Technology has changed the world.

The world has changed; people all over the globe can now work and communicate together in ways that were never before possible in history. Information technology such as e-mail, instant messaging, the Internet, and video conferencing has completely changed the way humans communicate over time and space. Every day we hear about blogs, wiki’s, chat rooms, on-line data bases and discussion groups. The web has connected over 700 million computer users into a colossal world community of people. All important information today is linked electronically. Thomas Malone of MIT said, “Recent technological advances are bringing about changes in business organization that will be as dramatic as the rise of democracy was to government.” Our school has 135 computers and we have 120 students in our school district. We have all the necessary technology available. Now it’s important to utilize the technology that we have. How can our students and computers be connected so that collectively they act more intelligently than any individual, computer or group had ever been before? We are starting to use blogs and wikis to form learning communities and improve communication. It is now important to deeply understand collective intelligence and take full advantage of it.

Interesting findings about group intelligence from WikiWorld.

"Some findings of the EIES Legacy era

1. Without structure, the larger the group, the worse the decision.
2. Up to five experts can improve a group decision.
3. On-line groups do at least as well as face to face groups.
4. Face to face groups tend to be dominated by one or two (usually male) participants.
5. Participants on on-line groups participate equally (gender independent).
6. Participants will collaborate only if their privacy and control is protected.
7. Competitors will collaborate only with respect to established shared principles.
8. the ideal group size is two. larger qroups can be made most effective by maximising the effectiveness of individual pairings and decomposing activities into smaller groups down to one on one activities.
9. 25% of on-line group members get addicted to the system and apply it beyond its intended use, another 25% use it effectively, 25% use it due to group pressure, and 25% never use it. Success often demands including the absent.
10. Anonomymity and pseudonyms aid forth right communications, particularly in heirarchical organizations.
11. Tailoring a system for a group imparts a feeling of ownership and improves utilization beyond the added value of the tools provided.
12. On-line asyncronous collaborative learning is as effective as the traditional classrom without the time and place constraints."

http://www.wikiworld.com/wiki/index.php/CollectiveIntelligence