Journal 8 - Educational Crowdsourcing

"Educational Crowdsourcing" by Glen Bull
Learning and Leading with Technology, November 2007, Vol. 35, No. 3.

Bull describes an innovative method of problem-solving called "crowdsourcing," and discusses how it might relate to education. Crowdsourcing refers to the use of a diverse group of people to accomplish a task or goal. The internet is the main forum for finding such people, and major corporations give substantial monetary rewards, anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000, to the first group to solve a given problem.

Websites such as InnoCentive.com and Mechanical Turk have been working on problems using crowdsourcing, and while it is a relatively new concept, it is already being studied. A professor at Harvard Business School, Karim Lakhani published the following findings in the Harvard Business Review - 1) Rewards are necessary, but the enjoyment of solving the problem plays an important role in the success of the group. 2) Knowledgeable experts are still important, meaning that engineers must analyze the "solutions" to verify which are the best. 3) The more diverse the population of the group (ie. fields and disciplines in which they have expertise), the more likely the problem is to be solved.

In regards to education, Bull says, crowdsourcing has great potential but has not been explored yet. Obviously, eduacation has a great need for problem-solvers, as we have children with diverse needs that can not always be met with traditional teaching methods. Bull sees the need for experimentation, which may fail at first, but can ultimately benefit education in the future.

I found this article quite interesting - I had never heard of such a concept, but it is a perfect example of "two heads are better than one," or in this case, it could be a million heads. I love to hear about people collaborating on such a global level to solve problems that can better our lives. The internet has the power to bring great minds together, but it takes a few smart people to figure out how to attract these great minds - and the answer: money. But it's not a greedy venture, it seems, because, as Lakhani's findings show, the people working on the problem do it for the enjoyment of solving the problem, and not just for the money involved. But it is necessary to offer a reward because 1) it is likely to attract the best minds and 2) the service that the winners provide is worth the money in the end.

I hope they are able to channel this innovation into education, because our schools certainly need some good minds working on how to solve America's educational crises. It would make sense to do it on a more local basis, because each city and school has such particular problems that they would need to be looked at on an individual basis. The school I work at, for example, has so many unique issues that it would be good to have a group of experts offer advice that could help our school in the specific areas where it needs the most help.

1. How are the teams organized?

I went on Innocentive.com to see what a person had to do to be a Solver, and it appears that you register and they pool you together with other people who want to work on a certain problem. It wasn't clear to me if people who already knew each other could request to be on the same team, but I imagine you can. Corporations and non-profits can sign up as Seekers to post their problems.

2. What kinds of problems are they working on?

On Innocentive.com, the most common kinds of problems solved have to do with chemistry. Companies are looking for people who can figure out how to make certain chemical compounds (a very common one), or make foods healthier. One guy invented a touch-sensitive material that changes color. Another guy figured out how to prevent snack chips from breaking so easily. Fascinating stuff!