C4E @ Cambridge (Pt.2)

An effect of the cascade project was a belief that an open approach to staff development could assist with overcoming these problems and those noted by the HEA. The accessibility of the OER community facilitates collaborative experiences previously beyond the reach of HE in FE tutors whose small numbers exacerbates their isolation. The lack of connection with other colleagues can now be overcome via accessible resources such as open webinars where experiences can be shared between tutors who feel the HE requirements of their role can be seen 'as a problem' for their institution (JISC, 2011). The cascade research also revealed the communicative benefits from open dialogue that extends beyond equivalent institutions:

"Thus through participation in the cascade project, the UCBC partners were able to have some of their assumptions challenged, such as the belief that the low level of digital literacy of their students was unique to their institutional context. Therefore, the C-SAP cascade project strove to focus more on the strengths of HE in FE sector, such as an emphasis on teaching and student satisfaction as well as high level of pastoral support for students, and potential synergies with the HE sector rather than view these sectors as diametrically opposite." (HEA/JISC, 2011: 27-8)

The edupunk concept

The sharing of an article amongst the cascade partners entitled "Nevermind the pedagogues, here's edupunk" had immediate attraction with the UCBC partners, not merely because of the highly evocative title but also because of its claim to represent:

"a new instructional style that is defiantly student-centered, resourceful, teacher - or community-created rather than corporate-sourced, and underwritten by a progressive political stance." (Cohen, 2008)

The term had been used a month earlier in a blog by Jim Groom, an instructional-technology specialist and adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington. It arose out of a self-confessed rant at the commercial activities from corporations such as Blackboard. The concept was reported by one of the original theorists behind the connectivist approach to learning, to have "totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire" (Downes, 2008). It was though quickly criticised for lacking clarity and for being too closely aligned to the model of punk said to have been conveyed by the 'Sex Pistols' in the 1970s. However, the term has maintained interest and published books now accompany the array of blogs that have detailed on both its death and growing popularity (Kamenetz, 2010 and 2011; Cain, 2008; Churchill, 2011).

The proximity between the musical and educational interpretations of 'punk' might be too close for some, but according to Jon Savage's England's Dreaming, a comprehensive review of punk music in the UK in the 1970s, the manner in which it overcome obstacles from the music industry, media, politicians and general public provides a rich source of reflection for potential edupunks:

"[It] resulted in an underground distribution and production network which turned necessity into a virtue: it was easy and cheap, go and do it. These ideals of access - which have been expanded by the internet - have become one of Punk's enduring legacies." (Savage, 2001: p. xv)

The cascade research corresponded with the widespread discontent at the increases in tuition fees and therefore edupunk reflections appeared to be an appropriate inquiry. The resource seeks to guide its users to consider whether online habits can do to higher education what they have done to other information industries such as publishing, news and music. It encourages exploration of the open opportunities now provided by situations such as "Going to Harvard from your own bedroom" (BBC News, 2011); and "Is it possible for everybody to be an autodidact, now that knowledge is so accessible online?" (Wall Street Journal, 2010). The DiY approach to learning is a core feature of edupunk and this enables autodidactic teaching methods that pre-date popular culture by an appreciable length of time to be reconsidered. An example of the benefits of this approach can be found in the eighteenth century teaching career of Joseph Jacotot in Jacques Rancière's book, The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation (1981). There it is explained how the approach led to Jacotot's students producing more than what was customarily achieved as his students provided "sentences of writers not of schoolchildren" (p.4). The realisation that this complete text was freely available as an OER, plus equally provocative works from writers such as Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire encouraged the belief in the possibility of edupunk approaches. The opportunities for such reflection are rare for lecturers working in HE in FE institutions where such resources may not be available and staff development is limited by the FE location.

An edupunk playlist

Although C4E is an OER and can therefore be used in anyway subject to the terms of its attribution- noncommercial-share alike, Creative Commons licence; its use as a course about OERs commenced in September 2011 with a cohort of twenty-four participants, nineteen of which were employed as full-time lecturers at UCBC. Employment status had to be recorded due to these tutors' receipt of an hour per week teaching remission for engaging with the resource. It can therefore be seen as a course requiring thirty-three hours' online study that is guided by the eleven sections of its wiki. A list of suggested dates for progressing through the content is posted to encourage communication between participants but is not mandatory. This construction allows users to select their preferred direction and levels of granularity from eight highlighted features of the OER cycle of use and reuse. The different topics each include reflective questions and the final three sections of the resource are spaces where experiences of producing and disposing OERs can be shared.