It’s always interesting to note how when you discuss a topic, it seems to plague your days for a while. I recently temped at a local data management solution company where I had a rather interesting conversation with one of the gentlemen there. We were talking about knowledge management and my feelings toward it.
He informed me that those with my mindset are too bogged down in the implementation and that the solution is to just throw up a wiki and let people figure it out.
The other day, I came across this article, which actually deals with learning management systems as opposed to knowledge management situations, but I feel it highlights the flaw in the gentleman’s "just do it" mindset. These systems have to be created with the users in mind, and need to be able to grow and change to meet the needs of the corporation.
Planning considers the user and the future in its scope. The "just do it" mentality can outgrow itself before it evers get off the ground.
Found via eLearningPost’s daily links newsletter
Posted by Rebecca as Knowledge Management at 11:15 AM EST
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This article is a lovely primer on the various categories of e-Learning. I like the fact that it approaches the categories in various manners.
Found at the Contentious blog via eLearning post’s daily newsletter.
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 9:22 AM EST
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One of the chief goals of education is to help the learner construct their own meanings around the provided content. What’s interesting to note is that businesses are starting to realize the value of this practice, as demonstrated by this article.
Without interpretation, content artifacts are rather useless. Teachers know this and create their lesson plans accordingly. It’s nice to see other fields come to this realization and start seeking to build the bridge between content and meaning for their target audience.
Posted by Rebecca as Components of Learning at 9:57 AM EST
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I found this great list while looking over the stats for this blog. I like to see what brings people to EducationNiche because it kind of helps me when I’m looking for topics, articles, and web sites to post.
In this case, it brought me to a nice clean, clear outline on things that should be considered when setting up a formal learning situation (and can even be incorporated into informal learning situations).
Posted by Rebecca as Components of Learning at 3:14 PM EST
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I was reading my way through the blogosphere recently, when I came across an article covering decision-making and its role in the hiring process. The point it was truly making was that managers should experience a resonance between their rubric method of hiring and their gut instinct. It had lovely charts supporting this and everything.
I scrolled down to the comments, because that’s just the kind of reader I am, and found this gem in the comments: Like your blog…thanks for the link. I put you in Knowledge Management on my blog…seems like this is a part of knowledge management…even though we all know there is no such thing.
Perhaps I’ve missed something here, but how does the consideration of hiring methods ever warrant being defined as knowledge management? I realize I criticize knowledge management a lot, but I think this example just furthers my belief that knowledge management is not a useful practice because nobody knows what it is. Even CLOs seem to have problems figuring it out and agreeing on what that term means.
Yes, there should be a fostered learning and lore environment in a corporate environment, but I don’t think the solution is knowledge management.
Posted by Rebecca as Knowledge Management at 10:03 AM EST
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I remember my teacher prep program days fairly well. Of course, they weren’t all that long ago. I remember all of the reading, science, and math methodology courses I had to take in preparation for the Self-Contained certification. I can teach all three with relative ease and appropriate methods now. I could even tutor in all three if I wanted to.
So imagine my dismay when I read this article from Australia. I’m going to have to look into how education at the primary levels is handled in Australia. From listening to some of my friends living in Australia, my understanding has been that you essentially have the same teacher all day, not unlike a number of schools here.
If that’s true, then how can any teacher prep program even begin to defend not teaching reading methodology to those they’re preparing to become teachers. It’s a disservice to the teachers, and to their future students.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 9:01 AM EST
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When I was a museum educator, we were always looking for ways to demonstrate the benefit of museum field trips to the surrounding school districts. Many museums were faced with this often-daunting task. On the museum education listserv that I enjoyed lurking about, one of the museum educators from an art museum wrote a detailed post on how her museum was starting a writing program targeting middle schoolers to bring them into the museum and get them writing.
It was a great program, the kind that a school would have a difficult time claiming worthless.
I’m a big fan of multidisciplinary learning opportunities like this, so when this article came to my attention, I couldn’t help but save it. I had never really thought about it before, but book-based fan fiction really is killing several birds with one stone.
First, it encourages the student to read. Then, it encourage the student to consider what they have written, inadvertently teaching the student to both appreciate and analyze what they read, even if they don’t agree with how the author has done something. It then incites the student to write their own version of what they think should have happened, or to write about story lines the student would like to see happen, allowing the student to take the anayltical step and merge it with their own creativity. That’s a pretty powerful and empowering experience when you’re young.
For some, as they get into the writing of fan fiction, they start learning about the world created within the book. I’ve known many fan fiction writers who, in an attempt to be authentic or realistic, start doing research to help them fully develop their story. Others spend hours editing their pieces. In an English classroom, research and editing projects are like pulling teeth. Students are fearful of doing it "correctly". When the same student approaches their fan fiction, the fear of correctness is taken away, allowing them to develop their own internal voice that helps them present a clean outside voice in their writing.
Fan fiction is not going to save the world, but it does have a useful place in the education sphere.
Posted by Rebecca as Experiential Learning at 9:44 AM EST
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I came across this article (pdf) earlier this week. I think it’s a really interesting way to look at the various ways you can present to same piece of information depending on what you want to convey, the depth of knowledge level you want achieved, the presentation style.
Found via eLearning post’s daily newsletter
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 10:58 AM EST
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I enjoy watching Blue’s Clues. I’m not ashamed to admit this, either. I started watching Blue’s Clues when I was a nanny five years ago., and was absolutely fascinated with how presented so many topics. Topics that would be taboo in a Texas classroom, where I hold teaching certficates, were simple and creative play time to Steve and Blue. I fell in love with the show immediately.
In a well-crafted, thoroughly tested manner, Blue’s Clues is able to present topics spanning every academic area, allowing the audience to explore right alongside Blue and Steve. Letters, numbers, colors, civics, fractions, music. They’re all there, in bright colors and pre-school friendly shapes, drawing the audience into Blue’s world.
My favorite episodes, though, are the science episods. I’ve spent several years now engaged in informal science education, and these episodes just validate my existence sometimes. Blue has grown plants and taken care of her pet turtle Turquoise. Some of the other characters have made predictions, tested the prediction, and reported on the result. Through Blue-Skidoo, a charming little creature named Windy has helped Steve explore seasons.
There has even been a day and night activity.
This is important, because day and night has been a bone of some contention in the Texas Science Curriculum. I can only hope the problem has now been resolved, but it was pretty odd for a bit there. Day and night were once part of the second grade curriculum. A bit late in my opinion, but asking a seven year old to accept that the earth spins and then be able to clearly demonstrate understanding probably is easier than asking a five year old to create a report on the topic.
However, a few years ago it was moved to the seventh grade curriculum. I was horrified. During one of my field experiences during teach prep, I taught day and night to a kindergarten science lab in an at-risk school rather successfully. And I was expected to accept that day and night wouldn’t be taught until seventh grade? I was furious.
Shortly after this, the state’s Earth Science Specialist came to speak to one of my graduate classes. I asked her why this change had happened, and she told me that children were not emotionally ready to cope with knowing about the rotation of the earth until they were twelve, and that I had inflicted serious damage on my kindergarten students and any student who had set foot in a planetarium by teaching it earlier. Again, I was completely mortified, and she was quite serious.
In my experience, there are only a handful of topics that require a certain level of maturity or prerequisite knowledge in order to make learning possible. The rest can be broken down and bundled into chunks that, when designed for the target age group, can make learningnot only possible but even a little bit relevant and fun.
Posted by Rebecca as Experiential Learning at 9:34 AM EST
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