Learning as building own context

I’m back from one week of sea and sun. I’m almost back to work, but I feel strange. I feel like cooking Provencial dish: I have plenty of fresh vegetables, cheese, garlic, herbs and olive oil, but I’m still half way to go to the delicious meal. I have bits and pieces of ideas, but they have to bubble together to get tasty rich sauce. And I’m still inventing the recipe…

Starting points:

I share the point that knowledge has to be addressed as competence. Knowledge is never transferred, but always constructed (=competence has to be developed).

Knowledge sharing consist of (at least) two processes: knowledge is articulated (or expressed, demonstrated) by the one who “shares”, and knowledge is developed (learnt) by the one who “receives”. “Expressing and developing” process is often mediated (e.g. digitally).

Context is important:

• Knowledge comes with “contextual wrapping”: knowledge “bit” is “attached” to other bits in our experiences and our mental representations.
• Knowledge sharing process has its context as well – who shares, why, when, how. To the great expend it depends on relations between “sharers” and “learners” (and has to do a lot with trust and shared understanding).

I feel that “learning as constructing” has to do with building own “contextual wrapping” for a new knowledge (like adding mortar to get bricks together). I wonder how knowledge sharing context (e.g. relations between “sharer” and “learner”) and communication channel influence this process.

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2002/09/16.html#a226; comments are here.

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Tagged as: context, KM & learning, knowledge sharing, learning, metaphors