Toward a Future Knowledge Society
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Toward a Future Knowledge Society
I like George Siemens and he says a lot of good things, but he is often quite vague, an imprecision that can be frustrating. In this discussion of my work on connective knowledge, for example, his central criticisms of my arguments are not so much wrong as impenetrable. My response is here. More...
Cross Now Claims to Have Invented Personal Knowledge Managment
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Cross Now Claims to Have Invented Personal Knowledge Managment
I'm not sure there's a side to take here. I have been reading both Cross and Pollard for a long time and am the 'other participant' in the conversation where he is said to have made the claim. Certainly Pollard has done a lot of work in personal knowledge management. But Cross doesn't appear to have made any laim to have invented. And in any case, the PLE is not the same as personal knowledge management. But the reason I am linking here is not the controversy, it's that this is an article with links to numerous resource on the subject(s). More...
Knowledge Exchange report on the transformative role of preprints in scholarly communication
Knowledge Management: Finding Quick Wins and Long Term Value
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Knowledge Management: Finding Quick Wins and Long Term Value
When asked how to create knowledge management solutions for an organization, consultants may respond with "creating big central 'knowledge bases', or websites, or community of practice 'collaboration spaces'." Sound familiar? But Dave Pollard argues, correctly, that "these types of initiatives tend to produce disappointing results.. these are easy to do, and often fun, which is perhaps why they're so tempting... but I think programs that focus more on context than content, and more on connection than collection, often pay the biggest dividends. More...
Informal Knowledge Transfer
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Informal Knowledge Transfer
Good account of the spread of informal learning in the corporate environment, with an emphasis on communities of practice. "To effectively leverage workplace trends, a new breed of technology is evolving from the principles of collective intelligence, which emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Time and time again, it has been proven that a large group of peers is more adept at solving complex problems than a small group of experts". More...
Toward a New Knowledge Society
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Toward a New Knowledge Society
My presentation to the VENUS seminar on Wednesday. In this talk I describe connective knowledge, and in particular I compare it with traditonal knowledge, both on the level of generalizations (which correspond to pattern recognition) and concrete particulars (which correspond to complex linkages between entities). The online seminar was seen in six European locations as well as streamed online. (Click the title of this post to see my new-style presentation page. Enclosure should also be working, for those who like to listen to podcasts.) Presentation by Stephen Downes, Virtual and E-mobility for Networking Universities in Society (VENUS), online, [Link]. More...
'Knowledge' and 'Learning'
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 'Knowledge' and 'Learning'
This has been in development for a long time, and is still being developed, but it's now online and I'm enthused to be able to link to it. It is essentially a concept map developed by Rod Savoie, my colleague here at NRC in Moncton, on the topics of knowledge and learning. Don't be misled by the term 'concept map' - in this case that's kind of like calling the Pacific Ocean 'some water'. You won't want to miss this. More...
Test your PISA knowledge!
Did you know that the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, can tell us not only how students do in school, but how they feel about school? This month’s issue of PISA in Focus, for example, examines students’ sense of belonging at school, and whether that feeling of being a part of a larger community has, on average, intensified or waned over the past decade. More...
The Quest to Know Knowledge
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Quest to Know Knowledge
Another review of George Siemens's Connectivism, a book published online that, we learn, has been downloaded 40,000 times now (and hopefully read nearly as often). I have thought of the dashboard analogy, mentioned by Clive Shepherd, but have my doubts about it, as a dashboard is about consuming information, not producing it. I'm not sure we have good analogies for what George is describing. Because the analogies are simple, but network phenomena are complex. More...