Techlearning blog

"I get by with a little help from my friends." ---Lennon and McCartney

The other day at our teachers' staff meeting, 3 students and their Gifted and Talented teacher, Jody Fuller, gave a presentation to the staff about a project they're working on. This small group has been studying what a million means and have decided to actually see a million by raising a million pennies. Do you know how much money that is? The students had to reveal the answer to the adults: $10,000. They reported that this would weigh 3 tons. It will fill 200 gallon milk jugs.

I wish you could have heard these students present the idea to the staff (note: I will be podcasting an interview with them soon and will post it on my "Bit by Bit" site as well as our school site). They were so professional and so jazzed up about their idea, because they could see what many could not see: possibility. And though the idea of collecting a million pennies may seem impossible to most of us, they have no doubt that they'll be successful; you can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices. You see, they have a plan: what they intend to do with the money was explained very simply, using markers and chart paper, in terms that "even a child could understand". These students held us captive for their entire presentation and garnered two rousing rounds of applause. Some of us even teared up.

And their plan? To buy what's called an "Ark of Hope" from the Heifer Project to help end hunger by setting up "animal or agriculture projects" within communities in need. If you've never heard of the Heifer Project, go check out the amazing work they do in providing sustainable assistance that provides food, income, and independence for families who then share their rewards with other families, who in turn share their rewards, which will eventually support an entire village, who then reaches out to other villages. An example, for instance, (in its simplest form): providing a family with livestock that not only produces milk for the family (providing food and income), but will eventually provide offspring that will then be given to another family, and so on. The recipients of the initial charity become the providers for others.

All from pennies.

We all have stacks of those "copper" coins cluttering up our car ashtrays, our drawers, under the cushions of our couches... and let's face it: they're more nuisance than useful. The group is asking for those pennies; the ones "hanging around" that need to be expunged from the other, more "useful" coins. "Donate all of those pesky penny piles you have at home!" the group asks for in their flyer.

By the People, for the People

I just finished reading a great book that I highly recommend: We Are Smarter than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business. Its final compilation was written by Barry Libert and Jon Spector, but became possible by thousands of other contributors (all given credit in the book). The book is about, and is an example of "crowdsourcing", a term created by by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson of Wired magazine, that describes when tasks are "farmed out" by companies to individuals and groups on the Internet. Libert and Spector invited the larger community to help create the book at their open, collaborative site and the book most likely holds the prestige of being the first to be "created by a crowd". Like a colony of bees, thousands of people built the messages and ideas in the book as a labor of love. The proceeds from the book will be donated to charities that have been decided on by the community.

There is a dramatic change happening in the world due to the new tools we have, where ordinary folk are evolving from being merely consumers to becoming "prosumers" (producers and consumers). From a YouTube video, to a mashup of an old 70s song, to fan sites, to open forums where people assist others by creating tech tutorials, to the evolving landscape in Second Life... we are no longer a people who simply "ingests" content. We want a hand in its creation. Smart companies are discovering ways to invite their clients in, giving them roles of co-contributors, critics, designers, assistants. Not only are many saving big money by letting volunteers take over tasks that used to be managed by the company, but many are allowing the consumers to have part of a stake in the direction and evolution of the company. Some companies are comprised almost entirely by the work that the "users" do, such as Second Life (where people are actually building most of the "world"), or a company I learned about in the Forward of the book, Zopa, where ordinary people lend other people money (safely, btw) receiving better returns than they would by investing at their bank, and where borrowers can get loans at lower rates than most banks.

If you take Second Life as an example, you can easily view our interactions in such environments as being on par with bees, or ants. Great things are able to be accomplished by the many. In offering up just a little bit (i.e. participation) we can reap huge rewards. Think your local farm "co-op," but on a grander level.

Just today, I discovered a site called StickK (currently in beta) that helps people achieve their individual goals by the support of the larger group. In essence, one creates a "commitment contract" for individual goals to live a "healthier lifestyle" by either staking their reputation or (optionally) actual money. Struggles and success are then monitored and encouraged by the larger community. Here's how the reasoning is articulated on the site:

stickK was developed by Yale University economists who tested the effectiveness of Commitment Contracts through extensive field research.

We all need help to reach our goals - whether it's incentives, or support from others. Years of economic and behavioral research show that people who put stakes - either their money or their reputation - on the table are far more likely to actually achieve a goal they set for themselves.

When I started my blog almost 3 years ago I gave thought to many names for it, but finally decided on "Bit by Bit" because it most aptly describes how I think real, sustainable change comes about: in small increments, piece by piece, "bit by bit". As educators, we recognize this often slow process as we face a mountain of demands each day restricted by limits of time. In talking with teachers who are looking to integrate technology into their curriculum, I always suggest taking "small steps" and allowing themselves the time needed to change their classrooms a little at a time. I think the method of trying to incorporate dramatic changes over night is like trying to drink from a firehose, and leaves people overwhelmed and feeling like change is impossible.

But imagine, if there was more than just the teacher who was making the change in the classroom. Imagine if there were a larger group of people also contributing to the effort with small, manageable steps. If we take the business models offered up in the book, We Are Smarter Than Me, then we would open up tasks to include the larger community of "clients". In a school, this would first mean the students, second their guardians, and third the rest of the community. Many people, contributing just a little, could accomplish great things: "Crowdsourcing" to climb that "mountain" of everyday demands and also to allow the community to share the responsibility of designing the curriculum and future vision of where the "enterprise" should be heading.

Of course, we already do much of this with school boards, PTA's, volunteers. But are we involving the students enough in the ongoing evolution of our classrooms? Are we inviting their parents in enough to take on pieces of our jobs so that together we are creating a stronger more efficient classroom?

More than asking members of the community to offer up a can of food to fight the problem of hunger, those GT students are asking them to add an even smaller donation (worthless pennies) to build a grander and more sustainable solution. Are we doing the same with our own classrooms? Is it possible to allow our classrooms to become "opensourced" and partly run by parties with a real stake in its outcomes in the same way that Wikipedia has built a body of knowledge, or even as Amazon has opened up its proprietary information in order to allow for partnerships with other business in its Amazon Web Services? Are we utilizing the resources of our already "built in" communities to their potential? Is there more that we could be having them do?

In the spirit of "crowdsourcing"... a penny for your thoughts?

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Citation:

Libert, Barry, and Jon Spector. We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing, 2007.