InformIT: The Business of Understanding > Ode to Ignorance - 1 views
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Steve J. Moore on 10 Aug 11This is what all of public education is struggling with right now. How do we legitimize the asking of questions and the pursuit of understanding rather than the bubbling in of "answers" we don't really get?
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I'm a success when I do something that I myself can truly understand
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the most essential prerequisite to understanding is to be able to admit when you don't understand something
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Giving yourself permission not to know everything will make you relax
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preconceptions
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In technical writing, we must sort out all prior knowledge and place it before us and then step away from it so we can recreate it anew.
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binary choice: I could teach about what I already knew, or I could teach about what I would like to learn
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My expertise has always been my ignorance, my admission and acceptance of not knowing. My work comes from questions, not from answers.
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The focus on bravado and competition in our society has helped breed into us the idea that it is impolitic, or at least impolite, to say, "I don't understand."
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Understanding should be thought of as a continuum from data to wisdom
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at this end of the spectrum, understanding gets increasingly personal until it is so intimate that it cannot truly be shared with others
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So, is "technical writing" about creating information out of data (a set message) or structuring data so that others can interpret their own information from it (a personalizable message)?
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"One of the best ways of communicating knowledge is through stories, because good stories are richly textured with details, allowing the narrative to convey a stable ground on which to build the experience."
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Without context, information cannot exist, and the context in question must relate not only to the data's environment (where it came from, why it's being communicated, how it's arranged, etc.), but also from the context and intent of the person interpreting it.
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rganization creates, or at least, shapes meaning
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How do we tell "data" from "info" in our teaching practice? What does this paragraph tell you about assessing student learning and work?
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Technology forms a near-disastrous distraction from real information and knowledge issues.
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What is it about technology or tools that distract us from teaching kids how to learn skills in a "technical" setting?
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complexity
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education is so notoriously difficult: because one cannot count on one person's knowledge to transfer to another
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This is what education should be about, but too often it is only focused on information—and worse, data—simply because those are the only forms that are easy to measure.
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Knowledge
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experience design
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discover processes for creating these experiences
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Without the opportunity, willingness, or openness to interact on a personal level, much of the power of these experiences are not made available to us.
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Wisdom is as personal as understanding gets—intimate, in fact—and it is a difficult level for many people to reach
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sharing of wisdom is next to impossible.
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What can only be shared is the experiences that form the building blocks for wisdom, but these need to be communicated with even more understanding of the personal contexts of our audience than with information or knowledge.
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We cannot trick ourselves into becoming wise, and we cannot allow someone else to do it.
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What is one piece of wisdom you have learned about yourself in your own learning?
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we need to expose people to the processes of introspection, pattern-matching, contemplation, retrospection, and interpretation so that they will have the beginnings of the tools to create wisdom
