Does life move too fast in Web 2.0 world?

I'm thinking in particular about here about Edupunk, a term first coined on May 25th 2008, a whole two weeks ago.

I read David Warlick's blog post 'What's this about Edupunk?' on the 28th of May, followed by Doug Belshaw's 'Are you an 'Edupunk'? I'm not' on the 30th, five days after Jim Groom's initial post The Glass Bees. Within as little as three days the term had 'totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire' (Introducing Edupunk).

So, I've been following it on and off, agreeing with some bits, laughing at others, until I read this post today 'Enough about Edupunk'. Posted today, the 8th June and I agree with a lot of it, especially:

"Good educators have been creating “student-centered, resourceful, teacher- or community-created rather than corporate-sourced” learning experiences for centuries. It is JUST GOOD PRACTICE. Let’s assume we are all well-read, well-versed educators who have studied the theory as well as had the experience. We have all read Piaget, Skinner, Postman, and Montessori. We have been teaching our students (maybe even through trial and error? God forbid!) and we have learned what works best. We know that “hands-on learning that starts with the learner’s interests–and makes them relevant” is the best — whether that includes digital technologies or not. So why do we need to label it something other than what it is already? It is already GOOD PRACTICE. To paraphrase Tina Turner (who definitely was not punk): What’s punk got to do with it?"

Reading 'Enough about Edupunk' would give you the impression that the term has been around for donkey's years when it's only two weeks old!

Regardless of your opinions on Edupunk, it's a perfect example of how sometimes, things appear to be over before they've begun. No wonder I feel so out of touch half the time! I just can't keep up!

Online identities

During a visit to my in-laws yesterday, I read about Emily Gould in the Independent. A couple of things struck me really. Emily describes how she always found a way to communicate her thoughts to the world and how:

'Some of my blog's readers were my friends in real life, and even the ones who weren't acted like friends when they posted comments or sent me email. Some of them had blogs, too, and I read those and left my own comments. As nerdy and one-dimensional as my relationships with these people were, they were important to me. They made me feel like a part of some kind of community, and that made the giant city I lived in seem smaller and more manageable.'

She also points out that 'the big difference between these youthful indiscretions and my more recent ones is that you can Google my more recent ones. '

Possibly another argument for educating young people in how to navigate the online community spaces that have become so important to many.