Technology, Education and the Wiki.

I responded to a discussion on a mailing list in defense of Wiki technology, and a few people told me that they really liked it, so I'll make it available here as well.

Consider the tree. The healthy deciduous tree has deep roots, strong branches, green leaves in the spring and summer, and generally is considered a good tree. It's a culmination of years of weathered experience, and arbologists would tell you that each tree has a story to tell. The branches are grown because of tropisms; the branches that were strong enough are still there - survivors of heavy snows, high winds,disease, and perhaps even earthquakes. The tree is a tribute to adaptation. And so the present education system is; it's a tribute to adaptation to previous effects.

But now, there are new effects which shake the very foundations of the tree. Young saplings of this Tree of Education have dropped their roots, and these roots compete with the elder tree. But these too are trees of Education; they sprang from the fruits of Education just as the Wiki has sprang from the fruits of Education. Wikis would not exist without computers, without the internet - and most importantly, the knowledge incorporated through Education - formal and otherwise. Remember, some of the best fruits have not been formally educated. Einstein immediately springs to mind.

So we have these new fruits, and they fall to the ground. These fleshy fruits have seeds in them, and from these seeds lies the potential for other Trees. You see, Trees serve purposes; they hold the earth still where it may otherwise become a landslide; they provide vital gases to other life forms. So these trees are somewhat important, but probably the most important thing are the fruits. A lucky fruit will have seeds that germinate and attack the rich soil below with it's roots, seeking nutrients and stability.

The unlucky fruit will not bear another tree. Indeed, the unlucky fruit may be eaten by a passing primate, perhaps a distant cousin of mankind that we wouldn't invite to dinner.

There are two ways to view the new trees - either as competition for the elder tree, the parent, or as a continuance of the elder tree. Do we look to our own children as competiton? But these new trees still have to survive, and that means that less of these fruit will have truly been 'lucky'. The world is an unforgiving teacher; those that cannot survive die. Those that are weak fall. Those that do not get enough light or nutrients fail. Where the elder tree has gaps in the branches, the younger trees will thrive because they get more light and water; they fill the gap. It's an amazing thing to watch if you have an idle decade to watch, but you can simply see where the young trees thrive to prove this.

To deny a fruit is to deny a potential tree. And to deny a fruit based on the survival of the elder tree is to see a tree where there could be a forest. So it is with the Wiki. The Wiki is fortunate; it's a fruit which has been lucky and has begun to fill voids in the elder tree. It too will produce fruit; indeed, the Wiki already has - such as the Wikipedia (1 million+ articles, 100 languages isn't progress?). The Wiki does not deny the Wikipedia. The Wiki does not deny it's own existence by denying it came from a fruit which fell from a larger tree.

But there is competition between the fruit as well. Sometimes two fruit fall too close together and are forced to compete; sometimes one wins, sometimes both lose. Sometimes both survive and share the same space.

Now in this context, what is a Wiki but a continuance of the Tree of Education? Indeed, where we speak of not seeing the forest for the trees, we forget the roots of other fruit.

HTML was originally Hypertext, which was what Apple was intending to use for books, and perhaps XEROX PARC before. That was the 1980s. Has HTML not become an important educational tool? The websites we look at in our web browsers are HTML, or generated HTML. HTML suffered the same criticisms in the 1980s. That's almost 25 years ago, and look now. Look. A discussion on this very list debated the usage of HTML in *email*. And look at email! Is email not a tool that can be used for education?

Where some would criticize a fruit that has already become a sapling, I look at the sapling. That sapling is the continuation of the original tree, and indeed as it gets larger it may compete for the same nutrients. I am wary of people with chainsaws who would cut down saplings because they guard an elder tree. I would hope for a forest instead of an elder tree surrounded by stumps so that people can sit on them.

And the intelligent people? I would think that intelligent people could discern a dead tree from a living one. And I certainly hope that the intelligent people around the tree know which trees will grow. Perhaps even kicking fruit into the right place such that they have a better chance at growth.

2 million years is not an end. It's a beginning of the future, and

continuance is important.

I think we could replace references to the Wiki technology with any new technology. Some will fail in the context of education, and therefore will not be used. And some will not fail, and will be used. To say that we should never try anything new is to run around chopping down trees; we need these young technologies - even the failed ones - so that we can continue progress.