Harold Jarche in his short book on Personal Knowledge Management:

As knowledge management expert Dave Snowden says, we are not very good at articulating our knowledge; “We always know more than we can say, and we will always say more than we can write down.”  

If we take on this perspective, what does that mean for how we support people to learn….

We must provide opportunities for observations, for questioning and reflecting….

We must also provide space and time for conversations….

I registered for a four week program that I have wanted to do for some time – “Personal Knowledge Management” with Harold Jarche, via the Social Learning Centre.  After registering though, I had some long days at work, the kids were back at school, and I was immediately ‘behind’ and felt more and more overwhelmed each day if I thought about getting into the program.

This is an important learning experience for me – I was/am motivated and yet…. I am letting the flow of emails into my Inbox, and the feeling of being lost, block me from getting into the program.  I know that the structure of the discussion forum does not particularly suit me.  It is not threaded in terms of topic, so I find it laborious to go through all posts and comments to work out what has been discussed.

Still … I should be able to get over that!  And I will – today – cos I have injured my knee and have a day off work.  So I am going to take advantage of the change in pace (see earlier post) and get myself sorted out!

TPACK Model – shows the interrelationships between knowledge of technology, content and pedagogy

I read a post tonight on the blog – Dreaming Weaving Learning – entitled “The Fallacy of Being a Facilitator“.  The post explored the TPACK model, which looks at the elements of knowledge that a teacher needs to consider when approaching the learning process – technology, content, and pedagogy.  Reading this prompted me to think about the model from the learner’s point of view – so how does their learning incorporate knowledge and skill in not just the content area, but also in the areas of technology and pedagogy (learning to learn).

It has again been a long time since I have posted.  I have drafted many posts in my head but not put pen to paper, or fingers to keys.  Sometimes you just need to wait for the right time.

Since my last post I have graduated.  My mum, husband, and daughters all travelled with me to the graduation ceremony.  This was the first face-to-face contact I had had with the university – isn’t that amazing in itself!  The ceremony was so well organised (congratulations to University of Southern Queensland) and I felt like I drank in every second of it.  For me, it was like being a part of something big – really for the first time during these most recent studies.

When I studied at University of Queensland, I was surrounded by the buildings, many quite old, by thousands of people, and you knew you were a part of something.

Don’t get me wrong – I have felt a part of something during my online studies – just a part of something quite different.  There was a sense of scale due to the international student population in every class, but I think that the connection with the University itself was pretty loose.

It has been some time since my last post.  The learning has continued but the head space for posting has been exhausted!

My formal studies with University of Southern Queensland have finished, and I graduate in a couple of weeks!!!  While it is certainly a relief – the last semester was particularly difficult – I miss the anticipation of a new semester, wondering about what interesting people I will meet, and where the study might take me.  Studying for me was like a compulsory creative outlet, and a source of affirmation that there are like-minded people around.

The last few months have taught me that learning is not always something that is valued – certainly not formal learning, or enabled informal learning.  All the research in the world does not matter if decision makers don’t care about evidence.  Building a positive culture can quickly become a focus on sustaining survivors and victims alike in the face of unprecedented job cuts and vanishing budgets.