It's education that's meant to take us into this future that we can't grasp.

The above quote is by Sir Ken Robinson, from a magnificent talk which I've been meaning to post here for some time. I am moved to applaud every time I watch this.
 

 
One of my current projects is the development of knowledge translation tools for watershed groups and their community members: tools, we hope, which will better educate groups and individuals on issues surrounding the management of water resources, and provide people with the information and skills they need to participate more fully in decision-making processes.

Information and skills. Thankfully, there is no lack of the former with respect to watersheds and their management. As for skills, Ken would challenge us to think outside a traditional curriculum, to foster skills that enable people to enter the ever-increasing stream of information at any point and understand it, personalize it — even contribute to it — and apply it in new and changing situations.

What are the essential skills to help one adapt and thrive in a world of increasing uncertainty?

Stephen Downes has, I think, successfully addressed this very question in his article, "Things You Really Need to Learn" — a rewarding read, if you haven't seen it before. It is encouraging, finding this article following the completion of a year-long needs assessment for our project, that the learning needs identified by our participants overlap with six or seven of the ten points listed by Stephen.

The months ahead will see us translate these needs into what I hope will be engaging and meaningful learning experiences for watershed groups and their members. I hope to write more about this as we move forward.

Dave Pollard recently posted an article which I think is a fine supplement to my earlier thoughts on storytelling as a tool for education and building community capacity. Go check it out.

I bumped into Franke James recently on Twitter and have since discovered her marvelous visual essays. I'm a visual thinker myself, and Franke's approach strikes a real chord with me. Her style of art and re-visioning of photographs pulls me in with effective (and affective) imagery that lingers long after viewing — key elements for any successful story.
 

Telling a story by co-opting imagery or presentation styles normally reserved for more "academic" concerns is something Jessica Hagy has made famous. Her index card cartoons appeal both to my geekier side as well as my appreciation of simple aesthetics.
 

Finally, I just had to include the video below as an example of the "entertaining, funny, and/or imaginative" characteristic Dave mentions in his article; it also allows me to make the appalling pun in the title of this post ;)  The father of the director was a scientist who impressed upon his son that science was never boring if you talked about it in the right terms. Using metaphor, the video is both educational and entertaining. Enjoy.
 

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The last few days have seen the online education community come alive with talk of Edupunk.

The term was originally coined by Jim Groom, who continues to elaborate on the ideology in his blog. Just a few days old, Edupunk has already spawned its own website and an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

So far, most of the online discussion seems to be focused on what the term actually means as an approach to pedagogy. Jim Groom himself refers to a "DIY ethic", where educators make the most of the, often basic, materials they have to hand — sounds like the majority of teachers, to me! Its association with technology, in particular the read/write web with which many of us are now so familiar, has suggested, to some, a connection to the cyberpunk movement and its emphasis on technology's role in societal change. Finally, the anti-authoritarianism of punk is manifest in the distaste expressed for the corporate appropriation and repackaging of tools often born of individual enterprise.

But is any of this actually new? Many educators, perhaps more privately, considered the process of education to be a subversive act long before the works of Paulo Freire and Neil Postman (Socrates, anyone?) and, of course, many still do. I would certainly concede that Edupunk is a rebranding of existing ideologies, both historical and recent, but herein lies a strength.

In a profession as conservative and resistant to change as education, Edupunk — as a word, an idea, a burgeoning philosophy — has the potential to resonate with teachers and students alike and possibly galvanize them into action in new ways, connected as they are through technologies that were absent from our institutions only a few short years ago. The discussions over the last few days alone on Edupunk and the opening up of education have revealed deep passions around the subject; many identifying with the ideas, with others perceiving it as this week's hot topic.

Of course, it's name may change, but these ideas of "radical pedagogy" have always been with us and, I trust, always will be. Whether Edupunk endures or morphs into something else, I believe a conversation has now been (re)started that will persist beyond this initial flurry of excitement and express itself in our classrooms and lecture theatres, wherever they may be.

So — let's get to work!