Group Intelligence: a distributed cognition perspective

Collective learning is a useful approach for designing and redesigning social aspects of learning and cognition by putting emphasis on the learner and his or her social environment. Collective Learning views a system as a set of accounts, and models the interchange of information between these accounts. These accounts can be either in the mental space of the participants or external representations available in the environment. It is a theoretical paradigm that uses insights from sociology, cognitive science, and the activity theory of Lev Vygotsky, emphasizing the social aspects of learning and cognition. It is a framework with a methodology that involves the coordination between individuals and their artifacts, with two key components: 1) symbols and representations that information is held in and transformed from people to people; and 2) the process by which versions of information are coordinated with each other. In the paper, metaphors and examples are discussed as well as some ways of accurately calculating collective learning. " People think in conjunction and partnership with others and with the help of culturally provided tools and implements " –Gavriel Salomon I N A RELATIVELY recent web log, David Pollard mentioned that " 'collective learning', a subject I was already skeptical about even then: I was, and remain convinced that learning is an intensely personal, individual experience, and that we all learn differently… The purpose of learning is ultimately Darwinian. " I agree with David Pollard. However, I think this individualism is not in our genetic make up. I believe it is something that an individualistic educational system implanted into us; and the same learning culture is carried forward by people into organizations after going through school for about one-and-a-half decades. If we consider four phased organizational learning (Fred, 2002),—Introduction, Assimilation, Translation and Accumulation—every phase could be improved by collective learning specially the accumulation of experience. Collective Learning, a theoretical paradigm developed in the 1990s, uses insights from sociology, cognitive science, and the activity theory of Lev Vygotsky. It emphasizes the social aspects of learning and cognition. It is a framework with a methodology that involves the coordination between individuals and their artifacts, with two key components: 1. the symbols and representations that information is held in and transformed from people to people; 2. the process by which versions of information are coordinated with each other.

Frontiers in Psychology

The emergence of collective intelligence has been studied in much greater detail in small groups than in larger ones. Nevertheless, in groups of several hundreds or thousands of members, it is well-known that the social environment exerts a considerable influence on individual behavior. A few recent papers have dealt with some aspects of large group situations, but have not provided an in-depth analysis of the role of interactions among the members of a group in the creation of ideas, as well as the group’s overall performance. In this study, we report an experiment where a large set of individuals, i.e., 789 high-school students, cooperated online in real time to solve two different examinations on a specifically designed platform (Thinkhub). Our goal of this paper 6 to describe the specific mechanisms of idea creation we were able to observe and to measure the group’s performance as a whole. When we deal with communication networks featuring a large number of interacting entities,...

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2005

Online Submission, 2007

The rate of technological diffusion and the pace at which technology is altering how and with whom we connect is astounding. Although not at the same pace, theoretical views of learning and teaching are also changing. Whereas much of the initial elearning simply patterned old models of teaching and learning, the new technological possibilities and realities encourage us to think differently about what is meant by education .

Croatian Journal of Education - Hrvatski časopis za odgoj i obrazovanje, 2015

While people have been talking about collective intelligence for decades, new communication technologies, particularly Web 2.0, allow now for huge numbers of people to work together in new ways. The great success of systems like Google and Wikipedia suggest that it is now the right time for their further development. The aim of this study was to determine which form of collective Web intelligence was used by young people through Web 2.0 applications. The sample (N=103) in this study comprised young people aged 20 to 30. The Evaluation scale of use of Web 2.0 applications was applied in this research. The results showed that young people use collective intelligence based on collaboration through Web 2.0 applications. Presenting the analysis of applications that are most frequently used, the paper suggests possible ways to use Web 2.0 in social learning in order to obtain the best effect in different types of environment.Key words: social learning; Web 2.0; youth.---SažetakDok ljudi v...

2006

More than we realize it, knowledge is often constructed through interactions among people in small groups. The Internet, by allowing people to communicate globally in limitless combinations, has opened enormous opportunities for the creation of knowledge and understanding. A major barrier today is the poverty of adequate groupware. To design more powerful software that can facilitate the building of collaborative knowledge, we need to better understand the nature of group cognition—the processes whereby ideas are developed by small groups. We need to analyze interaction at both the individual and the group unit of analysis in order to understand the variety of processes that groupware should be supporting. This paper will look closely at an empirical example of knowledge being constructed by a small group and suggest implications for groupware design. 1. Individual Learning in Groups Groupware is software that is specifically designed to support the work of groups. Most software in ...

British Journal of Educational Technology, 2008

Successful, real-world organizations employ groups to get work done. Despite the large number of years of collaborative models in work-group paradigm, it is a little surprising that there are very few books about the subject. Furthermore, most of those studies are mainly focused on work group performance management and work productivity. This text belongs to the advanced type, and is a valuable resource for graduate students in a wide range of courses and for a large spectrum of professionals interested in collaborative work. Due to its advanced level, some topics are relatively difficult to understand if the reader does not have some background in collaborative work and group cognition. Students who use this book will rapidly understand the most important topics of the science of collaboration for computer-supported cooperative work and computer-supported collaborative learning, and their relation to the business world of our days. The main concern and fundamental idea of this book is to set its focus primarily on work group, and not on individuals. Stahl's baseline is to use the science of collaboration for computer-supported cooperative work and computer-supported collaborative learning to conduct comparative studies on group interaction, group meaning, group cognition, group discourse, and thinking. The book is divided into three distinct parts. The first one is about the design of computer support for collaborative work and presents eight studies centered on software tools and their particular applications: The first three are AI applications for collaborative computer-supported cooperative work and computer-supported collaborative learning, the fourth and the fifth are about collaborative media, and the last ones are a combination of computational technology and collaborative functions. The second part is focused on the analysis on knowledge building in the collaborative work of small groups. It is developed with support on five essays published by Stahl from 2000 to 2004. In the first of those chapters, he describes a model of collaborative knowledge building and how to share knowledge production. The second criticizes some cooperative work and collaborative learning research methodologies that make the collaborative phenomena hard to perceive. The remaining chapters mostly provide mechanisms to understand in new and better ways collaborative processes. The third part contains the theoretical corpus of the book. Chapters 14 through 21 contain the most recent of Stahl's contributions to the theoretical foundations of computer-supported cooperative work and computer-supported collaborative learning. Chapters 16 to 18 provide much material about topics directly related to group cognition research and collaborative work in modern organizations. Finally, the last part of the book contains an exhaustive list of references that will be of great value to all interested in the multiple aspects and fields of cooperative work and collaborative learning.

In this paper we define intelligence as the ability to interact successfully with one's world, especially in the face of challenge or change. Human intelligence involves gathering, formulating, modifying, and applying effective knowledge --often in the form of ideas, images, sensations, patterns of response and sense-making --a process we refer to with words like learning, problem solving, planning, visioning, intuition, understanding, creativity, etc.

Essays in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 2011

This chapter represents a disciplinary perspective from Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), an interdisciplinary field concerned with leveraging technology for education and with analyzing cognitive processes like learning and meaning making in small groups of students (Stahl, Koschmann & Suthers, 2006). Group cognition is a theory developed to support CSCL research by describing how collaborative groups of students could achieve cognitive accomplishments together and how that could benefit the ...

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2016

New educational models are necessary to update learning environments to the digitally shared communication and information. Collective intelligence is an emerging field that already has a significant impact in many areas and will have great implications in education, not only from the side of new methodologies but also as a challenge for education. This paper proposes an approach to a collective intelligence model of teaching using Internet to combine two strategies: idea management and real time assessment in the class. A digital tool named Fabricius has been created supporting these two elements to foster the collaboration and engagement of students in the learning process. As a result of the research we propose a list of KPI trying to measure individual and collective performance. We are conscious that this is just a first approach to define which aspects of a class following a course can be qualified and quantified.