“Edupunk” sounds kind of like the kind of term an instructor might come up with to make their job feel that-much-cooler, but recent stories show the “concept of Edupunk has totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire.”
If I am reading the (very little) information correctly, there’s an unresolved problem (beyond capitalist co-optation) pushing this movement: commercial educational technology software simply cannot hope to keep up with the pace of innovation. Commercial educational software lately seems like a poor ripoff of successful online technologies.
The rip-mix punk spirit, to me, is embodied by the instructor who will seek the combination tools that will best meet the needs of their students. Perhaps taking a rif from a commercial Google product with a strong open source Moodle backbeat will help students meet the objectives of a given course. This scenario doesn’t necessarily have to be against the mainstream…
The most important thing would be to foster this educational and technological creativity.
Edit: I never said whether I saw myself as “edupunk.” I’m drawn to tinkering, which may bring me to some punk tools, but as a geek and a violinist, it’s hard to call myself “punk” anything.
Edit: Somehow the sync isn’t starting, so I’ll need to figure out what the trouble is and update this post. Any ideas?
Edit 2: It would seem using rsync to back up is no longer covered under the terms of service for BlueHost users. I actually haven’t been doing my backups this way for some time, and would highly recommend using a service like Dropbox instead (especially since it has a nice web interface and syncs between multiple computers). I’ll leave this post up for users of other hosting providers.
I’d call myself more of a tinker-er than a programmer, but I thought I’d open a new chapter in my blogging repertoire: sharing tech solutions I’ve come up with. I’m a dissertator, which means I need frequent off-site backups, and a BlueHost user, which means I have a convenient place to upload to.
This post taught me everything I needed to know to get rsync working with Bluehost (the instructions are for Dreamhost, but you get the idea). Be sure to check out the part for running a backup without logging in. Up until recently, I’ve used the terminal to periodically run a backup–yet there’s always room for improvement.
I dig Growl, and thought it would be great to schedule backups for every-other hour, and to have notification of when (or if) it completed successfully. I never quite worked out the completing successfully part, but the attached AppleScript is a start. It checks for a network connection (be sure to enter the IP address of your host), and sends a growl when the backup starts (just be sure to wait a bit for the backup to complete). Here is some advice on scheduling via iCal.
I realize this (admittedly unedited) post didn’t quite live up to my reputation as a decent technical writer. I’d be happy to answer questions or take suggestions in comments.
rsync
(AppleScript download)
A number of recent stories about higher ed regarding copying and technology to share:
From the copyright department: Librarians React to Lawsuit Against Georgia State U
Also from the copyright department: Universities’ Intellectual Property Stance Criticized
From the plagiarism-not-copyright department: Journals May Soon Use Antiplagiarism Software on Their Authors
Finally, from the wireless in the classroom department: Hey, You! Pay Attention!
