Classroom 2.

0
Using collaborative technologies for teaching

Gerald C (Jerry) Kane

Department of Information Systems
Carroll School of Management
 The move to Web 2.0 (O’Reilly)
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
Content Management Collaboration (Wiki)
Publishing Participation
Websites Blogs
Email Facebook
MP3 Podcast
Directories Folksonomies
Ofoto Flickr/ YouTube
Chatrooms Second Life
Britannica Online Wikipedia
 Characteristics of Web 2.0
(McAfee 2006)

Search – find what you’re looking for

Links – identify what’s important
Authoring – user created content
Tags – user created organization
Extensions – automated organization
Signals – high level view
 Wisdom of Crowds…
What were some of your favorite examples of
group wisdom identified in this chapter?
Why can groups can make better decisions than
even “expert” individuals?
n Top 1% of knowledge held by 100 people consistently
(not always) better than knowledge of top person.
n More available information…
Observation = information + noise
Why not use group decision-making more?
n Coordination Costs.
Coordination vs. Transaction Costs
Early economists (Coase 1937), suggested that
this was the reasons companies existed.
n Transaction Costs: Costs associated with making an
economic transaction in a market.
n Coordination Costs: costs associated with getting a
team of people to work together.
If transaction costs high, create a firm. If low,
create a market.
IT changes the transaction cost structure.
 Crowdsourcing
When transaction costs become very low,
firms can turn to crowdsourcing: using markets
to conduct what used to be done in house.
Examples?
Five characteristics of crowdsourcing:
4. The crowd is dispersed
5. The crowd has a short attention span
6. The crowd is full of specialists
7. The crowd produces mostly crap
8. The crowd finds mostly the best stuff
 Review Readings

Innovation in the Age of Mass

Collaboration
Peer Innovation and Production
Ideagora, a Marketplace for Minds
Hack This Product, Please!
The New Science of Sharing
 “The Wisdom of Crowds”
(Surowecki 2004)

Under certain conditions, groups can

consistently make better decisions than the best
individuals.
n Diversity of opinion - Different people with different
knowledge
n Independence - People aren’t “lobbying” for particular
decisions.
n Decentralization - No single leader who controls
communication
n Aggregation - Appropriate mechanism to assemble
opinions
 “Groupthink.”
The opposite of the wisdom of crowds, can occur
when…
n Directive leadership.
n Homogeneity of members' social background and ideology.
n Insulation of the group from outside sources of information and
analysis.

Symptoms:
n Excessive optimism that encourages risk taking.
n Discounting warnings that might challenge assumptions.
n An unquestioned belief in the group’s morality.
n Pressure to conform with group.

Examples:
n Bay of Pigs, Challenger Disaster, Iraq(?)
 What about Wikis?
A website anyone can edit
n not complex technology (in fact, opposite).
Different privacy settings = different purposes
n Public: Anyone can view/ edit
n Registered: Anyone can view, edit if you register
n Private: Anyone can view, you must be invited to
register/edit
n Closed: You must be logged in to view, etc.
Best solution is to combine all (the intimacy
gradient)
Most famous wiki?
 “BC Professors agree, Wikipedia
not so reliable” (BC Heights 2006)
Britannica
Wikipedia
Editors Paid Experts
Cost Volunteers About $2K
Entries Free 120K/ 70K
Updates 2M (Eng.) Years
Founded Immediate 1768
Errors? 2001 ~3/ entry
~ 4/ entry

Jeff Garlin on Monday’s Daily Show (3:25)

 When Wikis work…
(InformationWeek, 2005)

Wikis work best…

n Small Groups (less than 150)
n Common language (formal and informal)
n Non-controversial subjects
n Semi-formal setting (must relinquish control)
n Dynamic environment
n Environment of trust and respect
Does this describe our classroom?
 When is a wiki not a wiki?
When it’s a mashup: a website or
application that combines content from
more than one source into an integrated
experience.
Several methods for combining:
n RSS – Real Simple Syndication
n Include – Embed elements from another
website
n Del.icio.us - Folksonomies
Optimizing Interactions (Walsh 2007)
Tools can be a double-edged sword. Not about more
student-professor interaction but improving value-
addedinteraction.
Create opportunities for (and enforce) tiered interactions

Level 3:
Student-Prof

Level 2: Student - TA

Level 1: Peer-to-Peer
 Web 2.0 in MI021…
Content Creation
n Find (and summarize) articles in press that I would never find.
n Individual/ group projects designed to create content for future
classes.

Peer review
n Use one another to evaluate papers before submission (and
evaluate submissions).
n Develop exam questions/ study resource.

Facilitate classroom interactions

n IT-enabled social networks (e.g. Facebook) can augment,
create, and sustain relationships.
 What I have learned…
The tool changes the conversation: professors
and students become partners in course
creation.
It is not a magic bullet: incentives are a must.
n Carrot: bonus points improve quality
n Stick: course requirements improve quantity
n Both professors and students award incentives
Opportunity and Threat:
n Web 2.0 tools are changing the nature, source, and
value of knowledge.
n Need to adopt to stay relevant
n Need to adapt to lead knowledge creation