Knowledge Management Systems and the Implications for Instruction

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Knowledge Management Systems and the Implications
for Instruction

• Tiffany Espinosa, Jara Raphaelson, Della
  Shorman, Carol Woelber
•  
• University of Colorado Denver 
• December 2005

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An immense and ever-increasing wealth of
knowledge is scattered about the world today
knowledge that would probably suffice to solve
all the mighty difficulties of our age, but it is
dispersed and unorganized. We need a sort of
mental clearing house for the mind a depot where
knowledge and ideas are received, sorted,
summarized, digested, clarified and
compared.H.G. WellsThe Brain Organization
of the Modern World
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Activity Part 1

• Break into teams three to four members
• You will be assigned a category of words that are
  parts of a sentence (noun, verb, etc.)
• You will have three minutes to write down 8 words
  from your category of words one each on colored
  paper

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Description
"...for thousands of years, humans have been
discussing the meaning of knowledge, what it is
to know something, and how people can generate
and share new knowledge." Knowledge
Management Tools, Rudy L. Ruggles, III, 1997
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What is Knowledge?
Fluid mix of contextual information, values,
experiences and rules

• Process knowledge (how-to)
• Catalog knowledge (what is)
• Experiential knowledge (what was)

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Three aspects of KM

• Knowledge Generation
• Creation, synthesis, acquisition, adoption
• Knowledge codification
• Capture and presentation to make reusable
• Knowledge transfer
• Movement of knowledge from repository to
  absorption

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Explicit vs. Tacit Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge
• Data, formulas, specifications, manuals
• Words, numbers
• Formal, systematic transfer
• Tacit knowledge
• Personal, rooted in experience
• Subjective insights, intuitions, instincts
• More difficult to process, retain, transfer
• Strong focus of KM and Ed communities

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Goal of Knowledge Mgmt
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KMs Evolution

• Knowledge generation and retrieval
• The learning organization
• Facilitating Connections
• Communities of practice
• Knowledge sharing
• Collaboration
• Education, instruction, e-learning

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KM and the Future of ID

• KMS integrated into the design
• KM systems will be a variety of tools
• Tools will draw upon a collection of reusable
  learning objects
• Tools will support instructional design and
  learning environments
• Redefine the way design teams work

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History and Analysis
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History and Analysis

• Project management support tools
• Iterative prototyping
• Better user interfaces increased accessibility
  easier integration, deployment customization
• Evolving systems -gt adapt to changing conditions
  throughout lifetime of system

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Growth of KM

• 1000 Increase Over the past 7 Years(In Annual
  Investment )
• 1998
• 776 Million Total US Spending (for all uses)
• 2005
• 600 Billion Public K-12 Higher Education
• 70 Billion Corporate and Govt. Training

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Systemic Impact
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Three Major Impacts

• Generating value from sharing information across
  an organization.
• Links users into a community of shared knowledge.
  
• Evolution of the Instructional Designers role.

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Three Major Benefits

• Facilitates collaboration among team members.
• Promotes efficiency and long-term productivity.
• Facilitates re-purposing of information.

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Risks

• Need buy-in from users with a change management
  plan or system will fail.
• Set expectations or risk extinction.
• Must establish trust or system will fail.
• Must evaluate knowledge management tools prior to
  implementation or system will fail.

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Implications
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Implications

• Vital to provide employees or students with
  access to information
• Well-designed KM system can help solve the
  challenges for a business or an organization

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Challenges

• Information not up-to-date, accurate or
  appropriate
• Emphasis on what technology can do
• No continuing training for employees or
  investment in resources

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Benefits

• Improved accuracy of information
• Greater flexibility
• Increased staff satisfaction and morale
• Reduced training time and costs

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Application of KM

• Requires continuous management commitment
• System must be actively marketed within the
  company or organization

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Solving the Challenges

• Information not up-to-date, accurate or
  appropriate
• Have a team in place that is responsible for
  updating
• Establish communication channels
• Provide for staff to report errors and omissions

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Solving the Challenges

• Emphasis on what technology can do
• Involve staff in the design
• Develop prototypes and test these with real users
• Create navigation and menu items that are
  appropriate to the user
• Dont oversell the system

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Solving the Challenges

• No continuing training for employees or
  investment in resources involve staff in the
  design
• Provide continuing training of staff on use of
  system and are using it to their advantage
• Monitor usage of system to identify what is most
  valuable

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The goal of KM should be to enhance existing
processes and learning, not create additional
work
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Activity Part 2

• Meet with your original team
• Select two each of the colored word papers
• You have six minutes to formulate one coherent
  sentence
• You may return to the repository and exchange
  word sheets if necessary
• When finished, tape your sentence to the front
  board.