Elizabeth’s Introduction to the Digital Age

Week #9: Destination: Mass Collaboration

Last night my mom, a teacher, told me about the failure of high school summer reading assignments. The boring titles that the fifty-year-old teachers were selecting for their adolescent pupils were not resonating with the audience, and students were spending more time discovering ways they could avoid reading the book while still getting an “A” on the assignment. They’d spend hours of their time Googling the book’s title, reviewing different Web sites that mentioned their assigned reading and determining whether these landing pages were legit.

Several months ago, a group of teachers at the school in which my mom works got together to brainstorm ways in which the summer reading assignments would actually be read by students .Because their same old ideas were no longer working, the teachers invited a group of students to the meeting. As the instructors began launching into diatribes about the importance of reading classics like Huckleberry Finn and Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle, the teenagers started nodding off, some even resting their heads on the desk.

Finally, in an attempt to be somewhat productive, one teacher asked the group of students, “What would make you actually read the summer books?”

One student scrunched his eyebrows and blurted out, “Why can’t we be the ones picking the books?”

The teachers, clad in their button down shirts and jean jumpers, sat stunned. Why had no one ever thought of this solution? Perhaps it would be wise for those doing the reading to have some say in the assignment.

Before the meeting adjourned, the group decided that the student committee would make a list of 10 books that they would enjoy reading over the summer vacation. The books had to be somewhat enlightening and had to meet a minimum page requirement. The students were told to select a novel that was appropriate for classroom discussions. Bart Simpson’s Guide to Life wouldn’t fly.

Within weeks, the students developed a list of books that the teachers split up among themselves. One teacher remarked in a follow-up meeting, “I actually enjoyed what I read. It reminded me a lot of the students who I teach.”

Like, duh.

What these teachers realized was that students were much more responsive and enthusiastic when presented with an opportunity to participate in their education. These individuals just wanted to have some say in what they were being forced to read.

Mass collaboration anyone?

Although Tapscott and Williams were the first of those authors in our readings who defined this concept, they weren’t the only ones who’ve discovered it. Throughout this semester, we’ve been reading selections from authors who advocate this same phenomenon. From Naked Conversations to Smart Mobs to The Search. All of these individuals are essentially screaming, “HEY PEOPLE, LOOK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ALL WORK TOGETHER ON SOMETHING?”

The results are impressive. Internet companies like ebay, Wikipedia, and YouTube all include content that is created by the site’s denizens. How expensive does this cost those who are hosting these pages? Zippo. How much of a role does users’ participation play in determining the success of a World Wide Web page? A whole heckofa lot.

As is evident from the anecdotal example provided above, the positive results of mass collaboration are not limited to internet companies or Web sites. Imagine if a company was developing a vacation policy and instead of charging the head honchos with this task, they asked representatives from different department to work collaboratively on designing a policy that would actually work for employees? Or why doesn’t the administrator of a nursing home ask the residents for suggestions when planning the monthly menu instead of depending on ideas from state health departments and recycling old options that have been proven unfavorable? How much of an effect would this phenomenon have our on society at large if more people practiced mass collaboration?

 

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