The ability to become more resilient and 'change-adept' may be one of the most significant challenges facing education. The problem addressed in this proposal is: How can educators and students become better prepared to meet a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world? To meet this challenge the proposal focuses on two primary research objectives:1.Improve individual cognitive skills to master change.2.Harness collective intelligence and improve groupthinking skills to master complexity.The goal of Phase I is to evaluate a prototype of a unique 'facilitated thinking' educational software product. The software is essentially a mental toolkit used to enhance cognitive tasks. It is being designed on the premise that choosing the 'right cognitive tool' is as important for a 'thinker' as choosing the right carpentry tool is for a craftsperson. The software functions by using a questioning oriented approach and performs many of the mental tasks of human facilitators. It works by activating fresh thinking patterns that encourage students/educators to arrive at solutions that best meet their particular situations. By comparison, this is just the opposite of prescriptive AI/Expert System software that automates thinking by producing deterministic answers.Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:Anticipated Results. Phase I will:1.Provide research findings that validate aproof-of-concept for 'Facilitated Thinking', and2.Provide a statistically valid verification that theprototype software does improve problem solvingthinking processes.The implication is that these findings will be used to upgrade the prototype software to a standalone CD/ROM beta version. In addition, Phase I will gather research material on how to improve and better harness collective genius. The implication is that this material will be used to integrate collective intelligence components into the software for use in Phase II research. Potential Commercial Applications. Given the growth of networked computing and the Internet, there is tremendous commercial potential for this software. In the educational market alone it would sell from elementary schools to universities. Beyond the educational market different software versions can be developed for use by individuals, by families, by work groups, by government agencies and by businesses to promote constantly creative organizations.
