Tutorial 4 - Collective Intelligence/Wikis

Welcome to Tutorial 4 of, 'My Musings'! This week the focus is on Collective Intelligence and Wikis. The term 'Collective Intelligence' stirs in me notions of aliens and superior beings monitoring life on earth BUT somehow I don't think that's what this 'Collective Intelligence' is referring to...

So what exactly is Collective Intelligence in terms of ICT? Well according to Wikipedia, Collective Intelligences are, 'a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in computer networks'. Hmm, so this means that Wikipedia is also a Collective Intelligence...by its very own definition! Nice.

The most widely known and used Collective Intelligence is indeed Wikipedia. Now, I'm sure most people know what Wikipedia is, but to be sure, I wikipedia-ed Wikipedia and found that they define themselves as, "a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopaedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 18 million articles (over 3.6 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site. Wikipedia was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger^[4] and has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet, ranking around seventh among all websites on Alexa and having 365 million readers"'. Wow! Thanks Wikipedia - such a great one-stop shop for all my definition needs...or is it?

What are the pros and cons of Wikipedia? How can/should it be used in an educational setting?

From my own experience on Wikipedia is a bit of a double-edged sword in that the very aspects that make it a great resource also act to detract from its usefulness. For example:

1. It can be edited by anyone which creates a great opportunity for people to publish their knowledge and share information BUT by the same token, the edit function detracts from the reliability of information provided;

2. It is not widely accepted in Universities as a reference and therefore shouldn't be/isn't accepted in primary schools as a reference either;

Some advantages:

1. The ability to embed diagrams, photos, audio, hyperlink text etc gives the source breadth and depth of information (but we must apply critical literacy to determine the reliability of the entry);

2. It is easy to use and quick - a 'one stop shop' for your entire encyclopaedia needs;

3. Given the authors aren't always experts in the field (albeit sometimes they are) the language used is more accessible to the masses (including myself).

Overall, Wikipedia is a very useful tool for educators and students alike. I think it should be used in schools but in conjunction with critical literacy skills so that any inaccuracies, bias etc are identified. It is a great 'first port of call' when researching BUT it definitely shouldn't be the only source consulted.

Now on to another Collective Intelligence - Wikis!

A wiki is a technology for creating collaborative websites. They are similar to blogs with the most noticeable difference being they are more collaborative than a blog and do not operate in a time-line format. Personally, I feel more comfortable with a Wiki than with a Blog, but that's just personal preference!

I found this on the net and thought it summed up nicely the topics of the last 2 weeks:

Adapted from Wiki vs. Blog - Wiki