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Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
In a survey we did of municipal officials in Alberta we found that when most managers need to learn someone, they just call someone who is likely to know. Aside from the logistical challege that creates for knowledge systems (can you imagine online learning as easy to access as a phone call? No? then how will it compete?) this solution recognizes one practical reality often overlooked by discussions of learning objects and learning content: that the knowledge often resides in the person, not the resource. Now this article talks about a system of expertise management, a way for people in an organization to identify experts or just people who know. But why build a separate (poorly organized) system as this item advocates? Do it this way instead: experts (or even just people who know) are learning objects. Oh sure, they don't have learning objectives and who knows how to index them for granularity. But the best way to provide access to human based and content based learning through the same system is to represent them in the same way. Then online learning CAN compete with the phone company.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: May 03, 2024 09:42 a.m.

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