Educamping in Austria

I'm not particularly keen on camping out. I find it a little intense. But Educamp is another matter, and I have just been invited by supremo Martin Ebner to host/chair/moderate an English speaking track for this illustrious event. You may recall, if you are a regular reader of this blog, that I took part remotely in an earlier episode of Educamp, when it was held in March in illmenau, Germany. Or I would have participated, if my audio links to the conference had actually worked ... here's my account of what happened. Well, this time, I will be there in person, so unless I am struck dumb, all will be well, and people will actually be able to make out what I'm saying (....look - stop it!)

Educamp is really different. Here's what Martin says about this 'unconference': 'You go there and then we are offering an empty session plan and any participant who likes, stands up and says they want to do a session on this topic and [they] pick one of the empty places .... this will be done before the camp starts and then we can go to any session and discuss it - no papers and no prepared presentations, just on the fly and discussion.' Interested? Intrigued? Come along and find out more.... (no need to bring your tent, because it's not that kind of camp)

Educamp is held in Graz, Austria this November, and it promises to be just as eclectic, challenging, ad hoc and stimulating as previous Educamp events. Click on the link above and you will get the English version, and if you are so moved to do so, think about attending and doing a presentation. I'd look pretty silly sitting there chairing a session in English, which no-one was speaking at.... wouldn't I?

PS: No tents were harmed during the making of this blogpost.

Three chord wonder

Thanks to an invitation from Thomas Bernhardt over at Educamp in Bremen, I actually managed to present my Edupunk talk earlier today. Using Skype, I presented a 20 minute talk which covered the history and philosophy of Edupunk, it's analogies to the Punk Rock culture of the 1970s, and a few comments on corporate profiteering, the state of institutional VLEs and the 'Do It Yourself' approach to teaching and learning.

There were some very incisive questions from those present in Germany, and some equally delving questions and comments from others listening and viewing from elsewhere in the world across the live streaming media links. One interesting comment was that Edupunk seems to be all about taking part rather than excellence. I agree - all you needed to be a punk rocker was attitude, and if necessary, the ability to play three chords on a guitar. Edupunk encourages learners to take part - and contribute something, even if it is wrong. I pointed out that at one point, 30 years ago, I only knew 3 chords myself. Now I know several more, and play in a more sophisticated manner than I did when I was in my teens and early twenties. The same applies to learners. They learn to participate, and eventually can become quite proficient in learning within collaborative environments. They just need to be given the opportunities to gain confidence and make mistakes without being penalised. Traditional education doesn't offer enough of these opportunities.

Another comment opened up a discussion on creativity and destructiveness and the notion of 'anarchy'. Here is a recent article we published on the destructive creativity of Web 2.0. My take on this is that Edupunk is not a destructive kind of anarchy. That kind is where 'smashing the system' is replaced by nothing better. No, Edupunk promises to do for education what Punk did for music. Punk gave the British music industry a much need shot in the arm and saved it from stagnation. I also said that sometimes you need to be destructive in order to be creative. Writing contributions to a wiki takes on this form. When you have posted a wiki contribution, it is no longer your own, but becomes the property of the user group - and they are then at liberty to do what they want with it. Edit it, add to it, or even delete it completely.

I very much enjoyed participating in Educamp. Skype worked well, and those participating were as equally passionate about learning as me. Thanks Thomas for the invitation!

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Can anybody hear me?

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I was due to speak at the roundtable event tonight for Educamp, alongside Martin Ebner, and as those of you who were listening discovered, the technology failed me at exactly the right moment. What can you do? I came in two hours early, tested out the system. The institutional network locked me out. I called my tech guys, who did a stirling job trying to find out what the problem was. No access to Elluminate. Proxy error or firewall problem. They couldn't resolve it. Eventually, bless 'em, they logged me into a specialised system - known as the access grid - which was open with no networking restrictions. It worked. Hooray! I was able to upload my slides, and even tested out the radio microphone I was given. The sound quality was good. All set to go. I walked back up the stairs to my desk for a quick cup of tea before the session started.

Back down in the access grid, I waited for my cue to speak.... the microphone was dead. Like an idiot, I frantically tried to get the sound working. The tech guys had gone home. I was on my own. More than 3 dozen people were waiting to hear me speak and I couldn't make myself heard. Could I try sign language? Useless. Maybe semaphore? Waste of time. Chat messaging on Elluminate was working OK, but not the best medium for presenting a live talk. Morse code would have worked if I knew how to read/write it (and if the audience knew it too). Other forms of language came to mind during the technology failure, none of which are actually printable here. Could I try ESP? How about crab language? Grand Opera? I tried rebooting the computer. Big mistake ... I lost Elluminate completely (again).

Oh the irony! I'm suspicious that the institutional gremlins conspired against me, because my topic was none other than ... Edupunk! Here's my slideshow 'How Edupunk can save the World.' And here are the points I wanted to make:

1) Edupunk is a philosophy deeply rooted in the belief that educators can 'do it themselves', and use tools that are open, 'free' and non-proprietary. It's a movement against the commoditization of learning and against corporate profiteering. It is not just about selecting open tools and technologies. It is also about the freedom to choose the methods of teaching that are open and student centred. I would even go as far as to claim that Edupunk teachers should be challenging the curricula they are required to teach, and especially the assessment methods that are imposed from on high. These are the structures that constrain education and stop learners from achieving their full potential.

2) Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and in particular Learning Management Systems (LMSs) contribute toward restrictive practices in education and constrain both learner and teacher to operate within a model of learning that is insitutionally beneficial, but does little for the learner themselves. VLEs are generally difficult to use, with far too much effort needed to be put into understanding how the system works, to the detriment of the time and effort spent actually learning.

3) An exemplification of Edupunk philosophy is the rise of the personal learning environment (PLE) in which the learner selects his/her own tools and technologies to apply in formal and informal learning. Typical PLEs will incorporate a social networking service, reflective and collaborative tools, e-mail and a mobile device. I use a mashup of wiki (shell to aggregate all tools and provide a collaborative space), blogs (reflective tool and mind amplification space) and Twitter (microblog to update and inform and also to receive ideas and contact from others with a similar interest to me). I also use my wireless laptop and iPhone as communication/end tools.

4) Edupunk is more than 'do it yourself'. It is also a counterculture against corporate control and exploitation of learning, and brings the punk band (the teacher) closer to the audience (learner group). It is unashamedly anarchic and harks back to the concept of 'deschooling society' first proposed by Ivan Illich in the 1970s. Illich famously argued that we don't need funnels (directional learning through institutional control) but webs (multi-directional, hyperlinked learning that can be tailored by the individual to her/his own needs). Rhizomatic approaches to learning fall into this kind of philosophy.

There. That is what I would have said if the technology had allowed me. I got it off my chest. It's a shame that my rant on Edupunk has to end up here as a two-dimensional diatribe, rather than as a round table discussion with a live audience. On this occasion the technology amplified the distance, but hopefully this blog post will narrow the distance again, and that readers will contribute to a semblance of debate through the comments box below. Over to you...

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