t very good. Schools basically shoveled content online. Currently, schools are extremely reliant on these systems. The interactions aren’t there any more.
As a system, edupunk came out of these systems being just a transactional system, and not like standard education. We need to figure out other ways that learning takes place and think outside of the system.
An LMS ensures a power of authority, and the internet isn’t like that – its more free form. An edupunk system should be more free, more open, not locked into one of these confining systems. It should be a communal act around the internet and sharing resources, not locked into the confines of a LMS.
Students are only able to use these official tools. Students need to think about themselves as learners going down the road.
Do we need institutions? Do we need an official system? Do we need twitter? Facebook? How much is it about simply being online sharing information?
There is a tendency to go to a common source and think they’ll solve all their problems, but surprise that they’re selling data or information to their own benefit. Learning should be done on their own, and be inclined to do this.
School-
What other social institution is positioned to bring people together to talk about the greater public good. What exactly is the public good? Can it even be defined?
These social tools aren’t an improvement to our society, but a challenge. It should be viewed as an opportunity to look at it as a what it means to be educated. Technology is a way to control people, as well as a way to liberate.
How do we access the things that define us (culture)?
The damage is being done by MPAA and RIAA in miseducating on accessing and downloading culture. This destroys the pool of content (culture) available.
The library needs to evolve into a place that is about self-learning. The "tools" aren’t necessarily evil, but the layers of bureaucracy are what needs to be removed. Change the structure of learning outside the classroom model. One of the things that we don’t do in higher ed, is anchoring the work done there beyond the walls. Getting students out there interacting/learning with people beyond your own age (in schools). We need to connect community to community and augment the standard learning space outside the simple menu currently offered in education. Can this corporate education entity change now?
Is the google books deal a deal with the devil? Do libraries become corporate controlled? Are libraries changing from the open space for meeting that they used to be? Is it moving online?
How do you justify charging a huge tuition (everyone going up) when there is a giant collection of open source courses out there? The conversation needs to start/finish on how we meet our human potential. For some it’s about meeting that potential, for some it’s about getting a job. A total open course, where anyone can take it, anywhere in the world, and get credit if they want it, from whatever institution that wants to offer it.
This panel wasn’t much about open source technology in education, but more about what is the idea of education. Some of the panelists had different ideas about what it is/was or should be (to the point of a small argument). Many of the arguments were about the structure or "corporate" structure of education, and that being "bad." I think in an idea world, everyone would want to learn on their own, and educational material for them to do that would be available everywhere, and in any form. Unfortunately, that isn’t very realistic. I agree that the "corporate" structure of education probably isn’t the best, but without that, I don’t think any structure would exist, which I think it needs to. In an idea world, this open available education everywhere would work, but we are very far from that scenario.
UPDATE: I guess this rocking the system to be this utopian education system is the edupunk. This wasn’t clear until the end where a panelist talked about having to start their own multiuser blog hosted outside the institution .edu domain. It was quicker and easier to do that "edupunk" instead of doing it the official way through the edu.
