Collier,
Geoff., Lefrere, Paul., Mason, Jon., Norris, Donald M.,Robson, Robby.(2003).
“Share and Share Alike: The E-Knowledge
Transformation Comes to Campus”.Educaus, September/October 2003.
Retrieved September 15, 2003 from http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm.htm.
Article
Summary:
The theme of this article was “Share
and Share Alike.” It pointed out
“Hundreds of web sites will be developed for use by sociology classes and no
questions and no web sties will be shared.”
On the other end of the spectrum “240 Associated Press bureaus will
produce over 25,000 pages of new copy. And all of it will be shared.”
The article defined information as
“Data that is organized and placed in context.
Whereas knowledge is “Information connected or organized by rules….
Sharing data is easy, sharing context and rules is much harder.” Certain context expertise in an area
requires much time and sharing is not rewarded in higher education. There is a massive duplication of effort in
education. Knowledge could be put in
“Knowledge silos where it could be
“Digitized, tagged, and arrayed in digital marketplace” It could be
“Shared, combined and used by … learners.”
Knowledge can be transformed which
will shift knowledge from “Canned” to “Just-in-time” knowledge. There are three major drivers of change to
make this happen: 1. The capacity of
the global information must expand. 2. Institutions must develop technology
infrastructures. 3. We need to continue
to reinvent best practices.
The article gave examples of
corporations committed to e learning as EDUCAUSE and Open Knowledge
Initiative. In order to bring knowledge
to campus, action needs to occur in two areas:
digital asset management and standards.
With sharing of information questions arise as digital rights, extended
lifecycles, and copyright. The article
addressed questions about the Digital Rights Movement (DRM) with very technical
jargon. “DRM technology is based on two
parts: expressing rights and enforcing
rights.” Institutions are transforming
from “Knowledge silos to communities of knowledge sharing.”
Comments:
The article captured my interest at
first with some facts stating how education does not do much sharing. This seems like such a waste of much time by
everyone doing the same thing for themselves – rather than sharing. Imagine what we could do if we shared more
and developed model lessons that tied into county curriculums and state
curriculums that followed national standards.
It would be a much more efficient use of time compared to what we do
now.
The article started getting very
technical half way through with terms and theories like the DRM – Digital
Rights Movement. It brought up some
interesting questions as copyright and extension rights. It could have suggested ways to change the
current system to encourage sharing and suggest types of incentives that would
cause people in education to
share.