C4E @ Cambridge (The Final Part)

The first topic seeks to assess the view that OERs can be seen as 'the new university' thanks to the sheer number of available resources and support from the Creative Commons licensing system. This choice was influenced by the cascade methodology that included attendance at the OER 2011 conference where such a question was presented in the opening keynote (Hall, 2011). The resource's second and third sections debate whether OERs can transcend financial and licensing justifications to also provide more effective learning experiences. It therefore guides participants towards OERs that reflect on radical pedagogy via complete editions of texts such as Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The former's use as a discrete course from the peer to peer university in 2011 enhanced these reflections; particularly as this educational place is reported to have acquired more than 20,000 students since its establishment in 2009 (P2PU, 2011). The next topic enquires further into the learning experience by considering the possibility of improved methods of assessment from adopting open approaches.

The resource then progresses onto reflections concerning the digital abilities and expectations from contemporary students. This section therefore utilises OERs that investigate conceptions such as 'digital natives/immigrants' or 'residents/visitors' (Prensky, 2001; Whyte and Le Cornu, 2011). This is followed by an inquiry into the potential from using open means of communication for shaping learning and participants are guided towards tools such as voicethread and prezi. The penultimate topic considers the use of digital images in contemporary undergraduate teaching before 'anarchogogy' is put forward as a desirable approach for maximising OERs' potential in HE in FE. The final three sections of the wiki are reserved for the participants' production of their own OERs and the subsequent deposit into jorum. These are communicative spaces intended to help with this process and it is anticipated that the generated feedback will, amongst other things, establish whether this is an appropriate allocation of time.

Everything starts with an E (learning)?
The cascade research identified lecturers' lack of time as a major obstacle for engaging with OERs and the challenge of competing for space in lecturers' crowded worlds, digital or otherwise, dominated the resource's planning. The project considered the importance of localisation for OERs and thanks to the edupunk reflections this took the form of building on expressions of local popular culture:

"The north-west of Britain is better known for its urban wastelands and decaying industries than its nightlife, but between 1989 and 1991...the otherwise unremarkable town of Blackburn became the centre of a DiY party movement...Barriers between races and classes were broken down, a generation of football hooligans tuned in and chilled out, and the inner-city underclasses broke out of the ghettos and discovered a new world of potential and release. At the vortex of the storm was Blackburn (and in particular the underground party collective Hardcore Uproar)." (Hemment, 1998: 209-10, italics added)

The collective primarily consisted of local people who independently repurposed both land and music to create weekly warehouse parties that were attended by thousands of people; tens of thousands if the reports in the local press were accepted. The events were initially tolerated by the police but a change in approach led to their demise and Hardcore Uproar's 'Boomtown' epithet gradually lost its meaning. In 2003, a short film directed by Piers Sanderson entitled 'Acid House in the Disused Mills of Thatcher's Britain', illustrated the plethora of rundown and empty warehouses in Blackburn during these years; places that had previously been extremely profitable for an elite group of people. Their questionable business methods and exploitation of vulnerable workers clearly marred this 'success' but such stains were not as obvious to their reuse as commercial benefits did not appear to be an overriding priority. The free or low cost entry charges contrasted starkly with those at the more well-known licensed events and nightclubs such as those popularised in the Michael Winterbottom (2002) film '24 Hour Party People'.

The music at the Blackburn parties demonstrated their OER characteristics as remixing, then known as 'UK sampledelia' was much in evidence (Hemment, 1998: 214). The use of technology for repurposing data also enabled widespread 'building on the work of others' to take place (Laurillard, 2011). The process was exemplified by Hardcore Uproar's reuse of Obi Wan Kenobi's retort to Darth Vader in the original Star Wars film of "strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine'". The sample featured prominently in a recording, also called 'Hardcore Uproar', which in 1990 was in the UK's top forty music chart for two months reaching a highest position of twelve. The tune was subsequently reused by television producers where it became regular accompanying music for BBC1 sports programmes. A full length film commemorating the Blackburn experiences was released in 2010 but it has been reported that its general distribution has been delayed until clearance, costing £30,000, is acquired for the music rights (highonhope.com). The film has though been shown at some European venues and critical acclaim followed its display at the Kaunas Film Festival 2011:

"The first film is a delightful surprise. High On Hope, a first feature from Piers Sanderson, was made on no money, just favours, enthusiasm and sheer invention, developed and augmented from a short made in 2003 about the birth of the Acid House scene in the north of England. Blackburn, of all unlikely places, was the spawning ground. Though perhaps not so unlikely, as the film shows how in reality this music development so often seen as mostly hedonistic was actually highly political in the real sense. In the gloom of Thatcher's Britain, the structures (disused mills and factories) that had first been places of hard labour for the working classes, then decaying blights on their landscapes, were reclaimed as places of uncommercial joy and self-expression." (Seacroft, 2011, italics added).

The proximity between OERs and popular music and culture is enhanced by the use of terminology such as 'mash up' (Pegler, 2011) and the examples from punk and acid house illustrate what can be achieved from DiY approaches. The cascade methodology enabled a belief in the potential for similar powers of invention for OERs in HE in FE and its adoption of OEP (open educational practices) as reported by the OER Impact Study (Masterman and Wild, 2011).

"The importance of 'E' as well as 'O' in OER"
The significance of 'e' in OERs was also highlighted by the summary of the Impact Study's findings that stated educational value to be a greater influence on use than even accessibility (White and Manton, 2011: 8). C4E seeks to assist with both facets of openness and as well as hosting pedagogical debate it could be used as a signposting service towards trusted OERs. These additional resources should be welcomed at HE in FE institutions where the issue has been identified by the National Student Survey as the main difference in satisfaction rates between students in the different parts of the sector (NUS Connect, 2009). The reported impact of OERs would suggest the benefits to HE in FE institutions from having openly engaged staff:

"The resources that their home institution owns or subscribes to no longer have to be the primary source of information for staff or students." (White and Manton, 2011: 4, italics added)

A lack of resources had a major influence on the pedagogical approach of C4E as a lack of subscription to Blackboard and other corporate behemoths limited the resonance of the edupunk catalyst. The exclusion forced alternative thinking and the empowerment from the cascade's reflection plus the recognition of technology's ability to forge communities of practice, defined as 'a self-governed learning partnership' (Wenger, 2011) enabled the creation of an approach that is more relevant to HE in FE institutions.

The Emergence of Anarchogogy
As has been suggested and outlined above, as part of the development of the open strategy of the C4E framework, several areas needed to be considered, confronted and tackled both conceptually and practically. This was necessary in order to navigate and traverse certain institutional or sector-related obstacles). One issue in particular - to be focused upon in this section - was the recognition of an unarticulated and problematic space, located somewhere in-between the conceptual opposites of pedagogical didacticism, characterized by a centralised and corporate control of knowledge (Hudson & Meyer, 2011); and, as has been suggested and briefly explored above, Edupunk, associated with the proliferation of DIY-education and the autopoeisis (Mingers, 1995: 11; Maturana & Varela, 1980) of learning and resultant knowledge. Our attempts to confront, break-free from, and creatively move beyond certain traditional pedagogical and bureaucratic rigidities - that by the default of our institutional context and heritage, unavoidably underpin our fledgling HE environment. We realised that maybe the Edupunk approach didn't necessarily hold all of the appropriate answers.

As an initial response to our discovery and engagement with Edupunk, as HE in FE educational practitioners, we felt that the ethos of this initiative, with its aspirations towards liberated knowledge and 'free' learning, contained significant potential, certainly where the perceived possibility of an initial, and formative, alternative pedagogical framework was concerned. But, as an ethos, and, an approach (in a pure sense), didn't necessarily contain the radical and productive alternative that we were seeking. Our realization of this came from the following initial 'cascade' attempt with students.

Having become quite excited at the creative possibilities posed by the DIY ethos and anarchistic framework of Edupunk - and, as part of our C-SAP remit to look at bespoke strategies with a view to cascading OER's to both educational practitioners and learners - we established two-student focus (or, working groups) and, invited them as part of an Edupunk-influenced activity to engage with various OER repositories and collaboratory materials; we invited the groups to consider how OER's and their potential might enhance their learning, collaboration and research experience. Our assumption was that the same (or at least similar) hysterical epiphanies and realisations of potential empowerment would emerge and be reflected back to us from the groups. However, the actual responses were thoroughly disappointing; there was very little - if any - engagement with the OER sources and their associated materials. The respondents clearly expressed a need to understand a context and rationale for incorporating any such materials or activities into their existing programmes - with a particular emphasis on assessment and weighting (i.e. "how much would this contribute towards my grades?") The autopoeisis of serendipitous connections and DIY learning - as stipulated by the Edupunk approach - just didn't burst forth into an explosive genesis. As we became more familiar with the 'reflexive' methodology of the cascade project, our intention was to avoid a straight-forward embedding of OER's as minor technological appendages, aimed at discreetly enhancing the cyclical rolling-out of an established and repetitive curricular framework. Where learners and collaborators are concerned, we wanted to avoid any subsequent strategies to embed OER's as superficial enhancements aimed at maybe increasing the likelihood of student interaction, collaboration and wider research. Our ambition was to, in some way, formulate an alternative approach to the inherited and underlying pedagogical principles, and so, conceive of a more open and creative 'pedagogical' approach.

This then prompted us to consider an alternative (what might be termed a '3rd') position in comparison to those previously identified as didacticism or Edupunk. As part of the conception and construction of the C4E programme, we took on board these initial disappointing findings - with a view to effectively navigating and transgressing them - and grounded the construction of C4E in our alternative pedagogic notion of anarchogogy.

Anarchogogy
The first part of the term anarchogogy (that of 'anarcho') is extracted from - and has obvious associations with - the political theory of anarchism, this being a derivative of the Greek notion of anarchos, which means "without rulers". The second aspect of the neologism 'agogy', also has its origin in Greek and is associated with the term agogos, meaning "to lead". Interestingly, and, pertinently, agogos (agogy) is also a constitutive element of term 'pedagogy', which means literally "to lead the child". Anarchogogy was thus coined and developed as a third and alternative approach to cascading and utilising OER's, geared towards unfolding a process of author-dispersal; the identification of a liberating arena (virtual or otherwise), where mutual exchange generates an openness and the negotiation of temporally experiential invitations (ignited by an initial 'guide' or guidance) to initially lead - or, more appropriately 'guide' - collaborators towards newly conceived curricular possibilities (across various disciplines) .

From the chaotic scattering of this potentiality, latent increments of ideas and journeys - in pursuit of new ideas - are provided with space to germinate. Anarchogogy thus presents the idea, and, possibility of an open-ended approach to the dissemination of "new" formative notions of academic structure, engagement and critical proposals. Anarchogogues, negotiating beyond the legalities and literalities of pre-existing institutional traditions and bureaucratic constraints are therefore guided towards a nomadic territory where they can begin to creatively reach futurewards.

Anarchogogy is thus posed as an embryonic development, rich in potential, where the further progression of the principles and strategies associated with the cascadence of OER's and C4E in the HE in FE context is concerned.

Conclusion

The increased reflexivity that has been derived from the cascade research has enabled the possibility of change to feel like an achievable goal. The use of OERs has opened up avenues of pedagogical inquiry that were previously inaccessible and provided much needed resources for HE in FE institutions. The cascade has also had effects beyond this issue and has enabled a degree of independence to be given for staff development and this change attests to the power of openness and the 'can do' attitude of edupunk. Open educational practices have provided this branch of higher education with unprecedented opportunities to display its worth. The challenge for the resource itself is to sustain participants' levels of interest and through its collaborative approach, remain a credible alternative for doing things differently.


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License and Citation
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. Please cite this work as: Johnson, P. and Hammond, C. (2012) OERs in HE in FE: Creativity for Edupunks? In Proceedings of Cambridge 2012: Innovation and Impact - Openly Collaborating to Enhance Education.