How collective intelligence redefines education

Abstract

While collective intelligence systems become ubiquitous for learning in knowledge industries, civic life and personal lives, they have yet to be embraced into formal schooling systems. Still, learning, knowledge and assessment protocols adhere, in large part, to the educational system's logic of the industrial era. The temptation is to view schooling as falling behind with teacher retraining and curriculum revision leading the way. This article examines the underlying logic of both collective intelligence and formal education systems and traces education's reluctance to it roots in an industrial era and the incentives prevailing in its structures. Embracing collective intelligence, then, will require a redefinition of schooling rather than a mere retooling. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.