Comments on: Open Educators http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/open-educators/ Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:17:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Chris Harbeck http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/open-educators/#comment-10408 Chris Harbeck Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:50:48 +0000 http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2007/04/04/open-educators/#comment-10408 Many of us teach separated from the world by the walls that surround our classroom. When we transform these walls to be transparent we open ourselves up to possible critics from the outside world. Parents who we were sheltered from might now be critical of our teaching practices. Why do we want to have an open classroom. For me it is the nature of the beast that we are teaching. Often students do not want to start to learn at 9 AM and stop at 3:30. Allowing them to access slide presentations of what was done during class, or podcasts of what was done in class means that the class never shuts down. Some are afraid to let the world know how or what they are teaching. Their loss. When we teach students how to use the social networking tools ethically and show them the powerful tools are we are preparing them for the future. Wait, when the students teach us the neat new applications that they are using or create mashups of what we are showing them WE are better teachers. As you have pointed out.. we must not fear transparency and openness we must embrace it. Thanks for a great post. Chris Thanks fo Many of us teach separated from the world by the walls that surround our classroom. When we transform these walls to be transparent we open ourselves up to possible critics from the outside world. Parents who we were sheltered from might now be critical of our teaching practices.

Why do we want to have an open classroom. For me it is the nature of the beast that we are teaching. Often students do not want to start to learn at 9 AM and stop at 3:30. Allowing them to access slide presentations of what was done during class, or podcasts of what was done in class means that the class never shuts down.

Some are afraid to let the world know how or what they are teaching. Their loss.

When we teach students how to use the social networking tools ethically and show them the powerful tools are we are preparing them for the future. Wait, when the students teach us the neat new applications that they are using or create mashups of what we are showing them WE are better teachers.

As you have pointed out.. we must not fear transparency and openness we must embrace it.

Thanks for a great post.

Chris

Thanks fo

]]>