I like this idea of using an open-source model, but I think I’m left with some of the same questions that you have — especially the incentive question. How do you encourage people to participate if they feel that their voices have been ignored in the past (they lack trust in the district or school)?

My other concern would be the nature of some districts, schools, administrators to ignore unconstructive criticism rather than try to dig deeper into the concerns of the community. Not all community members will be skilled in providing constructive answers to problems — but they do know what isn’t working and they will tell you (sometimes very loudly). We need to be open to listening to all voices if we are going to open problem-solving up to others who are outside of the system.

I would be very interested in learning about a school/community that has done something like this (publicly via a district or school blog or online forum) because I am interested in doing something like this now on my campus. I’d just like to hear some “lessons learned” from others before launching into it!

Stephanie

The equivalent of what happens in free software right now would be the Big Picture Company, KIPP, Stanford Ed Dept., etc. start releasing all their training and teaching materials on the web under a Creative Commons by-sa license. That is what we need, and that’s something that could change schools.

There is a clear pecking order in any K-12 school district, a mindful respect of who is supervising whom, who to route new ideas/possible tough questions, as well as an understanding that people are ambitiously competing against each other.

One of the challenges of K-12 administration is that they sometimes have an agenda that gives lip-service to educational improvement in schools, but have an entire political system that works to establish them or their direct reports in power. The fight for limited funding available to the District departments provides the negative motivation…”money is the root of all evil,” however necessary.

The kind of collaboration that a wiki provides…is only possible when the TOP person in the organization establishes the boundaries. Even then, there is competition among the members, a jockeying for position, to make the best impression rather than to do the best job.

I am not convinced that these conditions are necessarily evil, but simply, the way Americans work in K-12 education.
i would almost say that this might be a human thing…which puts it all in perspective. People are themselves in groups…exclusionary as groups can be, as holier-than-thou, etc.

So, I have to agree with Stephanie as to why not a wiki in a district. Too much lack of control at a location where control of every decision considered for proposal, proposed, discussed and decided on must be reviewed.

In the classroom, a wiki works…we are bound by one person’s ideals–the teacher, a benevelolent dictator–and she decides how to be democratic. But the system where the teacher works, floats like an opaque, or at best transparent, bubble of education or innovation (yes, opposites) in the midst of toxic effluence, can never work this way.

Now, this seems horribly negative point of view. It is a recognition of what systems we work in. Not all K-12 systems work this way, I think. It is, like most things, a fine balance determined by the temper of the people who work there.

Let’s not forget that our K-12 education system IS a reflection of our Society at large…a Society that has little interest in solving problems that it generates and for which its best interests are protected by NOT solving them.

Best wishes,

Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://www.mguhlin.net

Instead of running the wiki yourselves, you yield content control, revision, and editing to the audience.

Just a suggestions….

Apparently great minds do think alike! I’ve been reading Wikinomics and the authors devote an entire chapter to something they call an Ideagora. Apparently corporations around the world are using Web sites to post questions/problems related to R&D and are invited experts to add their two cents worth. The companies are paying for the best responses.

Okay, I can’t do that, but a colleague recently contacted me regarding initiating school site self-reviews, and I decided to create an Education Ideagora wiki (http://educationideagora.pbwiki.com). The password is idea.

Your readers are invited to respond to the questions currently there or pose their own (related to education, of course). Don’t know what will happen, but it could be interesting…

Susan