Prameet Kumar | Punk is so last century

Earlier this year, the cost of a Penn education for a student living on or near campus crossed the $50,000 mark, not an uncommon amount at universities these days. For an endeavor so pure and noble, the pursuit of learning sure comes with a hefty price tag.

Along with the basic costs of teaching — professors, locations, supplies — there are other significant costs for a provider of education like Penn. Corporations ranging from textbook manufacturers to technology providers are said to gouge schools and students in their search for profits. But in a newfound movement known in the online world as “edupunk,” educators across the nation are attempting to combat this commercialization of knowledge by championing some promising ideas (do-it-yourself learning) and some disappointing ones (anti-corporate sentiments).

The roots of the formal founding of the edupunk movement can be traced back to a 2008 blog post by University of Mary Washington professor Jim Groom. He criticized the educational software company Blackboard Inc. — whose course management system Penn uses — for repackaging existing technologies into its own product and then overcharging for it. Groom wrote: “Corporations are selling us back our ideas, innovations, and visions for an exorbitant price. I want them all back, and I want them now! Enter stage left: EDUPUNK!”

As its name suggests, edupunk is a movement that seeks to introduce the anti-establishment, anti-commercial, do-it-yourself culture of punk music to the educational realm. The New York Times chose the term as one of the top buzzwords of 2008, defining it as “a style of hands-on self-education that benefits the student without concern for curriculums or the interests of schools, corporations or governments.”

Although the movement is defined by a broad set of values, at its heart edupunk embodies the notion of autodidactism — that no one can teach you more than you can teach yourself. On a college campus, an edupunk would frequent the library, build a robot, complete an independent study and explore the world. D’Arcy Norman, an educational technology consultant at the University of Calgary, wrote on his blog in 2008, “It’s about a culture, a way of thinking, a philosophy. It’s about DIY. Lego is edupunk. Chalk is edupunk. A bunch of kids exploring a junkyard is edupunk. A kid dismantling a CD player to see what makes it tick is edupunk.”

But edupunk is radical in its unabashed anti-commercialism. It is critical of Blackboard and Microsoft Powerpoint, viewing them as instruments that enable cookie-cutter teaching instead of individualized approaches. However, this sentiment is misguided because not all corporate influences on education are damaging; Blackboard, Powerpoint and other programs made by large corporations are effective tools that enhance the experience of learning.

The enemy of education is not corporate influence but corporate dependence. There is nothing wrong with professors using Powerpoint slides to guide their lectures; the problem arises when they are incapable of teaching with just chalk on a blackboard. There is nothing wrong with publishers frequently releasing new editions of expensive textbooks; the problem arises when there is no low-cost or open-source alternative. (Even Norman’s suggestion to play with Lego bricks requires a large corporation’s assistance.)

Where edupunk is most successful is its insistence on do-it-yourself learning. A great example is Academic Earth, a website launched last year and modeled after Hulu that aggregates online videos of lectures from reputed universities. Entire courses from a broad range of subjects are offered for anyone to watch for free. Time magazine named Academic Earth one of the 50 best websites of 2009. “The latest campus revolutionaries are the so-called edupunks,” it wrote, “and their mission is to break up the ivory tower so everyone can pile into the classroom.”

The original punks listened to The Clash on their stereos; edupunks listen to philosophy lectures on their computers. But there isn’t much of a difference — they’re both sticking it to the man.

Prameet Kumar is a rising Wharton junior born in India but raised in New York. He had a weekly column this past spring. His e-mail address is prameet@wharton.upenn.edu.

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