Technology, collective intelligence, and education: a systematic review of interactive learning environments

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This PRISMA-guided systematic review examines the relationships between technology, collective intelligence (CI), and education in interactive learning environments. Twenty-one studies were selected from PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and ScienceDirect. Using hypothetical syllogism as a deductive synthesis framework, we map three logical relationships: R1 (Technology → CI), R2 (CI → Education), and R3 (Technology → CI-mediated Education). Six studies support R1, demonstrating that collaborative platforms, adaptive AI systems, and distributed tools facilitate the emergence of collective intelligence processes. Eighteen studies support R2, indicating that CI mechanisms, including shared knowledge construction, distributed problem-solving, adaptive personalization, and collective evaluation, are associated with measurable improvements in learning outcomes. Seven studies provide implicit empirical support for R3, indicating that the pedagogical effectiveness of technology is stronger when mediated by collective intelligence rather than purely individual-centered implementation. These findings provide a formal theoretical framework for understanding CI as a mediating concept in technology-assisted education and propose four concrete design principles for ILE practitioners: prioritizing multimodal interaction opportunities, balancing individual and collective intelligence through adaptive systems, supporting knowledge co-construction, and facilitating distributed participation among diverse stakeholder groups. These principles reframe technology adoption in education as a collective rather than individual enterprise.