EdTech and EduPunks

I have had this blog title sitting in my drafts folder for close to a year. Sitting and looking at it for ten long months has not motivated me to write more here. The guilt was overwhelming.

Fortunately, the guilt is now gone.

Jim Groom has broken up with EduPunk because “[Its] history of flirting and seducing the neo-liberals who want to dismantle public institutions has been a real turn off,” so I don’t feel as if I should be beholden to its glorious name.

Sure, I’ll still look for ways to modify me pedagogy to avoid the over-corporatization of higher ed. And I will still eschew big, bulky CMS programs like BlackBoard to save myself and my students bloat headaches from the unnecessary parts that fill what could be a simple, usable space for learning. I’ll keep plugging along with WordPress and Zotero and other free or open source projects that seek to make a difference and make life work better. Along with that, I will keep searching for lower-cost alternatives to text books to do my part to keep education costs down. Despite my love of the name  I may, like Groom, have to leave it behind.

Maybe, like punk music after 1978, the name won’t hold the same cachet it once did, but the spirit will live on.