The Heritage of Edupunk: Precursors to Open Education : The Heritage of Edupunk: Precursors to Open Education Norm Friesen
February, 2009
Overview : Overview What is edupunk?
What is open education?
What is a precursor?
Precursor #1: Antonio Gramsci
Precursor #2: Walter Benjamin
Precursor #3: Paulo Freire
Lessons from the Past
Edupunk : Edupunk The term was first used on May 25, 2008 by Jim Groom in his blog and covered less than a week later in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
"the concept of Edupunk has totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire"
Characteristics
“Reaction against commercialization of learning”
“Do-it-yourself attitude”
“Thinking and learning for yourself”
Downes, S. (2008); Rowell, L. (2008) E-Learn Magazine
What is Open Education? : What is Open Education? "forms of education in which knowledge, ideas or important aspects of teaching methodology or infrastructure are shared freely over the internet." (Wikipedia)
three essential components to Open Education:
teaching and learning (educational) processes
technology and technological infrastructure
open or free access to these processes (entails a political/policy stand)
What is relevant to Open Education? : What is relevant to Open Education? Open Policy
Anti-copyright
Populist
DIY Technology & Infrastructure Teaching, Learning and Educational Processes
What is a Precursor? : What is a Precursor? Can be a movement or a person
Person or movement combining
technology,
education and
a political position
in a reaction against commercialization, to empower others
Goes back further than open source or GPL
Antonio Gramsci: 1891 – 1937 : Antonio Gramsci: 1891 – 1937 Founding member of Communist Party in Italy
Imprisoned by Mussolini; most famous writings from prison (notebooks)
Keywords:
Ideology
Hegemony
Organic Intellectuals
Ideology/Hegemony as spontaneous, cultural : Ideology/Hegemony as spontaneous, cultural Culture: “exercise of thought, acquisition of general ideas, habit of connecting causes and effects” (Gramsci, 1985, 23)
Hegemony & Ideology: "shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups" (A. Giddens 1997)
"spontaneous consent" of the populace through intellectualleadership or authority
Knowledge & Culture as Central : Knowledge & Culture as Central Intellectual matters, cultural representations as paramount
This gives education, teaching and learning a central role
“All…are intellectuals…”
“just not …by function” or job description
"everyone at some time fries a couple of eggs or sews up a tear in a jacket, we do not neces-sarily say that everyone is a cook or a tailor."
Organic intellectuals : Organic intellectuals Everyone’s potential for intellectual/political engagement
Everyone: "carries on some form of intellectual activity …, participates in a particular conception of the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct, and therefore contributes to sustain a conception of the world or to modify it, that is, to bring into being new modes of thought"
Gramsci & Education : Gramsci & Education The learner as “active and creative,” not "a passive and mechanical recipient".
"to create a single type of formative school (primary-secondary) which would take the child up to the threshold of his choice of job, forming him during this time as a person capable of thinking, studying and ruling - or controlling those who rule" (Gramsci 1971 p40).
Slide 12 : And today there is hardly a [person] …who could not, in principle, find an opportunity to publish --somewhere or other-- comments on his work, grievances, documentary reports, or that sort of thing. As a result, the distinction between author and public is about to lose its basic character. The difference becomes merely functional; it may vary from case to case. At any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer. […]
Walter Benjamin: 1892 - 1940 : Walter Benjamin: 1892 - 1940 associated with the FrankfurtSchool of critical theory
sociological & cultural critic
“The Work of Art in the Ageof Mechanical Reproduciblity”
Keywords:
Aura
Distraction
The Work of Art in the Ageof Mechanical Reproducibility : The Work of Art in the Ageof Mechanical Reproducibility Mechanical reproduction of art means that its “aura” “withers:” “the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.”
This is not bad, but good: "For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.“
New forms in film of the late 1920’s and 1930’s: Bunuel, Riefenstahl, Eisenstein
Slide 17 : This kind of art is “received” in a state of “distraction”
Benjamin sees this distracted reception as enabling a the “convergence of educational value and consumer value in a new kind of learning” (Eiland, 2005)
“The distracted person, too, can form habits. More, the ability to master certain tasks in a state of distraction proves that their solution has become a matter of habit. Distraction as provided by art [means that] new tasks have become soluble by apperception.” (W. Benjamin)
What is significant : What is significant Aesthetic characteristics of new technical media can present both potential and challenges for learning
This is politically relevant; not as direct emancipation from earlier constraints and limitations, but through the development of new modes of “reception;” new sensibilities
Technology as cultural in its educational significance
Paulo Freire: 1921-1997 : Paulo Freire: 1921-1997 Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy (politically engaged)
Developed “cultural circles” for teaching reading and writing; imprisoned for this
Literacy was a requirement for voting.
Key terms:
Dialogical education
codification
Freire on Technology : Freire on Technology “The answer does not lie in the rejection of the machine but in the humanization of man.” I’m a “man of television” and “man of radio.” "It is not the media themselves which I criticize, but the way they are used." Slide courtesy of: Richard A. Kahn
Slide Projectors: 35,000 : Slide Projectors: 35,000 Slide projectors used to display “codified pictures” at the centre of this instruction
Codified pictures: visual representations of existential situations
“questions are implicit in the codifications”
Present elements to be “decoded” by the participants
Literacy ed. is combined “with lessons in self-reflection, cultural identity & political agency.” (Kahn & Kellner, 2007)
Freire on Technology : Freire on Technology 1960’s National Literacy Programme:
Buys 35,000 Polish slide projectors
In 1973, $13/unit est.
In 1981, $2.50/unit est.
Rate of dollar has now increased six-fold.
In 1962, Br. Real 4:1 rate of exchange.
= A LOT OF MONEY!!! 1990’s Sec. of Ed for Sao Paulo:
Established Central Laboratory for Educational Informatics
Invested in “televisions, video cassettes, sound machines, slide projectors, tape recorders, and 825 micro-computers.”
= A LOT OF MONEY!!! 90s he faced many children without schools altogether, terrible disrepair, he speaks
of missing tens of thousands of desks and chairs. So his investment in technology
in this context is significant. Slide courtesy of: Richard A. Kahn
Slide 26 : “I don't accept [the claim] …that the ending of school is inevitable. For me, the challenge is not to end school, but to change it completely and radically and to help it to give birth from a body that doesn't correspond anymore to the technological truth of the world to a new being as actual as technology itself.”
P. Freire: http://www.papert.org/articles/freire/freirePart2.html
Precursor – T. Friedman? : Precursor – T. Friedman? globalization has leveled the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries
historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant
Inevitable; culture outside of human control
Technology as not humanized or humanizing
Lessons from the Past : Lessons from the Past Developments occurring with technology are not pre-set
Technology is not destiny; it is a scene of struggle
Education is much more than the acquisition of “globally” competitive skills
We should look to experts, not journalists, to understand global trends affecting education
Nobel prize better than a Pulitzer!
Sources : Sources Benjamin, W. (1936/1979). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Illuminations. New York: Schocken. http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
Gramsci, A. (1971). An Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935. D. Forgacs (Ed.). New York: Schocken.
Freire, P. (1973) Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Continuum.
Friedman, T. L. (2007). The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Kahn, R. (2005). Electronic Freire: Technology in the Struggle for Peace? Third Annual CAFE Conference. Available at:
http://richardkahn.org/writings/tep/electronicfreire.ppt
Kahn, R. & Illich Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich: technology, politics and the reconstruction of education Policy Futures in Education 5(4) 431-448. http://richardkahn.org/writings/tep/freireillich.pdf