I've been watching the discussions about Personal Knowledge Management a bit from a distance. I couldn't get a good grip on what it is, apart from some technological solution. It should be more than that (to be interesting and long-lasting). Maybe what I miss is a basis, a fundament, an explanation, instead of solutions and what to do. Lilia is building a model, with 3 circles (sorry is this is not the latest version, Lilia!), but here again I need more understanding, explanation than description of what is happening.
At the same time, talking with Lilia about organising knowledge through weblogs (or personal knowledge organisation as we called it) I saw similarities with the (educational) concept of metacognition. Well, it's a while ago that I studied Educational Science and Technology, but I remember metacognitive skills are helpful in learning and problem solving and consist of things like evaluation, reflection (on the own learning), summarising, synthesis and so. Since I wasn't very sure I looked it up on the Internet and found some interesting models.
A definition: "Metacognitive skills are abilities to monitor and direct the operation of cognitive skills" (from J. Geiwitz (1996); A conceptual model of metacognitive skills. Published in Behavioral Sciences).
Here is a model:
A. Knowledge about One's Self
Monitoring and controlling of
1. Commitment: A matter of deliberate choice, not feelings or preference
2. Attitudes: For example, persistence, resourcefulness, learning from failure
3. Attention: To detail, to big picture, determining relevance, being flexible
B. Knowledge About the Thinking Processes
Types of knowledge important to metacognition:
1. Declarative knowledge: The facts necessary to do a task
2. Procedural knowledge: How to do a task; for example, how to scan, how to summarize
3. Conditional knowledge: Knowing why certain strategies work, when to use them, why one strategy is better than another
C. Controlling the Thinking Processes
1 .Evaluation: Assessing current knowledge, setting goals, selecting resources
2. Planning: Choosing a path to goals, choosing procedures
3. Regulation: Checking progress; revising paths, procedures, goals, resources
Source: Robert J. Marzano and others. Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum and Instruction. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1988
In Lilia's circles I think it's the link between Me and Ideas (reflecting on one's ideas and so on). It gives partly an idea what a person is doing when "managing his/her own knowledge".
I didn't do a good literature study on this, just picked some interesting links to show the overlap between PKM and metacognition. And it doesn't say anything about exchange between people (networking). But I think on the "own" or personal side it could give a bit of insight.
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