PKM:  Knowledge

Working definitions of data, information and knowledge are sometimes problematic.

 In Thomas Davenport's book, Working Knowledge, he defines each in the following ways:

Data:  a set of discrete, objective facts about events.  The raw material for information.

Information:  a message, which has a sender and receiver, usually in the form of a document or an audible or visible communication.  It must inform.  It is data that makes a difference.  Hence, it is the receiver, not the sender, who determines whether the message he gets is information or not, depending on if it truly informs somehow. Unlike data, information has meaning, relevance, purpose.  Not only does it shape the receiver, it has a shape: it is organized to some purpose. Data becomes information when its creator adds meaning.  We transform data into information by adding value in various ways.

Knowledge:   

 Dr. Randy Brooks:
I usually think of knowledge as two main types, techne and philosophy.

Techne is the knowledge of how—how to do something effectively, efficiently, with skill and desired results. All arts—mechanical, fine, musical, rhetorical, social—require knowledge of tools and how to use them to achieve desired results.

Philosophy is the knowledge of why—significance of actions, importance of choices, values, truth, beliefs, theories. We seek to understand truth and we seek to make the best decisions of better and worse based on probabilities.

If you put these two together, knowledge is a effective blending of theory and practice—the ability to act and to understand the significance of your actions.

PKM helps us to develop techne (technical skills) in the context of personal and disciplinary significance (constructs of value systems and beliefs).




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