Pedagogy is not KM, but libraries are.
Shorewalker, backed up by Michael Feldstein's
support in e-literate, dismisses Knowledge Management with
a "Bah!" and the wave of a hand. It's a cop-out.
A weak assertion based on the fact that someone failed to
do it that provides an excuse for those wanting less to think
about.
KM is bunk, we are told, because we already
have it - it's called teaching. Peter Drucker, it is noted,
famously said "you can't manage knowledge" - QED,
we are done.
To me, however, this overly simple argument is a dangerous
cop-out for those who are looking for a reason not to have
to think about it.
I ask him one question: where in this argument is the library?
The best teaching does embrace KM - Knowledge Mining, formerly
known as research. Research, as opposed to sitting at the
feet of the master, requires the availability good KM (Management
this time). Historically this was referred to as a library.
The point of KM (aka libraries) is that teachers are not always
available when you need them - but a good library can go a
long way to solving that problem. KM tools, specialised purpose
built or otherwise, are an extension of the venerable library,
and any teacher who forgets to teach their students how to
use the library effectively has not done their job. Any school
that forgot to build a library would be laughed at; and anyone
trying to preserve and disseminate organisational knowledge
ignores it at their peril.
Shorewalker tells us that in his company all the information
is in people's heads and they aren't telling. Even if they
captured it, nobody would look. This is organisational failure
- not a logical reason why the rest of us shouldn't try.
Does one need fancy tools? Not necessarily - but that's a
very different argument from the quick hand wave of dismissal
("Bah!" I hear Dogbert say) we read here. Many of
our clients use their LMS as tool for quick capture and simple
search and dissemination of Organisational Knowledge (that's
"OK").
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.
That's what KM is really about.
After thought: the fact that the British Library is located
within the British Museum is unfortunately predictive of where
we will someday need to go to see what a library was.
Gideon Sheps
NetDimensions
