Saturday, June 18, 2011

george siemens

knowing knowledge 
written nov 2006
can get it on ipod touch or ipad here

totally copied my fav parts or parts i want to reread:

a hierarchy imposes structure while networks reflect structure

simply put, life is learning.

we cannot stop the desire to know.

knowledge set free enables dynamic, adaptive, and personalized experiences.

while reading George's book - this tweet:
MichaelCharney Great quote RT @arlenetaveroff: A fellow who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them.- Albert Einstein

in order to understand beauty we kill it.
and in the process we understand more about our nature and less about beauty.

each definition of the landscape becomes valuable when it abandons pretences of being the only and acknowledges other perceptions

also catching @jonbecker 's public intellectualism meets the open web

p. 19 visuals..

we can no longer create our filters in advance. we must learn to dance (engage and interact) with knowledge in order to understand what it is
permit knowledge to emerge based on what it is

knowledge is organization. not structure.
what does that mean?
structure is the outgrowth of organization, not the pre-req to it
knowledge is not intended to fill minds it is intended to open them.

p. 21: diagram of components of knowledge dance

we have spent our history with hard codified knowledge as a product, we now need to learn to work with soft knowledge as a process

we do not live our lives in active cognition. we spend much of our time in containers that we have created. instead of thinking, we are merely sorting and filtering

test many diverse options. experiment, don't plan. - Meyer and Davis

connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, complexity, and self-organization theories
the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing

too often we bend our pedagogy to the tool
do the tools represent how the learners will be functioning in real life

learning in sync with life, really like figure 19  p. 47

we can no longer seek to possess all needed knowledge personally. we must store it in our friend or within technology.

we need to move beyond finding and evaluating relevance, to use and application.

serendipity requires people of diverse interests interacting in unstructured spaces
greater levels of diversity require individuals to communicate, share, and be transparent with each other

we have tried to do the wrong thing first with knowledge. we determine that we have a certification before we determine what it is that we want to certify. we need to enable the growth of connections and observe the structures that emerge

attempts to define who we are and why we do what we do, err in the assumption that there is an answer that exists by itself

individuals have more control, more capacity to create and to connect than in any other era in history

we are being remade by our connectivity. as everything becomes connected, everything becomes transparent. technology illuminates what was not discernable to the human eye

reflection (the act of thought on our actions, motivations, experiences, and world events) is becoming a lost art. deriving meaning no longer happens at a pause point. meaning is derived in real time.
does immediacy cause us to be driven not by principles but by current context?  p. 74

media develops conversations. conversations develop reality.
content is subservant to connections
learning is not content consumption. learning happens during some process of interaction and reflection. content then can be a lead into learning or it can be a by-product of the learning process.
connections on the other hand are a more direct lead into learning, simply because connections are more vibrant than content.
what is more important - what is currrently known (existing content/knowledge)? or capacity to continue to know more (connections)?
connection-form tools will always create content, but their value lies in our ability to reflect on, dialogue about, and internalize content in order to learn.

50 years ago, education prepared an individual for a life-long career in a particular field. formal ed created the person, the opportunity. now, life-long learning creates the opportunity.

we can no longer just work on hitting the target.. we now need to hit a moving target.

no longer is convergence the cry of knowledge. transvergence (the transfer and application of knowledge from one field to another) is the new reality. the world is connected. we are becoming aware of activities outside of our own spaces.

any living organism seeks two primary functions: replication and preservation.
what does this mean?

our corporate structure generate product-based affordances
instead of being designed and controlled through central means, a distributed structure generates outcomes through the act of self-organization
spaces themselves are agents for change. changed spaces will change practice

an ecology, a knowledge sharing environment should have: informal/not structured - perpetual redesign; tool rich; consistent activity; trust; simplicity; decentralized, fostered, connected; high tolerance for experimentation and failure
  • a space for gurus and beginners to connect
  • a space for self expression
  • a space for dialogue and debate
  • a space to search archived knowledge
  • a space to learn in a structured manner
  • a space to communicate new info and knowledge indicative of changing elements within a field
  • a space to nurture ideas, test new approaches, prep for new competition, pilot processes
innovation does not arise through hierarchies. as a function of creativity, innovation requires trust, openness, and a spirit of experimentation - where random ideas and thoughts can collide for re-creation
we seek certainty instead of opportunity

the decentralization of knowledge reverses the joining formed by others (experts, editors) and permits individuals the capacity to connect knowledge in a manner they find useful

we used to go to one source of info to get a thousand points of info. now we go to a thousand sources of info to create our one view

clear aims through decentralized means is THE challenge for organizations today
the assumption that control determines outcome is a mindset that was questionable in the industrial era.. and laughable in the knowledge era

community - connection forming space

the capacity for shared understanding today doesn't arise from being exposed to the same resources. it arises from being transparent with each other.  p. 114

it is not "not knowing" that is the problem. it is a lack of doing. doing is a form of knowing.

lack of structure is a consistent concern for participants in this space. we want to control, often forgetting that the new space is for conversations and connections.