Collaborative Intelligence and the Use of Mobile Polling

Submitted by LuAnn Bean Mangold

Collaborative intelligence is considered to be a multi-agent, distributed system. As such, it becomes a tool that either humans or computers can use to contribute to problem solving within the online classroom.

Another definition of collaborative intelligence is submitted in the book entitled, Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently by Dawna Markova and Angie McArthur. The authors’ definition is “Collaborative Intelligence is the measure of your ability to think with others on behalf of what matters to us all. To assess that intelligence, we must learn to dignify differences in how we think and use them to face complex challenges.”

A good example of collaborative intelligence is the work product produced with a wiki. With a small class and as an accounting professor, I have used the wiki environment to have students work as a team to collaborate in order to perform a Cash Audit, from beginning to end, culminating in a final professional audit report.

For many professors, our administration still requires face-to-face classes or at a minimum hybrid classes. As a result of this, I have found that Mobile Polling using the app Polling Everywhere is one that helps with synchronous collaborative classes and also provides feedback for a Socratic perspective in a course that is built around a hybrid class. Many of the Learning Management Systems (LMSs) also have tools that are similar to Polling Everywhere. I have found that the poll results spark engagement and discussion within the class and also bring a structure to my synchronous lectures.

Teaching with mobile device polling works a lot like clickers. Mobile device polling advantages are that they work well in large classes and classes where some students are online and other students are face-to-face in the classroom. Other advantages are that if students already have mobile phones, they can forgo the cost of paying for a clicker. The disadvantages are that cellphones are sometimes less reliable than clickers due to unreliable internet connections and may also lead to digital distraction of text messaging, phone calls, web surfing, or the use of other social media. If participation grades are given for these polls, then instructors must recognize the possibility of disruption in connectivity or bad signals associated with cellphones and adopt a flexible policy for missed questions.

Reference:

Markova, D. and A. McArthur. (2015) Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently. New York: Random House.