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

General Thoughts About Collective Intelligence

I hope to explore the theory of collective intelligence and some general thoughts behind promotion and suppress of collective intelligence. In addition, I hope to examine some applications and strategies that enhance collective intelligence.

For the past 30 years I have been teaching special education. I’m in the business of evaluating and examining student’s intelligence. I assess intelligence, implement interventions and systematically monitor student’s learning. The past few years, I have become very interested in group intelligence. A group composed of intellectually “average” individuals, for instance, may work together to form a very smart “above average” intelligent group. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Yet another group consisting of individuals with “above average” intelligence may in fact form a group which functions well “below average” intellectually. We’ve all experienced a group or organization that doesn’t seem as smart as any one of its members. Many groups and teams within a school setting function well below their collective intellectual potential. Why does one group excel and another struggle?

An I.Q. test compares individual problem solving skills with problem solving capabilities of others the same age. In a similar fashion, we could demonstrate the existence of group intelligence by comparing how well various groups solve problems, in other words measure group I.Q. Collective intelligence concerns how well people put their heads together in a group. So an important question is how can we raise group intelligence so the group (or school) may reach their full intellectual potential? How can we attempt to maximize collective intelligence, group productivity, collaboration, best practices and team effectiveness? We must move our culture forward and work smarter as a team.

What is Collective Intelligence?

One definition of collective intelligence comes from Wikipedia “An intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals, an intelligence that seemly has a mind of its own.” Yet another definition of collective intelligence comes from George Por, “The capacity of a human community to evolve toward higher order complex thought, problem solving and integration through collaboration and innovation.” Group intelligence pertains to any situation where problem solving can exceed the capabilities of an individual group member. Collective intelligence is all about how smart a group thinks. How well does the group merge the minds of the participants and take advantage of individual experience, knowledge and expertise in a coordinated way? Does the group leverage the minds of the individuals or does it get done by a guy at the top? Please comment if you have any questions or answers. Let the conversation begin.