Pedagogy of the Crowd:
Collaborative Critique in Cyberspace
Alex Mueller
English Department
Mob Mentality or Collective Intelligence?
Crowds imply mobs. Crowds imply amateur
opinion, cajoling, and yelling. But crowds also
now connect with activities like “crowd
sourcing,” an open call for collaboration among a
large group of informed participants interested
in exploring, creating, or solving. And crowds
also change things.
Excerpt from Jen Boyle and Martin Foys, "Editor's Vision Statement,"
Postmedieval–Crowd Review.
The Problem of Transparency
[Users] get used to manipulating a
system whose core assumptions they
do not see and which may or may not
be “true.”
Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the
Internet (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 70.
http://postmedievalcrowdreview.wordpress.com/
papers/christie/
Fan
Fiction
ELL Fan Fiction:
Grace’s “Heart Song”
“PLEASE WELCOME . . OUR VERY OWN!! . . . CHERRY BLOSSOM!!!!”
The crowds went wild, when the lights went out and then they heard a voice . . .
“Aitai na Aenai na . . . Setsunai na . . . Kono kimochi . . .”
Then one by one light went on . . and they saw a shower of Cherry Blossoms . .
the audience gasp . . then they heard a voice again . . .
“Ienai no.... Iitai no... Chansu.. nogashite bakari”
Then a little spotlight focus on a girl . . going down, up from the sky. . wearing a
pink dress with wings on the back, and a cherry blossoms at her hair . . she
is sitting on a gold swing
“Datte . . . . Datte . . . tsubasa hiroge futari de . . . Sora wo marason Yume wo
yunizon shitai”
“WE LOVE YOU CHERRY!!!!”
The singer smiles at them, then when her feet touches the stage, she smiles and
continues to sing the slow melody . . without music . . . “Hora Catch You
Catch You Catch Me Catch Me Matte . . . ”
Believing and Doubting
• Believing: Simply ask readers to believe everything
you have written – and then tell you what that
makes them notice. Even if they disagree strongly
with what you have written, their job is to pretend
to agree. In this way they will act as your ally: they
can give you more reasons or evidence for what
you have written; they can think of different and
better ways of saying or thinking about what you
have written.
• Doubting: Now ask readers to pretend that
everything is false, to find as many reasons as they
can why you are wrong in what you say (or why
your story doesn't make sense.)
Hyperdialogue between
Writer and Reviewer
"I'm not sure that all the blame should be placed on
the professor because the students didn't
introduce themselves the first day of classes.”
"I don't agree. I think that what happens on the first
day of a class does rest in the teacher's hands.
What can't be controlled is how the students will
respond. I think, and this is just my opinion, that
if a teacher makes it a point to do some sort of
activity that will result in students sharing a little
bit about themselves, it sets the tone for what is to
come and it forces students to realize that they will
be learning from each other, not just the teacher."
Do we agree with Thoreau?
The mass never comes up to the standard
of its best member, but on the contrary
degrades itself to a level with the lowest.
Henry Thoreau, in an address to the Concord
Lyceum (April, 1838).
Or should we trust crowd
sourcing?
Wikipedia offers potential participants the
ability to do as much writing or editing as
they like, but also as little. . . By making the
size of the smallest contribution very small,
and by making the threshold for making that
change small as well, Wikipedia maximizes
contributions across an enormous range of
participation.
Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus (New York: Penguin Press, 2010),
200.