[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTlescIvW0&feature=related]

I found this video by Tony Hirst on the Internet today, and it gives a very ‘hip’, though to my opinion also good overview of the emergence of new ideas about opening up information in the educational sphere. The video is connected to the Edupunk approach to teaching and learning practices. Edupunk is a term coined by Jim Groom, and seems to be based on attacking traditional learning and teaching environments (Blackboard in particular) but it also embraces other ‘punk attitudes’ towards education. As Stephen Downes, another Edupunk enthusiast, states:

“Edupunk is student-centered, resourceful, teacher- or community-created rather than corporate-sourced, and underwritten by a progressive political stance. Barbara Ganley’s philosophy of teaching and digital expression is an elegant manifestation of edupunk. Nina Simon, with her imaginative ways of applying web 2.0 philosophies to museum exhibit design, offers both low- and high-tech edupunk visions. Edupunk, it seems, takes old-school Progressive educational tactics–hands-on learning that starts with the learner’s interests–and makes them relevant to today’s digital age, sometimes by forgoing digital technologies entirely.”

Although I am not sure if being ‘anti’-establishment is in the end a very productive stance to promote change, I do like Tony’s video and I feel it is a valuable asset to the ongoing discussion on opening up education and scholarly communication.