Monday, April 23, 2001
P540 - Constructivism, defines it in two was: as a philosophy and a set of instructional practices.
"As a philosophy, constructivism suggests that, while there is a real world out there, there is no meaning inherent in it. Meaning is imposed by people and cultures. So, for example, one who followed the constructivist philosophy might say that there is nothing inherently correct about the way we classify living things (genus, species, etc.). This classification system is a human invention, and it is subject to revision or replacement. Thus, when we teach this classification system, we should teach it not as fact, but as the current system accepted by scientists. And we should also teach about the process of creating a classification system, not just the end product.
As a set of instructional practices, constructivism favors processes over end products; guided discovery over expository learning; authentic, embedded learning situations over abstracted, artificial ones; portfolio assessments over multiple-choice exams, etc"
Thursday, April 19, 2001
"Whatever you do, keep the three types of knowledge separate in your minds. For one thing, they live in different strata:
- Knowledge mining is in the province of marketing data wonks
- Know-how is in the province of people doing hands-on work with customers
- Idea development generally is the job of office workers in various departments -- although good ideas can come from anywhere, of course (whereas the sources of bad ideas are usually easier to identify).
And, for another, how you "leverage" all three types of knowledge is different: you mine the first type of data, you publish the second, and you encourage the third.
Looks like "glue" between all the systems. Interesting idea ... what motivates people to generate ideas? Why do they do it? I'm a natural communicator and love to tell people about my ideas but not everybody's like that. There has to be some payoff (recognition; visibility into what's happening with the idea, etc.)