Radical Transparency in Classrooms

What happens if spaces become radically transparent? How does this change what happens there?

Chris Andersen, the editor of Wired magazine and the author of The Long Tail, the business book of the year, asks this question of his own magazine today.

He lists six points for radical transparency:

-showing who we are
-showing what we are working on
-process as content
-privilege the crowd
-let readers decide whats best
-wikify everything

Many classrooms (including my own) have a far distance to travel before we arrive at a space similar to this. Many people will argue against the value of something like this in education. What would be the purpose or the benefit? Many people will really be strained against the final two points. "If we let kids decide, they'll just want to study new motorbikes, or the latest make - up trends."

Partially true.

If Wired were to adopt some of these points, they would not suddenly let readers decide that they wanted articles on the latest snow shovels or fishing gear (unless of course they had built in sensors and add - on gadgets :) Letting kids decide does not mean they get free reign. It means they are given some choice and freedom in choosing what they are working on within given parameters. The unit planning that is happening in my classroom right now is proof that this is OK. Kids are arguing (or: "debating passionately" as they say) as they plan and brainstorm an upcoming language arts unit. Giving choice is not the equivalent of giving no guidance or no guidelines. It does mean inviting kids behind the screen to see how planning is done to organize a space for learning and giving them tools they have possibly never had access to in the past.

Our classroom blogs show who we are, our wikis show what we are working on. Certainly there are classes that use their spaces differently and more effectively, but we are learning. We take suggestions from all corners of the globe and try to represent ourselves honestly and truthfully to the world. We invite parents in to our virtual spaces, members of our class, other local classes, and other kids or adults around the world equally. We privilege no one. A resource that a student uses in the classroom is just as likely to have been gained from being published on a blog in China as it is to have come from me. We evaluate all information equally.

Without having the words for it, I think this is something that we have edged towards in our classroom without realizing it. I didn't set out to have an open classroom, I set out on this journey to change and improve the learning environment of my classroom, but transparency is something we are gaining along the way.

technorati tags:open, classroom, learning, environment, transparency, chris, andersen, wired

Comments

[John Pederson]

Interesting.

I started wikifying a school's curriculum maps yesterday with many of these principals

-showing who we are
-showing what we are working on
-process as content
-privilege the crowd
-let readers decide whats best
-wikify everything

driving why I was doing it.

[Jim Coe]

I can't help but wonder if this move toward transparency was motivated by both the recognition of the fact that effective learning is the result of a process, not an end, and the reality teachers face as parents begin to question the reasoning of teacher's pedagogy and curriculum. We feel a need to model learning by showing how we develop our ideas, and a transparent classroom helps us to justify our decisions.