Kiwis' Wiki Experiment Intrigues!

Here's an interesting article on an interesting idea -- Police wiki lets you write the law.

Excerpts from the article explain the idea:

Due to a new wiki launched by New Zealand police, members of the public can now contribute to the drafting of the new policing act.

...

"It's a novel move but when it comes to the principles that go into policing, the person on the street has a good idea ... as they are a customer," he [NZ Police Superintendent Hamish McCardle] said.

"They've got the best idea about how they want to be policed."

NZ Police were reviewing the old Policing Act, from 1958, which had become "anachronistic" and was "written for a completely different age, not policing of today", Superintendent McCardle said.

But drafting new legislation "shouldn't just be the sole reserve of politicians", he said, so the wiki was created to invite input from members of the public.

Along the lines of the well-known Wikipedia -- used widely by students and teachers alike -- a wiki collaboratively incorporates the ideas of all interested parties. The operative idea in this particular instance is the acknowledgment by the authorities of the "wisdom" of the citizens. It's too bad that our school leaders don't recognize wisdom when it is exhibited.

Can this experimental model be tried elsewhere?

With all the talk of collaborative learning within education, and with all the talk of student-centered learning, community participation, and involving the parents in their child's education, maybe it's time to try some experiments along these lines.

Possible documents to revise? Student handbooks, school policies, aspects of the curriculum, perhaps a course outline. There are many opportunities to test the premise that students, their parents, and the community have as great a stake -- indeed they truly have more at stake -- than the "professionals."

Need we be reminded once again that the innovative, experimental Reading Recovery (TM) program came from...New Zealand? (not East Corinth)!

Will an innovator step forward?