Creativity for Edupunks? @ Cambridge University

This paper discusses issues which were involved in the production of "Creativity for Edupunks" (C4E), a wiki-based resource aimed at Higher Education in Further Education (HE in FE) staff that covers issues related to identifying, locating, releasing and putting OERs into curriculum. The resource was produced due to the authors' involvement with C-SAP's Open Educational Resources Phase II project: Cascading Social Science Open Educational Resources. This participation introduced the authors into a world of open education that previously had barely registered on their horizons. The initial project meetings required an unfamiliar type of work that felt totally distinct from the standard HE in FE lecturing role where course management skills can be the main priority.

The power of reflecting on open approaches and technology's increasing ability to enable collaborative experiences brought a realisation that edupunk approaches could have some relevance to enhancing learning in this branch of higher education. The paper will therefore explore the edupunk concept, its potential meaning for HE in FE and the educational benefits it could provide.

The background to the resource
The resource is intended to be primarily used by people working in HE in FE institutions where more than one in ten undergraduate students are now taught (NUS Connect, 2009). The number is likely to rise as a result of the government's desire for 'bringing choice, encouraging competition and opening the market up to new providers' (Department of Business Innovation and Skills, 2011a). It is therefore expected that FE institutions and the private sector will increase their involvement and take advantage of the lifting of the restrictions on their current numbers of enrolled students (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2011b: para. 4.16). The proposals to expand HE in FE did not consider advancing the lecturing role at these institutions and disregarded concerns raised almost a decade ago by the HEA. The obstacles faced by lecturers were reported as: high teaching workloads, limited library resources, a lack of a HE culture, the need for more scholarly activity and a lack of development opportunities (HEA, n.d.). These issues may not be unique to this branch of the sector but their distinctive combination illustrates the extent of the potential difficulties.

The staff development prospects at HE in FE institutions can provide a striking example of lecturer dislocation as despite exclusively teaching HE, tutors can be regularly required to undergo sessions featuring mandatory FE requirements such as OFSTED, child protection and membership of the Institute for Learning. The frustration with these missed opportunities is compounded by the recognised importance of these spaces:

"Time to release staff for development is clearly the greatest support need expressed by the colleges. Beyond the core requirement for staff development time, there is a further need for staff time in curriculum planning and development, teaching and assessment, research and reading, industrial updating and secondments, and collaborative activity with other institutions." (HEFCE, 2001:11, italics added)