CMU’s Classroom Salon Uses Social Networking to Tap Collective Intelligence of Online Study Groups
Taking their cue from social media, educators at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a social networking application called Classroom Salon that engages students in online learning communities that effectively tap the collective intelligence of groups. Thousands of high school and university students used Classroom Salon (CLS), this past academic year to share their ideas about texts, news articles and other reading materials or their critiques of each others’ writings. With the support of the Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, CLS will be used in an innovative experiment at the University of Baltimore to see if it can help students who are in danger of failing introductory courses or otherwise dropping out of college.
New Corbis Creative Research Reveals Trend Toward “Mass Intelligence”
Corbis reveals a collective longing for rational solutions to the world’s problems and how it is manifested through increased education and technological advances as well as a shift in management style, working practices and policy making. In North America, the number of adults 25 and older with at least a high school diploma has increased from 80 percent to 84 percent, while high school and college enrolment rates are at an all-time high. What’s more, the hottest areas of growth are the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, bioinformatics, applied optics, genetic engineering, molecular biology, environmental science, and artificial intelligence. “Our report shows that today we’re beginning to recognize the need for a more pragmatic and rational approach to the future,” says Mark Retzer, Senior Director, Creative Research at Corbis.
Executive Summary (20 Page PDF)
