Connectivism in Business

What Knowledge Tears Apart, Networks Make Whole

By Karen Stephenson 

     This was a second article that caught my eye regarding connectivism and cited by George Siemens (2004). Karen speaks about how each of us have a tacit knowledge that we each develop through different experiences in our lives. That each company has a "knowledge economy" is something many companies don't take into consideration. Yet for this knowledge to be shared there needs to be an element of trust for people to share (network) with each other. Karen was a proponent of mentoring and apprenticeship to facilitate that trust within a company. It is with that trust that you can build a network of knowledge of connected common knowledge. But it is a struggle for managers to break down the hierarchies that block that trust, especially when in a global company that doesn't meet face to face. It is this network that Karen speaks of to make a company strong and learn from  each other.

    What does this have to do with learning theory you might ask? It just indicates to me that relationship is necessary for the sharing of knowledge. 

References:

Siemens, George (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. Retrieved from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm

Stephenson, Karen. What Knowledge Tears Apart, Networks Make Whole. Internal     Communication Focus. No. 36 Retrieved from http://www.netform.com/html/icf.pdf March 19, 2015