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ARE YOU READY TO GO EDUPUNK?

In 2008, Jim Groom, an instructional technologist at the University of Mary Washington

in Virginia, used the term Edupunk for the first time on a series of posts in his
personal blog to describe a new approach towards teaching and learning. He said that
he was inspired by punk music to coin this term and that this approach was the result
of the several changes that were taking place in the field of education due to the rapid
emergence and development of new technologies and web-2.0 tools. Much to Grooms
surprise, this new concept triggered an incredibly massive response (both in favour and
against) and the word Edupunk started to spread through the web like wildfire.
Nowadays, Edupunk has become a worldwide movement on its own that claims the
urgent need for a comprehensive reform at all levels of the system of education.
Basically, the Edupunk movement encourages teachers to move away from traditional
methodologies and adopt a rebellious DIY (Do-It-Yourself) attitude in their practices
by incorporating different technological tools in meaningful and creative ways.
Currently, ordinary people are taking a more active role in their own learning
process and they are using new devices such as blogs, wikis, videos and open-source
software to learn what they really want to learn. So the idea is to bring these habits and
practices into the classroom to create meaningful learning experiences that bridge the
gap between education and technology. Therefore, the challenge for teachers is to
adapt their methodologies to this new educational scenario to awaken in their students
the desire to learn. To put it in a nutshell, Edupunk is about re-thinking and re-defining
the concepts of teaching and learning in the education of the XXI century.

Now, the question is: what does punk music have to do with this new
educational approach? Well, the answer is very simple. Punk rock
embraces the Do-It-Yourself ideology: no matter if youre not good at
singing or playing a musical instrument, just get together with your
friends and make music. Don't get discouraged by your lack
of means or skills. DIY is about doing and experimenting! DIY is about
being creative and self-sufficient! DIY is about pushing the limits and
having fun!
The punk movement emerged from the underground scene in London
as a form of rebellion against the commercial and predictable sound of
pop music in the late 70s. Punk bands started to create their own
music with the limited means they had at their disposal and, since they
wanted to become independent from the music industry system, they
also recorded and distributed their own albums. In this way, they
moved away from the traditional ways of producing music at that
time and gave shape to the DIY spirit of the punk era, spirit which was
later adopted by Edupunk supporters.

Exercise: Read the text and answer the following questions. (Exercise published
on our blog > www.lcblearning.wordpress.com).
1) Why did Jim Groom use the term Edupunk in his personal blog?
2) What does the Edupunk movement encourage teachers to do?
3) What do punk music and Edupunk have in common?
4) How did the punk movement start in London?
5) Why did punk bands record and distribute their own albums?

www.liceobritanico.com
info@liceobritanico.com
0800-44-INGLES (464537)

ARE YOU READY TO GO EDUPUNK? > KEYS

Exercise: Read the text and answer the following questions. (Exercise published
on our blog > www.lcblearning.wordpress.com).
1) Why did Jim Groom use the term Edupunk in his personal blog? Jim Groom []
used the term Edupunk for the first time on a series of posts in his personal blog to
describe a new approach towards teaching and learning.
2) What does the Edupunk movement encourage teachers to do? The Edupunk
movement encourages teachers to move away from traditional methodologies and
adopt a rebellious DIY (Do-It-Yourself) attitude in their practices by incorporating
different technological tools in meaningful and creative ways.
3) What do punk music and Edupunk have in common? The Do-It-Yourself ideology.
4) How did the punk movement start in London? The punk movement emerged from
the underground scene in London as a form of rebellion against the commercial and
predictable sound of pop music in the late 70s.
5) Why did punk bands record and distribute their own albums? Because they wanted
to become independent from the music industry system.

www.liceobritanico.com
info@liceobritanico.com
0800-44-INGLES (464537)