The Slothful Cybrarian

Knowledge used to be the sole domain of the individual, highly educated expert. A professor with a PH.D. or a carefully researched and written book were the best sources to find out about something. This is a model of learning that has held sway since the earliest human societies formed and people with particular fields of expertise taught other members of their groups. The Internet and social media have dramatically changed what it means to know something, and initiatives like Wikipedia are reshaping where we turn for "expert" information. Social collaboration and meaning making are allowing for knowledge to be the domain of a collective group rather than any individual. A recent study even revealed that Wikipedia is now as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britanica.

 

The P2PU Model

P2PU works on the premise that everyone has something to offer, the idea that passion for a subjects can substitute for expertise, and that social interaction is the key to motivation and learning. The motto of the institution is, "learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything." While this crowd-based model of expertise cannot substitute for the highly educated scholar’s years of research and careful consideration of a single topic, it does provide a potentially good source of entry-level knowledge to many subjects.

 

Read more, very interesting...:

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/07/peer-peer-u-%E2%80%93-a-new-model-learning/

 

Via Mark Smithers, Jenny Pesina, Gust MEES, Petra Pollum