Conclusion

First of all, I want to say that for me knowledge and learning are two different things.

Learning is the process, knowledge is the outcome.

You learn to swim or read throughout repetition. Afterwards you can’t say: I’ve gained knowledge on swimming or reading. Knowing to do. Therefore I find learning an individual process, that does not lead to knowledge, but rather to a skill you use from then on in everyday life.

Also we have learning that is not based on books, but on life. We learn from each other and we learn because we coexist with one and other. We learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. Knowing to be.

But there is also learning that leads to knowledge. If you study medicine you gain knowledge and from there one you can do research and create or modify (public) knowledge.

I don’t totally agree with Bereiter and Scaramalia when they say that One of the hallmarks of knowledge building is a sense of we superseding the sense of I, a feeling that the group is operating collectively and not just as an assemblage of individuals.

I believe that in the process of knowledge building the individual contributes to a collective outcome. It is the fact that each and every one of us is an individuals that makes co-working efficient. We all have an unique intelligence. By combining our different strengths we build knowledge.

The minor visual knowledge building is the perfect example on how people deal with the process of knowledge building. We know how to read, write, communicate, do research. So how do we gain knowledge? We use the skills we have. We filter and structure information in order to create knowledge and from there on we create our own vision on knowledge building. We decode the input based on information which is valuable and which fits into our framework. Throughout assimilation and accommodation we construct meaning as the Constructivism theory tells us, which I very much agree with.

Everyone perceives knowledge differently because learning is influenced by our learning environment. We naturally adjust information because our lives, our interest, our personalities and the context keeps on changing.

The categories of human thought are never fixed in any one definite form; they are made, unmade and remade incessantly; they change with places and times." Emile Durkheim

Both learning and knowledge are ongoing processes, as George Siemens mentions in his Connectivism theory. That’s why we never stop learning.

I’ve been talking about knowledge building but visual knowledge building is what we are dealing with at this moment.

Technology has changed the process of knowledge building, because the speed of life has changed. We have access to a lot of information (sometimes way too much and a lot of it is pretty irrelevant) whether we like it or not. Prensky is talking about the digital natives and how they need to gain knowledge in a different way than the digital emigrants used to.

Natives are used to visuals, they can not live without. Their ability to select essential information is influenced by visuals and in order to teach them and stimulate them into participating we need to find visual ways to actually get through to them.

So in order to teach a knowledge building community which in many cases it’s a class full of students the teachers need to understand their students want to learn but need to be visually stimulated, in order to do so.

Blended learning may be the outcome. Somehow students need to feel that the new technology they use in their daily lives is taken serious by the teachers. But still there is a line you need to draw, students must be able to concentrate in class, otherwise we feed them with too much freedom.

Seymour Papert came up with a new term: Constructionism -> Constructivism theory + Co-design + E-tools. I find this one of the best solutions. You construct, and collaborate with others with the help of the new digital technology, while learning from your mistakes or the mistakes of others.

In my opinion visuals are tools that help build knowledge. Visuals are like the skills you learn in order to build knowledge. You can not ignore visuals, they are part of everyday life. Like the signs we all know, recognize and understand because they are a part of our visual culture. We can do so much with visuals but without a context they mean nothing to us. So there has to be a context in order to communicate.

Where is VKB heading to? Well I believe the future of VKB is already here, but we are not fully aware of it because it has integrated in our lives without us really noticing it. That says a lot about us and the visual knowledge world around us.

Week 5 Social constructivism

A lot of pedagogies are based on the theory of constructivism,
and with the rise of the gap between the digital natives
and digital immigrants the constructivism theory applies very well in the new learning process in which both the rols of the students and the teachers have changed.

Social constructivism views each learner as an unique individual, complex, active learner, who has needs and learns by doing. Interaction with others and the environement is important. While teachers are the facillitators who do not tell, but ask.

Seymour Papert came up with a new term
Constructionism -> constructivism theory + co-design + e-tools

I see Constructionism as Blended learning. Co producing with the help of the new technology.

Week 5 Jean Piaget - Constructivism

How learning happens

Constructivism is a learning theory that argues that humans construct meaning from current knowledge structures, throughout assimilation and accommodation.

If our knowledge structure is like a puzzle then we sometimes find new puzzle pieces to fill in the gaps. That is called assimilation. But sometimes we discover some puzzel pieces were not in the right place to start with and so we reorder our puzzle with the help of new gain knowledge. That is called accomodation.

In many cases failure leads to learning, like in the accomodation process.

Week 4 Signs

The century of the eye

Isotypes, pictograms, ideograms and logograms create an universal code. Simple elements can be made to show the most complicated facts and relationships so anyone can understand them.

With the help of the latest technology we now also have Info design -> Graphic displays which turn data into clear information.







Will this universal code work or not?

“Every tool carries with it the spirit with which it has been created” said Werner Karl Herzberg. But every fool carries with him the spirit by which he has been created. Because “we create tools that in their turn create us.” as Marshall Mc Luhan stated. And as fools and tools never match, we need signs to help us out.

But....

The limits of signs lie in the fact that visuals can express the form or function of a thing but meet with trouble when they must express action,verbal tenses, adverbs or proposition.

And also ...

Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects but such things have no meaning to start with, unless we invest them with meaning.
For example ->
Does a person from Somalia know the meaning of this astroligical sign?

Week 4 Isotypes

Istotype stands for -> International system of typography picture education.
Otto Neurath invented the Isotype. They are used to creat narrative visual material avoiding details which do not improve the narrative character.
Otto Neurath was inspired by the Egyptian wall paintings.

Some thoughts on connectivism part 2

A Knowledge types
Knowing about -> news
Knowing to do -> drive
Knowing to be -> to feel
Knowing where -> web search

B The components of knowledge dance.
Context (makes it meaningfull) Conduit (makes it relevant, current and available) and Content ( begins the knowledge cycle).

Some thoughts on connectivism

"The categories of human thought are never fixed in any one definite form; they are made, unmade and remade incessantly; they change with places and times." Emile Durkheim

Week 3 George Siemens

We live as an integrated experience—we see, know, and function in connections. Life, like knowing, is not an isolated activity—it is a rich, interconnected part of who we are. We cannot stop the desire to know.
The desire to know is balanced with our desire to communicate, to share,to connect, and our desire to make sense, to understand—to know the meaning. In an effort to make ourselves understood, we create structures.
To hold our knowledge: hierarchies, books, libraries, encyclopedies, the internet,search engines.
We create spaces where we can dialogue about and enact knowledge: organizations, schools, universities, societies. And we create tools to diseminate knowledge: journals, discussion panels, conferences.

Week 3 Connectivism

George Siemens talks about connectivism in one of his book.

Connectivism -> combines relevant elements of many learning theories, social structures, and technology to create a powerful theoretical construct for learning in the digital age.

Two principles of connectivism I find very
interesting:

Learning and knowing are constant, on going processes.

Decision making is learning.Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

While reading I found this paragraph:

We come to know in many ways.

◉. through senses, observation, and experience.
◉. through thinking and logic
◉. through intuition (“gut feel”)
◉. through revelation (the“Aha”moment)
◉. through authority (validated, trusted)
◉. through connections (our personal learning network)

Seven broad societal trends

1.The rise of the individual

2.Increased connectedness

3.Immediacy and now

4.Breakdown and repackaging

5.Prominence of the conduit

6.Socialization

7.Blurring worlds of physical and virtual

Week 2 Blended learning & E-learning

Blended learning is a term that represents a shift in instructional strategy.

It is a mix of traditional face to face teaching and learning combined with electronic learning -> The best of both worlds.

Blends are characterized by customization, integration, purpose, flexibility, and redundancy. The alternative—one-size-fits-all—is no way to serve a global workforce.” (Allison Rossett)





E-learning is defined as the use of multimedia technologies and the internet to improve the quality of learning. An effective way of facilitating and optimising the learning processes.

Diana Laurllard is is head of the E-learning Startegy Unit at the Department for Education and Skills in the U.K







The basic premisi of her work is that technology should not be used to replicate existing classroom practice but should be exploited to do what is not possible in the classroom”

Week 2 Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

From a gaming 16 year old student.

I don’t want to study Rome in high school. Hell, I build Rome every day in my online game, Ceasar III.

"The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now. But that assumption is no longer valid. Today’s learners are different. “Www.hungry.com” said a Is it that Digital Natives can’t pay attention, or that they choose not to? Often from the Natives’ point of view their Digital Immigrant instructors make their education not worth paying attention to compared to everything else they experience – and then they blame them for not paying attention! " (Marc Prensky)

The differences between Natives and Immigrants according to Marc Prensky that lead to problems between the two "groups". There is miscommunication and misunderstandig because of their different frameworks.

Twitch Speed vs Conventional Speed
Parallel processing vs Linear processing
Random acces vs Linear thinking
Graphics first vs Text first
Connected vs Stand alone
Active vs Passive
Play vs Work
Payoff vs Patience
Fantasy vs Reality
Technology as friend vs Technology as foe

Week 1 VKB -> Mindmaps

Building knowledge is not easy. We have to fliter and structure information in order to build knowledge. Because all knowledge is information, but not all information is knowledge (Siemens) we have to be critical and ask ourself: Is this relevant? Does this fit my framework?

Mind maps help structure information. Our brain is a mind map.

Week 1 Knowledge?

Knowledge is defined variously as facts, information and skills aquired by a person through experience or education.

We also have ...

A knowledge Building theory that was created and developed by Carl Breiter
and Marlene Scaramalia. It referes to the process of creating new cognitive artifacts as a result of common goals, group discussions, and synthesis of ideas.

One of the hallmarks of knowledge building is a sense of we superseding the sense of I, a feeling that the group is operating collectively and not just as an assemblage of individuals.

So what is the difference between knowledge building and learning?

Scardamalia & Bereiter see learning is an internal, (almost) unobservable process that results in changes of beliefs, attitudes, or skills.

By contrast, knowledge building is seen as creating or modifiing public knowledge. Knowledge Building is knowledge that lives ‘in the world’ and is available to be worked on and used by other people.

A Knowledge Building Community (KBC) is a community in which the primary goal is knowledge creation rather than the construction of specific products or the completion of taks. If knowledge is not realized for a community than we do not have knowledge building.