The mind, the knowledge and learning

Did you ever suffer from a bad presentation?

(If you had got your first pay check, this was a rhetorical question)

Too much information on the slides (even with eagle eyes)? Or the presenter was reading the slides? Or it seems the wrong slide pack for the speech?

Cognitivie Load Theory reasons, we perceive bad presentation as bad, because of the limited capacity of our Working Memory (see Cognitive Load Theory – post reloaded).

On the other hand, I claimed my lithmus theme “knowledge = information + context”, is reflected in the structure of the Long-Term Memory.

Schema is the concept that puts the lose ends together.

Violating all technicalities, I re-use (Learning & Teaching):

 Working Memory = Short-Term Memory + rehearsal + retrieved Long-Term Memory

And retrieved Long-Term Memory refers to the concept of Schema, already indicating that Schemata are built via experiences in the episodic memory and finally stored in the Semantic Memory. Their purpose is to interact with new situations in three ways: remember (recognition), understanding and prediction.

If Schema reminds you of the Good / Best Practices way of working in KM, you probably look forward to a future post on the knowledge mechanism.

This time we join J. Sweller on the Schema from the Learning perspective.

There are quite a few (we have defined 6) business reasons for KM, but What’s In It For Me?

To put it short, and to leave out academic hesitation and accuracy:

Schema builds knowledge, and KM builds schema.

As J. Sweller outlines building a schema can be supported by imagination. Like a Formula One pilot imagines the course in order to build a course schema before actually going on course. And the imagination becomes tangible by externalization, or less academic:

Formulating and writing down knowledge, enhances understanding.

via stockxchng, InnerPeace by tung072, ~ imagination, just liked it too much

It very often happens to me: I am of the firm opinion, I am on top of a thought, but then in the attempt to formulate it, I realize, I fail to bring it across. Only then by imagination of a mind map and e.g. an outline of a blog post, the thought becomes crisp and only when I hands-on write it down, two phrases down black and white, one word whitened and deleted again, only then it becomes tangible. But then, I am capable of delivering the idea to the point, in army-style, 3 am in the middle of a night.

Creating a Knowledge Object and formulating a solution and its context, strikes back on the creator by enhanced understanding. By sharing knowledge we get more knowledgable.

Back to the bad presentations, preparing a slide pack – a good one – can help you to sharpen your thought and externalize your idea. And if you have really done your homework, you even wouldn’t need the slide pack. If on the other hand you are dependent on a slide pack, you are not mastering the topic and Powerpoint will steer you into another bad presentation.

regards

gerald