This is an excellent question, one that I've waffled back and forth on, and, as Charlie suggests in his response, one on which I'd also like to be allowed to continue to be non-committal. My response to a continuum such as that proposed (whether classroom instruction takes place in password protected Web-sites on one end or in completely open classroom Web pages on the other) is to say "it depends." The dependent variables could range from the nature of the class to the make-up of the student constituencies to the personal preferences of the instructor.
In his opening statement, Michael Day did a great job of outlining the positives and negatives of public writing spaces: on the plus side, public writing spaces encourage a rich cross-fertilization of ideas, promote real collaboration, and provide multiple pathways to publication. On the negative side Michael reminds us of the specter of Bentham's "panopticon" whereby we are being simultaneously watched and controlled. Charlie also points out in his response that "private" writing spaces can be used productively as laboratories for trying out new ideas and pedagogies whereas public spaces are by their very nature less safe. He uses the telling metaphor of Grand Central Station – which is at the same time vibrant and alive but also risky (personally, it just makes me tired, but then, at times, so does the Internet!)
In general, for our online classes in my department we have opted for more privacy rather than less. When we first began offering online classes, they were completely open and were at times visited by interested administrators, legislators, prospective students, or other faculty members. Unfortunately, sometimes classroom interactions observed by such visitors lurking on the site were taken out of context and misinterpreted – just as someone walking by an open classroom door might misinterpret something happening in a f2f classroom. I can't think of any specific instances, but just a general feeling that people lurking at the online classroom websites weren't getting a very complete picture of the online educational experience. In the past couple of years, all our online classrooms have been password protected. Of course the teacher has the right to supply that password to any prospective visitors, but outsiders cannot randomly access the classes.
I recall one harrowing experience when I was teaching in a public school "open classroom": a teacher in an adjacent classroom to mine (because the physical plant of the building was "open," we had no permanent walls between classrooms) complained to the principle that my classes made too much "noise." The principle walked by one day unbeknownst to me and then called me down to his office to inquire about all the movement and conversation (my students were working together in writing groups). To his mind, they should have all been working quietly by themselves at their desks. Once I explained to him what we were doing and why, he gave me another chance, but warned me to "keep the students under control." Some teachers, for similar reasons, keep their classroom doors, or their Web gateways, closed while they teach.
Online classroom doors can be closed by using fire-walls or passwords. Although this does provide a barrier to the sharing of information and ideas between teachers and students, across classrooms, and even communities, there are ways to open the doors when sharing is desirable. So, rather than either/or, I'm opting for "both/and," as Kathy Yancey might say.
– Christine Hult
chult@english.usu.edu