James Paul Gee spoke about the Social Mind as being the actual mind we have. No one has a mind that exists just as a mind on its own, whatever the mind is made of is as such as the social environment has made it. The nature of the mind as it develops is such that it is shaped according to what is around it which becomes intrinsic as though it was birthed that way.
In the same idea that the mind does not exist in isolation apart from the environment, in education, the proper state of knowledge is learning through collaboration which brings us to Collective Intelligence. If a student or person could learn in isolation, then there wouldn't be a need for practicals, research, group work and so on. One would even agree that the use of textbooks to learn in isolation is in itself picking from other people's ideas and contributions to understand that subject matter. Collective Intelligence as I derived from the study dwells more on sharing and gathering knowledge from the environment.
Collaboration here can be Virtual, where the learners, watch videos and go online, Google and other search engines or Real, where the learners are allowed to discuss with their peers and use textbooks and other learning materials to understand a subject matter.
This collaborative style helps learners learn better because they discuss with relatable examples, not abstract ones.
It is said that the brain picks better when it is involved in the act- "do"- practice, than when we just sit down and listen.
It helps learners know how much they understand the subject matter and when help is needed.
Collaborative learning also helps to be sure of the correctness of knowledge and also to have different perceptions of things not just seeing the world from your perspective alone.