I’ve been struggling with this whole “what is going to make Web logs use successful” question for a while as the idea is getting more an more interest here. The bottom line, I believe is acceptance by classroom teachers as a useful technology. To me, it all starts from there. I think potential users need to know the technology is easy to use, works as advertised, and enhances the educational experience of their students. Absent widespread adoption, it’s a tough sell to try something new on a district level for “managing our knowledge.” But I think there are enough models out there to at least whet their appetites and pilot some uses.
From a KM standpoint, Jim McGee finishes off a nice wrapup of Web logs as KM with this:
Weblogs are interesting in organizational KM settings because weblogs are technologically simple and socially complex, which makes them a much better match to the KM problems that matter. One thing that we need to do next is to work backwards from the answer – weblogs – to the problem – what do organizations need to do effective knowledge management. We need to avoid the mistakes of other KM software vendors and not assume that the connection is self-evident.
As usual, this has me thinking. I’ve just been appointed to “champion” the KM/Internal Communications topic at our annual “Critical Issues” gathering next month. That’s when the administrative team sits down to talk about the solutions to the issues that we feel are most important (and this came in at the top of the list.) As such, I need to develop a problem statement, so Jim’s observations are once again distinctly relevant. What exactly are our needs in KM?
We have two dozen committees that never “speak” to one another. We have parents interested in our work that can’t access it. We have teachers who could use materials and ideas and opportunities for collaboration. We have students creating a whole heckuva lot of knowledge that gets lost when the day ends. We have data. We have results. We have a lot more situations like this throughout our organization. And right now, it’s so hard to get to any of that “knowledge” that it is resulting in a real lack of communication and growing frustration with that fact. I think here it’s almost a question of communicating knowledge more than managing it (although I realize they are the same thing on some levels.)
Web logs allow for inexpensive, easy creation and storage or publication of information (or knowledge) that is accessible, archivable, and searchable. Also, Web logs are flexible in terms of access and security. They are at first (and second) blush a viable solution to what is a growing problem. But only, and this is the big one, only if people use them.
What I need to keep in mind is to grow into the solution instead of implementing it. I can see the end result in my brain, but I need the patience to nurture it into fruition.
All of your reasons for KM make sense to me. Say we give you the magic wand to implement all of this knowledge sharing. What happens differently at your school with all of this in place? How exactly do you see the tangible benefits of this? I’m wondering where the incentive is for those doing all of the sharing – i.e. “What’s in it for me?”
That is the $64,000 question, isn’t it? And certainly, it would seem the major benefit would be at the supervisory level where having more knowledge about the general workings of the school could inform the decision-making process. Also, the ability to share lessons and best practices would improve teaching, I think. And, at the real magic wand stage, improving the flow of information through the use of RSS would help the communication problems that we have here immensely. But that’s a ways down the road.
Incentive, though? I dunno. I keep going back to what Ken Tompkins said when I first started getting into this…1/3 of the people will try it because they want to, 1/3 will try it because they “have” to, and the last 1/3 won’t even consider the potential. Like I said, we’re going to have to grow into this and incentivize people by showing them the benefits as they become more visible.