Open Classroom 2.0

In the early sixties there was a new movement in education whose principles embodied creativity, collaboration, authenticity, individualism, and openness. Walls and doors were dramatically removed from classrooms so students could communicate with peers of all ages and share resources across the building. Teaching was tailored to individual students as they frequently pursued their own learning interests, worked in the community, and collaborated with peers on self directed learning projects. Teachers shifted their roles from learning directors to learning mentors and spent more time working with students individually and in small groups. This movement was called the Open Classroom. Sadly, the open classroom faded away and as standards-based curriculum and high-stakes testing have taken the forefront, one wonders if there is any hope for the principles the open classroom embodied. I believe there is.

Enter the Open Classroom 2.0. Once again walls will be removed, learning will be individualized, meaningful projects collaborated on, and resources shared as teachers and schools shift their roles to accommodate this new learning environment. This time the open classroom will extend far beyond the school building. It will extend across the country and across borders, connecting students and teachers in distant places to allow open communication, collaboration and meaningful learning. And it will be powered by a new technology movement that has come to be known as Web 2.0, which will provide educators and schools the tools they need to promote the principles embodied in the original open classroom.

Open Doors

In a typical day a Brewster Central School District in suburban New York, a high school math teacher posts the evening's homework assignment online, a concerned parent logs in to check up on her daughter's grades and attendance, the superintendent posts his monthly newsletter, a student updates her web portfolio with a recent reflection, and the PTA president posts the latest fund raising info for the evening's meeting. Meanwhile, over in White Plains, students are participating in videoconferences with students all over the world as they dialogue with other students about global issues and brainstorm ways they can take action. These are not hypothetical situations but actual events taking place in our schools.

Perhaps one of the most profound impacts this new digital movement will have on education is the ability to allow schools to open their doors to the community and far beyond. Teachers, students, parents and all stakeholders will have the ability to communicate and share information almost instantaneously, creating an open and transparent community like never before. Nor does this new open line of communication stop at the school district's boundaries. Students and teachers can now participate in the global classroom and share viewpoints, concerns, and ideas with their counterparts across the ocean. We are entering an age where distance is no longer a barrier and a classroom in a distant county can be as close as computer screen.

As schools open up their classrooms and prepare their schools to seize these new opportunities, we are beginning to see an impact on when, where, and how learning takes place. Learning is no longer limited to the school's building, schedule, or course offerings. Isolation of content areas and student participation is making way for cross-curricular group work. High tech classrooms are more likely to resemble offices at Google Labs than the rows, columns and teacher center classrooms of the traditional school. Schools are opening up to new possibilities.

Open Opportunities

In Fairfax Virginia, schools are taking advantage of the internet to offer their students opportunities previously unavailable. Students are choosing from classes never before offered at their school that can be accessed 24/7 and fit the scheduling and pacing needs of individual students. Mississippi is proposing similar self paced online programs while Michigan is making them a requirement for graduation. And it's not just the students benefiting. Teachers in Texas are also taking advantage of online opportunities for professional development through TexasStargate, and online portal of courses, tools and resources. At high tech high schools such as those in Philadelphia, Napa, Los Angeles, and San Diego schools are completely restructuring their learning environments to take advantage of opportunities that technology can offer. Lockers are replaced by individual student work stations, student teams are replacing content area courses, and the traditional rows and columns seating arrangements are being replaced by flexible and mobile classrooms where students can be seen collaborating in small groups on multi-disciplinary projects or preparing for internships in local businesses.

Open Source

The website at Meriwether Lewis Elementary in Portland, Oregon, was designed by the school's principal and is maintained and contributed to by the entire school. The school pays no licensing feeds, contracting costs, or a steep monthly payment for maintenance because WordPress, the blogging software that powers it, is free. On a much larger scale, Jim Hirsch of the 52,000 student in metropolitan Dallas is working on replacing all proprietary software for schools with free open source alternatives such as Linux and Open Office within the next five years; bad news for Microsoft but good news for tight budgets. And more than just software source code is being shared. MIT has recently made course content available online through their MIT OpenCourseWare for anyone wanting to take an MIT class without the MIT tuition. Meanwhile, new standards are being established for digital learning materials like SCORM used in online learning environments such as Florida's and Michigan's virtual schools.

What this means for schools is that educational technologies are becoming affordable options. It means that many of the open classroom principles made possible through new technologies can become a reality. It means that through sharing our collective resources, we can not only provide new opportunities, but can help make technology and education equitable for all schools.

These schools offer hope that the principles behind the original open class movement, principles such as collaboration, sharing, authenticity, individualism and openness are not lost, but are being rediscovered though a different movement taking place called Web 2.0. As Mark Prensky pointed out in his article Adopt and Adapt, schools are discovering old ways of doing new things and we've seen evidence of this as schools use new web technologies to breath new life into a old movement. "When will it happen?", he asks. It is happening now. And as open source, open doors and open opportunities give schools a glimpse of the world beyond their boundaries, classrooms will continue to open.

Afterword

The Open Classroom 2.0 is already taking place. The technologies of Web 2.0 are continuously being adopted and adapted to meet the diverse needs of our schools. But it equally important to consider to what end. Is bigger really beautiful, as Joel Barker ascribes to the Supertech way of thinking about technologies purpose. In my opinion, very few schools have the resources to think of technology in this way. In fact, scarcity is a common mode of existence for many schools, which have forced them to pursue and demand technologies that address this reality. They are looking into ways that can help their students compete and achieve in a global society, under the assumption that competition will be fierce because of limited economic opportunities. However, schools are also looking for technology to fulfill needs and nourish relationships within a local communityand have adapted web site technology to this end. Ultimately though, despite the ostensible purposes for these new technologies, I believe Joel Barker is correct in his assumption that underlying it all is the humanistic side of technology. The new tools, whether blogs, LMS, Open Source, or web apps, are all being used to develop the human potential, our students, towards a noble end.