Developing a collective intelligence application for special education

摘要

This research uses an action research methodology to develop a web based collective intelligence application, DDtrac. DDtrac allows special education practitioners to collect data and share insights related to student performance during educational tasks and social interactions and can be used to assess special education student progress and improve decision making. A survey of 40 special education professionals and a four year case study using a single subject both indicate that educators, clinicians, families, parents, or other professionals that work with individuals with developmental disabilities achieve tangible benefit from the real time data tracking and decision support provided by the DDtrac application. The development of the DDtrac application and subsequent end-user evaluation is used to develop a set of six requirements for collective intelligence applications. These requirements can be used to guide future developers seeking to create web based applications that harness the collective intelligence of groups.