"Smart Mob" Useful for Education? # 7

In a recent review I listed a few of the technologies that “Digital Natives” have at their fingertips. Among them, “smart mobs” were mentioned. I was asked “What is a smart mob”? So I thought a good review would be to answer that question. In doing so, I have searched the many websites that I could found to try to inform you as well as myself about the topic, but I feel I will need your help to finish it. If I were to begin with the end in mind, I would like for this to be a collaborative review, in which all the readers add a comment about how we, as educators, could use “smart mob”.

The traditional general definition of mob is:

Mob—an indiscriminate or loosely associated group of persons or things.

Of course, it can be used in a derogatory way to mean where there is disorder or unruliness. Is that true of the “smart mob”? Wikipedia has this definition:

“A smart mob is a form of self-structuring social organization through technology-mediated, intelligent "emergent behavior". The concept was introduced by Howard Rheingold in his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. …..A smart mob is a group that, contrary to the usual connotations of a mob, behaves intelligently or efficiently because of its exponentially increasing network links. This network enables people to connect to information and others, allowing a form of social coordination….. Depending on how the technology is used, smart mobs may be beneficial or detrimental to society.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_mob#_note-NYT-Yearinideas
The above definition referenced Howard Rheingold’s book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. For more information about this book and its author, you can visit the site: http://www.smartmobs.com/

Moreover, Wikipedia listed some examples of “smart mobs”:

Smart mobs who arrange to meet up over the Internet and show up at a retailer at a specific time and use their numbers to negotiate a discount with the retailer.

1. eBay — a collection of users who are empowered by the Internet and eBay to buy and sell and maintain the quality control over all transactions through the rating system. People can leave positive, negative or neutral feedback, depending on how they felt about their transaction with that seller.
2. Text messages that were sent in the Philippines, which are thought to be partly responsible for the demonstration that ousted former President Joseph Estrada. Examples of such a text message read "Wear black to mourn the death of democracy," "Expect there to be rumbles" and "Go to EDSA".
3. The 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks (11M), and the reaction from the people against the government in the Spanish elections of 14 March 2004.
4. The 2005 civil unrest in France exhibited smart mobs - the French national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that youths in individual neighborhoods were communicating by cellphone text messages, online blogs, and/or email — arranging meetings and warning each other about police operations.
   

Even this class can be considered as a small “smart mob.” With each article we post, we share all of the amazing ways and tools that we could use to integrate technology into our classroom. Moreover, we discuss current issues in education and technology and hopefully we come up with solutions on how we are able to make it better. We could get things accomplished as far as changes in curriculum, or changes in other areas that concern. Furthermore, we could join our forces, as educators, to come up with a plan on how we can integrate all students to the learning process whether they like or not : ) well! Is it what a mob, a smart one could help us accomplish?

According to the New York Times article “New Economy; In the tech meccas, masses of people, or 'smart mobs,' are keeping in touch through wireless devices” written by John Schwartz; Published: July 22, 2002, “It's not all fun and games. Smart mobs in Manila contributed to the overthrow of President Joseph Estrada in 2001 by organizing demonstrations via forwarded cell phone text messages. Protesters at the World Trade Organization gathering in Seattle in 1999 were able to check into a sprawling electronic network to see which way the tear gas was blowing. The Sept. 11 terrorists used such devices to plan and coordinate their attack, and the victims used them to convey information -- and, in the case of United Airlines flight 93, learned of the other attacks and took action that may have prevented even more devastation.” In other words, if corrupted people have been able to use smart mobs to communicate and they have been successful, it must be because smart mobs can be an effective digital tool to use for a good cause; a tool which could be used by students to effectively collaborate with one another. Now, to the real question, how can this avenue be useful to educators if at all?

The Experience Designer Network (EDN) is a weblog authored by Brian Alger focused on exploring learning from a wide variety of perspectives. He has some comments in this area. He says, “A smart mob is empowered not by its mobile technologies as much as trust, reputation and cooperation…. If we are to be serious about the implications of smart mobs, and I believe we should be, then we would use them to build new ways of learning.”
Well said, I agree. How can we do this?
He continues, “A smart mob empowered by shared learning goals would be a formidable force. It is not too difficult to imagine students (youth or adults) engaging in mobile ad hoc social networks (or smart mobs) in order to pursue common areas of interest. This is what smart mobs do.” I have started to brainstorm about the many ways that we, as educators, could integrate smart mobs as a teaching tool.

To start with, the difference between the learning that goes on in a typical classroom and the learning that could go on in smart mobs is that in the first one the learning is controlled from a “central source” -in this case the curriculum???. The learning goes on as far as that central source allows it. On the other hand, the learning that could go on in smart mobs dos not have limits. I can see students exchanging their thoughts, ideas, and creations and collaborating to reach a particular goal. For example, students study a particular subject of their choice in groups and participate in online communities -smart mobs. Additionally, students will become autonomous, responsible learners who are in charge of their education. As educators, we are the ones who work with the students, we know their needs and when they are ready to continue. The learning should not be limited, especially now when education is going all the way through a large-scale revolution in the direction of a more participatory form of learning.

If we were to introduce smart mobs into schools, educators should definitely guide students through the learning process that goes on in smart mobs. I agree with Seely Brown when he says that students need some structure, direction, accountability, and assistance to determine bad information from good information.

As I was thinking how I can use smart mobs in teaching Spanish, I came up with several ideas that could apply to the teaching of other subjects. For example, as a guide I will introduce my students to the lives of the Aztecs. As an assignment, students will recreate the Aztecs society, including how they would have avoided their distruction. The weakness that I see in this assignment is that they will base most of their ideas in the arguments and researchers of others. So I will probably ask them to recreate the Aztecs’ society and explain how they would have fit into today’s society if they were alive.

The topic of smart mobs reminds me of the book Wikinomics when the Tapscott and Williams compared TakingITGlobal with the United Nations. The authors say, the site listed over two thousand youth-initiated and –managed community action projects that tackle tough issues ranging from closing the digital divide in rural India to preventing HIV in Uganda. This United Nations is run not by senior diplomats, but entirely by young people aged thirteen to twenty-four years old. TakingITGlobal is an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities. It's the world's most popular online community for young people interested in making a difference, with hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month.” as defined in the website.

In conclusion, with “smart mobs” teachers could get together to look for solutions to current educational issues that we as educators encounter daily. Students could get together to analyze and come up with ideas on how to solve school and society issues. The word “Mob” makes me think of a bunch of locusts passing through a corn field, everyone of them working together to shape their path. The same way, but in a smarter way, we can shape our path, but without affecting others in detrimental way. Instead, to find a path that allows for the creation of newer and bigger ones.
What uses do you see for smart mobs in the schools?