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Toward Participatory Discovery Networks: A Critique of Current Mass Collaboration Environments and a Possible Learning-Rich Future

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Mass Collaboration and Education

Part of the book series: Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series ((CULS,volume 16))

Abstract

MOOCs, crowdsourcing systems, online games, and the maker movement are just a subset of the many genres for mass collaboration that have emerged over the past few years. All of these environments succeed in generating large participation and production. However, they vary considerably in the extent to which they are well-designed learning environments. I enumerate a set of findings from the learning sciences about the characteristics of good learning environments and then apply them to critical analyze current mass collaboration environments. After identifying the apparent strengths and weaknesses of these socio-technical systems, I describe how future mass collaboration environments might better support both mass production and mass learning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Though widely noted in published works, it is difficult to find primary source data supporting this claim.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter was written with support from the National Science Foundation (Award IIS-1227530) and was greatly helped by conversations with Michael Ferris, David Hatfield, Kurt Squire, and Richard Halverson.

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  1. ATLAS Institute and Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    R. Benjamin Shapiro

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  1. Knowledge Media Research Center, Tubingen, Germany

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  2. University of Tuebingen, Tubingen, Germany

    Johannes Moskaliuk

  3. Hallym University, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, Korea (Republic of)

    Heisawn Jeong

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Shapiro, R.B. (2016). Toward Participatory Discovery Networks: A Critique of Current Mass Collaboration Environments and a Possible Learning-Rich Future. In: Cress, U., Moskaliuk, J., Jeong, H. (eds) Mass Collaboration and Education. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13536-6_10

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