13:51 11/06/2004 Mathemagenic: Mathemagenic
Mathemagenic
...giving birth to learning...
        

Mathemagenic

  Thursday, December 19, 2002


  Bicultural leaders, change and synchronicity

It's always funny to see synchronicity. Yesterday I borrowed The Dance of Change, so now I open it in the middle and see this piece (p.328):

The most effective local leaders seem to be those who learn to "live in two worlds" -- the world of their innovative subculture and the world of the mainstream culture of the larger organisation. They realise that innovative practices need "incubators" to develop and that, to some degree, these new practices must be protected. But they also value the knowledge developed through experience that resides in the mainstream culture. They seek to cultivate both, and they do so by developing their own abilities to be effective in both environments.

In a sense they become "bicultural", just like someone who lives in two countries with very different cultures. They become adept at crossing the numerous, often subtle, cultural divides between the two worlds. [...] Perhaps most important, they continually develop their awareness of the boundaries between these different worlds, knowing when they are in which domain and what it requires of them.

One more comes from browsing Blogs and education: Factors Inhibiting Change. I'd like to comment on it, but I should go and pack my suitcase to get ready to my flight tomorrow morning.

But it's really funny: once you ask a question it seems that the whole universe is busy to give you answers.

  Innovative measures

Just to make sure that this one is captured: Innovative Measures [via SynapShots]

More on: innovation KM measurement 

  Change management and blogs

Sebastian Fiedler and Pam Pritchard are discussing why blogs are not implemented yet in every classroom. The discussion goes around the need to change learning and teaching cultures, resistance of teachers to "leave their comfort zone" and luck of funding for the new technology.

At the same time Sebastian Fiedler and me are discussing about selection of blogging tools for Quaerere group (choosing blogging software, blog pilot, and e-mail).

I believe that both are change management problems (known as diffusion of innovations in educational domain): we have a new idea, we believe that it will improve our work and we are trying to get others joining us. We are not the first there :)))

I want to have your attention for two pieces. The first one (source) refers to Rogers' Diffusion of innovations book that describes the characteristics of innovations that are more likely to be adopted:

Relative advantage - potential adopters need to see an advantage for adopting the innovation

Compatibility - innovations need to fit in with potential adopters' current practices and values

Complexity - innovations' ease of use will lead to more rapid adoption

Trialability - potential adopters want the availability of "testing" before adopting

Observability - potential adopters want to see observable results of an innovation

The second one is by Diane Dormant (1997, p.144). She writes about different stages of acceptance of innovation and suggests that strategies for each of them:

If the person is in the stage of… Then the strategy to use is to…

Awareness
  • Passive regarding the change
  • Little/no information about change
  • Little/no opinion about change
    		•
    Advertise
  • Be an ad agent
  • Be credible and positive
  • Appeal to his or her needs and wants

    • Curiosity
  • More active regarding change
  • Expresses personal job concerns
  • Asks questions about own work and change
    		•
    Inform
  • Identify specific concerns
  • Provide clear info about concerns
  • Emphasize pluses, acknowledge minuses

    • Envisioning
  • Active regarding change
  • Expresses work-related job concerns
  • Asks questions about how change works
    		•
    Demonstrate
  • Give success images
  • Provide demonstrations
  • Connect with peer users

    • Tryout
  • Active regarding change
  • Has opinions about change
  • Interested in learning how-to
    		•
    Train
  • Provide effective training
  • Provide job aids, check lists
  • Promise technical follow-up

    • Use
  • Active regarding change
  • Uses change on the job
  • Asks detailed questions about use
    		•
    Support
  • Provide necessary technical help
  • Provide reinforcement
  • Provide recognition

    • My experience from previous "practitioner" life is: if people are at awareness stage it's useless to push them using new things. I'm trying to follow these ideas with Quaerere blog pilot. I want to start small and simple, so people can try it out and see if there is something for them. And only after we could talk about hosting, costs and other things.

    It seems that I'm getting the topic to write about for BlogTalk :) Anyone to join?

    I have a copy of this chapter from somewhere and I assume that the full reference is:

    Dormant, D. (1997) Planning change: past, present, future. In R. Kaufman, S. Thiagarajan, and P. MacGillis (eds.), The guidebook for performance improvement: woring with individuals and organizations. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

    I'm not 100% sure if I can reproduce it here, so please let me know if I can't.

      Yahoogroups RSS

    Yahoogroups RSS [via Seblogging News]

    It's a trivial hack but I created a web page that will help you create URLs for RSS feeds from Yahoo Groups mailing lists.

    It's hosted over on the archive at: http://feeds.archive.org/misc/yahoogroups/

    The RSS generation feature of Yahoo Groups requires that the list's archives be publicly readable. If the archives aren't publicly readable then you can't get RSS from them without some cookie juggling.["Bill Kearney"]

    Great! I can continue getting rid of my maillist subscriptions. Yahoo! Groups: klogs is the first one to move to my news aggregator.

    More on: blogs RSS 

      Wednesday, December 18, 2002


      Quaerere blog pilot

    I continue thinking how to get Quaerere guys into blogging. They say that they are interested, but I know that starting takes some effort, so I want to make it easier.

    The plan I have so far:

    • start a Blogger blog
    • RSSify it at VoidStar
    • add e-mail subscription with Bloglet
    • invite people to join as a team members
    • make sure that people start posting
    • make sure that they subscribed by RSS or mail
    • get them addicted
    • provide info and support to start their own blogs
    • make sure their blogs RSSfied too
    • relax and enjoy reading

    Actually, I have already started this blog, but I can't do all the settings as some scripts do not work at my home machine. Will have to wait for a day or so to see if it works :)

    More on: blogs pilot Quaerere 

      Tuesday, December 17, 2002


      Without a blog, you're just a lurker

    "Is Blogging Now A Necessity?" [via Seb's Open Research]

    [...] Without a blog, you're just a lurker on the net.

    A blog is a social network application that represents the basic social building block: one person. [...]

    More on: bloggers 

      December KM reading

    My company's information center does the great job of collecting table of contents of KM journals in one mail, so I don't have to go to the library or search in different places any more. Below are my to read choices from the recent selection. Please note that most likely you will not have full-text access, but I have to order most of those articles too.

    **Making knowledge work productive and effective, Thomas H. Davenport  

    The nature of knowledge work is an area often ignored by firms looking to implement a knowledge management programme, yet real gains can be made by focusing on particular types of knowledge workers and targeting interventions accordingly. Thomas H. Davenport describes the experiences of Partners Health Care System to illustrate how knowledge work can be made more effective.

    I wonder how different this one is from Just-in-time delivery comes to knowledge management by Thomas H. Davenport and John Glaser.

    **A personal view of knowledge work, Richard Cross 

    Web-logs, or blogs, as they have become known, range from the insightful and informative to the banal and nonsensical. Done well, though, a good blog can help generate valuable debate, and even create a community of interest around a given subject. Richard Cross offers his views on this very modern medium, before embarking on his own blogging soliloquy.

    *Building a corporate KM community, Paul Louis Iske

    Two years ago, a number of KM practitioners based in the Netherlands decided to create a platform that would allow them to exchange ideas and experiences on an ongoing basis. Paul Louis Iske reports on the progress of the Dutch KM Open community of practice, which includes representatives from ABN Amro, Ahold, Akzo Nobel, Baan, Corus, DSM, Heineken, Philips, Shell and Unilever.

    ***Local Knowledge: Innovation in the Networked Age, Brown J.S. & Duguid P.

    The ubiquity of information makes it easy to overlook the local character of innovative knowledge. Nowhere is this local character more overlooked yet paradoxically more evident than in Silicon Valley. The Valley persists as a densely interconnected innovative region, though its inhabitants loudly proclaim that the information technology they develop renders distance dead and place insignificant. It persists, we argue, because of the local character of innovative knowledge, which flows in social rather than digital networks. The locality of innovative knowledge highlights the challenge of developing other regions for the modern economy. Should these abandon traditional local strengths and strive to become another Silicon Valley? Or should they concentrate on their traditional strengths and rely on Silicon Valley and the other established high-tech regions to provide the necessary technology to survive in the digital age? We argue that they should do neither, but instead develop new technologies in service of their existing competencies and needs. Finding new ways to address indigenous problems is the right way, we believe, to tie to the region expertise, talent, and capital that might otherwise be lost to the lure of existing high-tech clusters.

    More on: KM reading 

      Fast and unexpected

    Peter West [SynapShots] points to the Knowledge Board version of Personal Knowledge Publishing and Its Uses in Research, Part 1 and Part 2.

    I posted it there* yesterday late in evening and received the announcement today in the morning. I wonder how Peter managed to be so fast in finding it :)

    *I'm the member of Quearere interface team and have editor rights for this SIG focused on KM research and reflective practice. If you have something interesting to publish, please let me know.


      Work-Learning Research on e-learning and spiral curriculum

    What's elearning good for? [elearnspace blog] points to Elearning's Unique Capability:

    Article details four learning effects (spacing, delayed feedback, relearning, and reducing the retention interval)...and asserts the characteristics of elearning uniquely meets those effects. Particularly valuable statement: eleanring as means to extend the learning timeline through us of "pre" and "post" learning event activities...as well as the learning event itself. Simple concept, but like the author states, not really being explored.

    Next to the fact that this article is worth reading, its author, Will Thalheimer from Work-Learning Research is the one who pointed me to matemagenic processing. I have to thank him for the name for my blog.

    Back to the article. Will argues that four learning effects are best supported with spiral curiculum and doubts that learning objects and LMS will support it well:

    The learning-object concept seems to push the field backward toward isolated non-spaced bits of information. Learning objects could be designed to produce spaced e-learning, but their basic framework will make this difficult.

    [...]Learning Management Systems apply the same constrains as learning objects. They push us toward a model of learning as a series of isolated topics, glued together through a system that manages incidents, not spaced flows of information and reinforcement.

    I feel like thinking more about this article, but now I'm too sleepy :)

    More on: e-learning learning 

      Monday, December 16, 2002


      Choosing blogging software dilemmas

    During Quaerere Dialog meeting several people was interested to start a weblog and asked me a lot of practical questions. I promised to write something, but I guess it will take some time. So far I formulated three choosing blogging software dilemmas based on my own experience with Blogger and Radio:

    1. Posting from: desktop vs. server blogging tool

    Server-based blogging is good for an easy update from any place you want. But unless you are ready to invest in your own server (if so think about Movable Type), you will have to use centrally hosted blog (e.g. Blogger ). In this case you have mush less control over your data. If server goes down or decides to charge everyone for hosting, you are in trouble.

    On the contrary, using the desktop tool (e.g. Radio) will allow you to control your data fully. But then you run into another problem: you should use only one computer or you need to have it on-line most of the time and use remote access. If you have problems with internet connections with your one computer, you are in trouble (see effects of not blogging).

    2. Posting to: your own domain vs. hosted domain

    Hosted domain (e.g. yourBlog.blogger.com or radio.weblogs.com/strangeNumberHere) is good because you don’t have to invest in it as it comes with the software. The only problem is that you have limited space and all other "nasty" things (e.g. ads in free version of Blogger ).

    Moving blogs is bad. If your blog is good people will link to you and Google will index your blog. Then you are trapped: if you decide to move to another domain, Internet will be full of dead links to your blog. Or, if you leave your old blog at its place, it will compete with your new blog (see how old Mathemagenic competes with new Mathemagenic).

    So, it’s better to decide from the beginning if you want your own name or not.

    3. Posting, reading and commenting: integrated or not

    If you want to use your blog for exchanging ideas with other people you must have:

    • Your blog
    • RSS version of your blog, so others can subscribe to it
    • News aggregator to subscribe to other blogs and read them
    • Comments enabled if you care that those without a blog can comment too (bloggers will more likely comment on your posts in their own blog)

    Radio provides an all those features in integrated interface, which is easy to use. Free version of Blogger supports only blogging, so you have to find free tools and attach them to your blog (e.g. Ton did it for his Blogger weblog). I don’t know how difficult it is, but I had some comments from people that commenting on something from their news aggregator is "more than one click".

    Finally

    If you want specific comparisions check those links [via Blog Software MT and RU]:

  • Blogger vs. Radio and Radio vs. Blogger Pro
  • Radio vs. Movable Type (Movable Type is the one you have to maintain on your own server)

    If you want more general pointers, read The Art of Blogging - Part 2

    • And remember that it's easier to try blogging then to read about it:

    blogging is like a loving sexual relationship - you just do not realize how rich and rewarding it is until you have experienced it [David Gurteen]

    More on: blogs Quaerere tools 

      My conference wish list

    May 2003, Vienna, Austria: BlogTalk - A European conference on weblogs. Submission deadline is February 28, 2003.

    June 8-July 5, 2003, Santa Fe, USA: Complex Systems Summer School. Application has to be submitted before January 24, 2003.

    July 2-4 2003, Graz, Austria: I-KNOW 2003. Abstract (4 pages) is due to January 27, 2003

    August 25-26, Padova, Italy: JURE Pre-conference - Improving your research, fostering the will to research. Pre-announcement (250 words) is due to December 31, 2002; submission deadline is March 15, 2003

    August 26-30, Padova, Italy: EARLI2003 - Improving Learning, Fostering the Will to Learn. Too late to submit. 

    September 7-12, 2003, Spain: KM Summer school 2003. I don't have details yet.

    19-21 September 2003, Amsterdam: Communities and Technologies (C&T 2003) International Conference. Submission deadline is March 14, 2003

    Not clear yet, Weblogs in Meatspace conference

    More on: learning event 

      The role of chocolate in PhD research

    I did a PhD and did NOT go mad by Richard Butterworth [via referer from Google] provides very funny overview of doing PhD research:

    • Do not just blithely start doing a PhD because you can't think of anything better to do -- that's what Masters degrees are for.
    • Just because you sailed through your undergraduate degree, do not expect to do the same with a PhD.
    • Do not expect to enjoy doing a PhD.
    • Do expect to go mad.
    • If you do enjoy your PhD you're probably mad already.
    • If you finish you can tell people that you really have done something that's big and clever.
    • Three years is a long time to do something you really, really hate and your life is finite. If you're really not a happy bunny mid-PhD consider dropping it -- worse things happen at sea.
    • Make sure you get full support from your department and complain if you don't.
    • Try to have some sort of functional life outside your PhD, although this can be surprisingly difficult.
    • If all else fails, eat chocolate.
    • Eat chocolate anyway.

    The only problem I have with it: I don't like chocolate :)))

    More on: bloggers PhD 

      My bloginality

    BLOGinality: weblogger personality test [via Klog2] says that my Bloginality is INFP. I'm not so sure as I was not sure with couple of choices. I should try this test another time and see if results are will be different :)

    More on: bloggers 

      Sunday, December 15, 2002


      The Tipping Point and NLP

    Julian Elve [Synesthesia] points to the interesting connection:

    In today's Observer magazine Andrew G Marshall writes about his application of ideas from Malcom Gladwell's book The Tipping Point to the field of couples counselling.

    He believes that the systemic explanation given by Gladwell of how ideas suddenly infect a whole population can also explain how a relationship can appear to go sour overnight.

    I'm happy that my own copy of The Tipping Point  is shipping, so I can read the original and "reconstruct" the connections with my NLP experiences. Following the links I also found something to read - How Meta-States Enriches Logical Levels in NLP.

    More on: networking NLP 

      Interner Time Blog in my aggregator

    Was browsing around and found out that Jay Cross' Internet Time Blog has got RSSfied, so now I can read it regularly (I can hardly cope with blogs without RSS).

    Jay also points to new Learning Circuits Blog:

    We're recruited a hearty band of thought leaders and contrarians to speak their minds on the blog: George Siemens, Clark Quinn, Bill Horton, Harvi Singh, Jane Knight, Julie Witges Schlack, Lance Dublin, Peter Isackson, Richard Clak, Sam Adkins, and Scott Newman. If you'd like to join the throng, show us your stuff with some incisive comments -- and then drop me a line. 

    More on: blogs e-learning 

      Q-Dialog: confused thoughts that bring new lights

    ...we all have in common the need to broaden and to fundament our ideas about how we view Knowledge Management as a field. We can do this thought reading and attending conferences though there is a level, which neither books nor lectures may address, and that is the dynamic process of freely expressing less clear and even confused thoughts that bring  new lights and new perspectives through their communication with the reasoning of others [Angela's process story]

    We discussed yesterday night that best ideas seems to emerge from total mess and it seems that you need that mess to have ideas. What if we exploit it: we can have a session discussing not our findings, but our confusions or mistakes. This should help to move from presenting and refining existing ideas to supporting the emergence of new ideas.

    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: content and process, reflections and suggestions for the future

    [Sorry if this is not clear. It's because the context is in my head. Probably, reading about content and process stories can help to understand.]

    It's nice to have a laptop with me: 4,5 hours by train give a lot of time for thinking. I'm reading Angela's process story and thinking about it, schemas, and our passion to discuss process rather then content at Quaerere Dialog:

    • It seems that Angela and Geri talk about very similar things using different languages. But Geri has something down to the earth: free discussion as a method to challenge our schemas.
    • Somehow what they research is very close to what we want to do in Quaerere group: double-loop learning, reflecting on how we come to our ideas as well as challenging and changing our assumptions. If others agree with it, it would be easier to search for a method to organize our next meeting.

    So, let's assume that we would like to focus on reflection upon our experiences. In the research context experience is an evolution of ideas. Ideas are content, process is how and why they evolve. So, there is one question that is teasing my mind: can we focus on process without content?

    There is another angle of this issue as well: can we jointly reflect on individual experiences? I guess yes, but then each has to present "evolution of ideas" first. This takes time. Another option would be to reflect on our joint experiences, as in this case they are already "shared". In this case we will gain a lot as a group, but it's not clear how such a reflection will contribute to our individual research.

    My points are:

    • We need shared experiences to reflect upon as a group
    • We can share our individual experiences with others by presenting them during f2f meetings or between them (e.g. by using blogs)
    • We can also create shared experiences during f2f meeting or between them by doing something together
    • Most of us are busy, so those "created shared experiences" have to be highly relevant for our individual research

    Finally my suggestions for the next Quaerere Dialog are:

    • find out (existing or easy to create) shared experiences that highly relevant for our individual research
    • find out method(s) we can use to reflect on those experiences

    Using free discussion to discuss common readings seems to be one good example, but we definitely can find more.

    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: results

    At the end we brainstormed about our results and future work.

    What did we get out of this meeting?

    • leaning, new perspectives on our ideas
    • an "agreement" on research topics
      • emerging understanding, but not common language yet
      • who knows what
      • who thinks what
      • how to deal with each other
    • spontaneous
    • good "chemical" mix for the future "reactions"
    • open atmosphere, trust, "dog eats dogs, but dog is not here"
    • great potential
    • presentations, notes, reading list (we are planning to post them on-line)
    • remain open to others (one or more time in a year)

    What was missing?

    • booze or "mixing informal activities" like it
    • time (we can save traveling time by being smarter with logistics)
    • "structure", "force" to achieve more
    • time for distractions that need priority
    • evolutionary approach
    • intermediate evaluation (e.g. reflection after each session)

    Emerging activities

    • reading groups + free discussion
    • get our own domain
    • in January and in the next future:
      • joined bibliography ?
      • list of conferences ?
      • collection of case studies --> can be within readings
      • write articles together
    • future face-to-face Q-Dialog meetings
      • next meeting proposal: Italy or UK in May/June
      • before or during KMSS03
    • individual blogs
    • Quaerere group blog
    • work on our ideas within Knowledge Angels initiative

    Comments

    Funny: we were scared of not having enough people, but even with this group we could hardly fit our schedule. Now we are scared of large numbers: we don't know if this working style will scale.

    We had an interesting discussion about group evolution. All of us agree, that process could be more important than content, so we don't want to make regular "conference" from Quaerere Dialog. But this time we spend a lot of time presenting and discussing our research. So, we assumes that this is "introductory stage" is necessary to get to know each other better and to build trust. Something like that:

    • First: content and context - who, what, where, related to whom
    • Next: process - next step, how, when
    More on: Quaerere 

      Friday, December 13, 2002


      Q-Dialog: semiotics, learning and complexity

    Angela starts a very difficult part with trying to talk about our vision and long-term future when time is scarce, which results into heated discussion. We definitely have to find the way to deal with problems like that.

    After short "eating break" Angela presents her work on organizational semiotics and I still can't explain in my own words. I'll add her presentation here later, but now I would just provide my free associations to her talk.

    What is communication about: to say something or to say something in a way that our audience will understand?

    Angela says that we shouldn't talk about needs, because there are values beyond those needs. So we have to talk about values :)

    What do we need to deal with complexity? I feel that we need another complexity, because if we try to use something simple the "real thing" slips away.

    Angela has to find other ways and new metaphors to explain things she explains if she want them to be used in business.

    Action points:

    • do not allow Angela to talk without presentation :)
    • we've got a reading list, but I'd like to get people's comments why we should read it
    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: KM processes anth their enablers

    Gerald talks about KM in his company. Bits:

    • Weggeman:
      • Knowledge is a personal ability to perform a given task
      • Knowledge <- information * (experience + skills + attitude)
    • Processes around knowledge in an organization: use, develop, assure, disseminate, combine
    • Enablers of those processes: leadership, culture and motivation, people and organization, ICT
    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: KM in industrial research

    Christian presents his work on KM for industrial research processes of an industrial research center. This environment seems to be quite similar to my company, so I guess that we can reuse many ideas from his research.

    Interesting:

    • Research process model
    • Knowledge typology
    • Process to define it
    • Romhard/Probst KM model
    • Linking research process with knowledge typology

    Action points:

    • See how this work could be related with KM in my company and our research of KM in R&D
    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: transactive memory

    Tanguy introduces the concept of transactive memory:

    A group of people that have developed a feel for who is best at storing what information. Because there is consensus on who knows that, retrieval is easier. Transactive memory us a property of a group of people.

    The focus of the research is come up with a conceptual framework to look how the transactive memory can be supported.

    Action points:

    • This work has some relations with my company's work on knowledge mapping, so this is something to explore.
    • Also - check ELM (expertise location management) systems
    • Ask Tanguy for the references about transactive memory
    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: knowledge creation in virtual and co-located teams

    Melis studies how knowledge creation process differs between virtual teams and co-located teams. She uses COSIGA (computer supported multiplayer simulated game focused on teaching concurred engineering) to study simulated new product development process (NPD) because:

    • studying real NPD process is difficult
    • this simulated environment resembles real process closely (Melis claims)

    Some intermediate results: awareness of what is happening and predictions about the future are getting worse in virtual teams vs. co-located teams. "Virtual people" were losing their awareness with time. Angela notes that we can observe the same with PhD students. Roberta suggests analyzing this situation from point of view of information overload. Atta comments: space synchrony is stronger than time synchrony for serendipity and invention.

    Action points:

    • ask Melis for the references on use of activity theory framework for the qualitative analysis and situational awareness
    • ask Atta about space synchrony and time synchrony, as well as opportunistic learning
    • I have a colleague who studies shared understanding in virtual vs. co-located design teams - may be interesting.

    Funny observation: some of us are really traditional from methodological point of view and others are heretics :) I'd like to do my PhD somewhere in between.

    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Diialog: distributed KM

    Roberta talks about success and failure criteria for knowledge management systems and looks at the connections between organizational models and technology architecture in centralized vs. distributed settings. She presents many interesting ideas, but we don't have much time. My summary is that her research is about (1) global knowledge vs. local knowledge, (2) distributed KM as interplay and coordination between autonomous local nodes, and (3) matching technology to organizational models and not vise versa. Also interesting: why KM systems fail, why ontologies do not work between groups or communities.

    Bits:

    ...Centralized systems forced semantic schema onto people that may not share it since it is (1) irrelevant (too generic to fit the heterogeneous and specialized needs of users) and (2) oppressive; the schema is the expression of one community and is therefore rejected by other groups (Starr).

    ...Centralized organizational model: knowledge is "cleaned" to make objective and useble for others (centralized schema), but it's difficult to use locally. This works in smaller group: within organizational unit or community of practice.

    ...Knowledge appears as heterogeneous and dynamic systems of "local knowledges" situated within communities that live in the interplay between the need of: (1) sharing a perspective within a community to incrementally improve performance, and (2) meeting different perspective of various communities to sustain innovation.

    Roberta action points:

    • recommend articles that illustrate the presentation
    • provide the link to I-KNOW 2003 conference
    • (for me) documented cases of KM technology failures
    • make sure that Roberta presents her work at KMSS03
    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: logistics and lessons learnt

    Lessons learnt from this morning:

    • we should have our meeting room next to our hotel
    • if not we should spend money to get transportation to the meeting space
    • we should have stricter program if we want to get results and fit everyone in two days
    • we can use an alarm clock with loud sound for keeping time
    More on: Quaerere 

      Thursday, December 12, 2002


      Q-Dialog: reading

    Epistemological Foundations for CSCL [via Serious Instructional Technology]

    I gave my copy of this article for Geri and more people are interested to have it. It is nice to have printer here.

    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: schemas, learning and free discussion

    Geri looks how learning is happening in CoPs and how it could be facilitated. Some citations [as I've heard them]:

    Community is defined by its learning curriculum

    Metacapabilities are the underlying abilities that are necessary for us to function, underlying core competencies.

    People are not comfortable with things changing, but they don't mind with new things getting introduced.

    Knowledge is created by challenging schemas.

    Discussion

    • We do not see the external world directly (that's impossible)
    • New information must be dissolved in old experiences (schemata)
    • We are not aware of our schemata and do not question the validity of using them.

    How CoP can work to challenge and change schemas?

    Free discussion: reading -> talk about what you found there -> questioning why we come up with those interpretations

    This is something that I definitely had before as part of the adult learning stream, but probably with other names. Also something to do with Vygotsky and double-loop-learning.

    Follow-up

    • We can use free discussion for our Quaerere discussions. How can we arrange it?
    • Geri is learning free discussion as part of her PhD. I want the same.
    • In any case - this is something to explore.
    • Find something to read from Lave and anthroposophy.
    More on: learning Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: interorganizational learning

    Rosita talks about interorganizational learning. She looks how mechanisms for coordinating between companies work as learning mechanisms and maps that to the type of knowledge (Backler 1995-1999): embodied, encultured, embrained, embedded, encoded. Rosita did very good thing asking for our suggestions for the research directions she might take. Pity that I didn't have much time for it.

    We came to the old discussion about the definition of knowledge.

    More on: learning Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: mentoring

    Rachel presents her finished PhD research on dynamics and conditions for mentoring. I hope to have more discussions about her research. She used grounded theory approach, which is something interesting to explore.

    Just thought: you can think about mentoring as about "avanced knowledge sharing" combined with facilitation for knowledge creation.

    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: knowledge work and blogs

    I had my presentation about knowledge workers and blogs. First I presented my PhD research [BTW, I've got it approved last Monday and I will post it here as soon as I get a bit of time to make it shorter] and then talked about my blogging experience with relation to PhD work.

    The outcomes are:

    • [PhD concept] Most of the PhD questions were on methodological side: One or many factors? Consistent way of measuring? The role of leadership? I know ;) I should also find better word for instruments.
    • [blogs] Questions: How do I start one? How we can use blogs for Quaerere work? Individual benefits of blogging  are more or less clear, but what are the group benefits? (I have also answered many others)
    • [reading list]
      • S.Pinker, The language instinct [Gerald]
      • M.L.J.Abercrombie, The anatomy of judgment [Geri]
      • David H.Maister, Practice what you preach [Gerald]

      Q-Dialog: expectations

    We started from short presentations of everyone and expectations round. Many people in the group return to the question of structure and democracy. Down to the earth: do we want to get results or do we care more about process?

    • To discuss what we want as a group and how we work together after this meeting finishes
    • To carry on with our KMSS discussions
    • To get to know each other better
    • To find out about each other research - and to see the process
    • To develop a functional group (group that being capable of doing something)
    • To develop common language
    • To find out the way to start group blog that will allow us to discuss deeper theoretical issues
    • To discuss how we get write a book together
    • To think how we can have international research network
    • To learn about other aspects of KM field next to my work and focus
    • To use this group as a laboratory for my ideas
    • To get feedback on the research
    • To get new perspectives for my research from this multidisciplinary and multicultural background
    • To improve my English
    • To get (future) feedback on my papers
    • To get FEEDBACK
    More on: Quaerere 

      Q-Dialog: between organic and structured

    I have strange feelings about our work: we try to be organic and not put much structure on our communication, but it doesn't work well. As our face-to-face time is limited, we are struggling to find balance between organic and formal to have some results in the end. I found out that this is our main dilemma (not only for this meeting, but for the group as whole): between steering and organic emergence.

    Metaphor: how we deal with planning

    Three guys were lost at Amazon river and they had a map to get out of there. Map of another place. But they used it and were able to find the way home [thanks, Geri].

    More on: Quaerere 

      Quaerere Dialog: start

    [Context - Quaerere Dialog]

    We are started yesterday with heavy dinner discussions about Quaerere group and our plans for these two days. I am lucky to have internet in the room, but the keyboard is French, so I will try to use my computer to make notes and this station to post them...

    More on: Quaerere 

      Wednesday, December 11, 2002


      Digital portfolio day

    Funny. Today is Digital portfolio day:

    Sebastian Fiedler comments on The Electronic Portfolio Boom:

    Right on, David. Why should electronic portfolios contain only the polished, completed products of a learner? Why shouldn't they also document the struggles of individual knowledge construction?

    Then my referers page brings the answer: Building Digital Portfolios in On-line Distance Education course, which requires students to prepare digital portfolio that "consists of both of collection finished tasks and of a learning journal - a weblog that each student keeps through the course".

    It worth checking for the collection of links about digital portfolios and weblogs in education. I didn't check all of them, but at least one is going to be printed tomorrow: Blogs: Personal e-learning spaces (.pdf):

    this report seeks to understand what the blog "revolution" is about, and whether it has application in learning and teaching.
    It was also nice to find link to my own post in the reading list :)

      Plan for 2003: follow your passion

    OLDaily comments on How To Succeed in 2003:

    Here's a better plan: find something you're really interested in, learn as much as you can about it, and start working on it. Don't worry about the money, the money will come. Invest your time and your energy in your passion, not your job - reinvent your job if you have to, or plan to leave it if you can't.

    More on: future passion 

      Monday, December 09, 2002


      Quaerere Dialog

    If you wonder there is Special Interest Group on KM Research - Quaerere, I have an answer: it's growing.

    I'm one of the four members of Quaerere Interface Team (officially SIG editors ;) I hope to write more about my experiences with supporting this group. So far I'm too busy to finish my work before I can leave for Quaerere Dialog in Brussels.

    I'm looking forward to see how far we can go in finding new ways of cooperation between KM researchers. I'm looking for conversations, stories, emerging networks and organic learning and I hope that budgets, deadlines and "political concerns" will not stop us from enjoying our discoveries.

    More on: KM Quaerere 

      Discovering organic learning

    Sebastian Fiedler reflects on his learning from blogs around:

    What I find so fascinating is that while these individuals surely follow their very personal agendas and purposes, they also create "value" for other people as a mere byproduct of their own learning activities...

    [...] You never know who will stumble across your musings. You never know who will take time to respond or comment. You never know who will cite your stuff. You never know whose thinking you might influence... This is an exciting new era for self-organized learners. And this is something completely different from all the "e-Learning" bla bla we have been bored with over the last few years.

    This is in line with my recent thinking about the power of organic things... It seems that we are constantly discovering our natural ways to communicate and learn. Both knowledge management and learning fields look how to make things more effective, but all those that really add value and "stick" are about our roots and our organic behaviours.

    So, we are on the long way of discovering organic learning. It gives the same feeling as sailing with the wind. 

    In reminds me about KnowledgeBoard "working as fun" workshop: it's too late to write my impressions now, but I'll come back to it as it has triggered several ideas and book orders :)

      Friday, December 06, 2002


      The art of blogging: ecosystem is more important than content

    [via many from my newslist] George Siemens releases two parts of The Art of Blogging:

    The Art of Blogging - part 1

    The Art of Blogging - part 2