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I found this video by a group called Finite Films on Gizmodo. It is an example of crowdsourcing ideas for short movies.

Here is Gizmodo’s summary of what Finite Films does: “You go to their site, send them a constraint for their next short film, they pick their 21 favorites, you vote them. The top 7 define the next short.”

I can imagine this happening in education. Imagine getting learners of all ages more involved in selecting what and how they learn.

Some might argue that this might only work with older learners, typically those who are working and need training or professional development. But I think we should not underestimate kids.

Sugata Mitra did not when he experimented with “hole in the wall” computers in India. Blurb at TED: Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they’re motivated by curiosity and peer interest. [Previous reflections on Mitra's work]

For an extreme form of crowdsourcing, watch the Independent Project.

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It is a small crowd in this case, but the principles of crowdsourcing apply: Shared interest, crowd input and selection, common platform, ownership of content and tasks, and some form of collaboration at all stages.

We already have something like this operating on a larger scale. It is called Wikipedia.