How Crowdsourcing the UK Constitution Built a Learning Community

Peter Bryant @peterbryantHEHead of Learning Technology and InnovationLondon School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Crowdsourcing democracy and learning in a messy, fragmented world

The PROPOSITION

• Deliver a written constitution that was crowd sourced by a representative community

• Ensure that it clearly represented the will of the people

• Do it before the May 2015 election• Make sure it was civil and engaging• Provide an educational experience that did not look

like or work like a course in constitutional law

THECHALLENGE

#1

BUILDING A COHESIVE COMMUNITY

‘…it’s through participation in communities that deep learning occurs. People don’t learn to become physicists by memorizing formulas; rather it’s the implicit practices that matter most. Indeed, knowing only the explicit, mouthing the formulas, is exactly what gives an outsider away. Insiders know more. By coming to inhabit the relevant community, they get to know not just the “standard” answers, but the real questions, sensibilities, and aesthetics, and why they matter.’

BROWN, J. S. Learning in the digital age

THECHALLENGE

#2

Modern pedagogy/

civic engagement

is often…

SEQUENTIALSCAFFOLDED

ALIGNEDSTRUCTUREDSTRATIFIED

LEARNING

EXPERIENCING

LIVING

ACQUIRING

CONNECTING

RARELY ARE

LEARNING

SHARINGCONNECTING

CHANGING

What if

InformalCommunity led

Non-linearDemocratic

Problem solvingCollaborative

ChaoticAspirational

EmancipatoryOpen

engagementcould be…

ALLAT AMASSIVESCALE

USING

SOCIAL MEDIA

Combination of learning approachesIntegrating participatory practicesEngaged individuals and groupsNo readings, no course, No lecturer, no teacher, maybe a guruNo sequence, enter at any timeLearning was an expectationLearning through practice, debate and citizenship

What we built

https://www.flickr.com/photos/leolondon/451273331

Where we finished

over 1500 users;over 725 idea submissions;over 125000 idea views;over 10000 comments;over 25000 votes cast;an 8500 word constitution;from more than 1m words written.Over 75% learnt something and 88&% were influenced by the communityParticipation went up across the project not DOWN https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/1470015134

RE-DEFINING MASSIVE

IMPACTRIPPLEPOWER OF ANALYSISEXPERIENCE

https://www.flickr.com/photos/balleyne/2668834386

RE-DEFINING OPEN

OPEN ACCESSOPEN PARTICIPATIONOPEN ACADEMYOPEN ENGAGEMENT

RE-THINKING PARTICIPATION

EMANCIPATIONAUTHORITYFLEETING CONNECTIONSIDEATIONHACKING

‘Social media has facilitated a complex, co-created and immediate form of learning response, where content and openness challenge the closed, structured nature of modern higher education. Social media has had significant impacts on the way learners connect with people and with the knowledge they require in order to learn across a variety of contexts. Social media support more than user interactivity, they support the development and application of user-generated content, collaborative learning, network formation, critical inquiry, relationship building, information literacy, dynamic searching and reflection.’

BRYANT, PETER (2015) Disrupting how we ‘do’ on-line learning through social media: a case study of the crowdsourcing the UK constitution project.

What happens when you empower a community to learn and engage in social change?

Does this build an informed digital citizenry?

Can this be more than civic engagement? Problem solving, capacity development or change?

And that’s what is next…