Reflection of "Extending Cross-Generational Knowledge Flow Research in Edge Organizations"

In this article they immediately introduced the word ontology, a formal representation of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain. The ontology they discussed was that for cross-generational knowledge flows along the edge of organizations. They collected their data from surveys and then analyzed it using social/organizational network analysis (a system of analysis that can be found using the Protégé program from Stanford University if I understand it correctly).  The study was very vague in this sense despite the fact that it included images of what the program was like and which tabs to press.

The authors included copies of the survey that they handed out to employees  in the methods section which was nice to see, to see what type of questions they asked and the way in which they were presented. Many of the questions were technicalities (how long have you worked for the agency, what year/ generation were you born to, etc) but the last page had very subjective questions such as rate your organization on how well there is a shared understanding of command intent among your team? For my study I think a majority of the data will be subjective.

According to the data workers from the Baby Boomers generation are often seen as powerful individuals in industrial networks, or close to power, with high performance rates. This information coincided with the picture of Baby boomers from the article on perception of the university shown through metaphors, that they are hard working individuals because they think hard work will progress them in life.

In one section of the article they discussed other articles they had read. While they seemed to directly relate the information the similarity in the wording to the hypothesis and data analysis makes me wonder if they had read the articles before hand and created a slight bias in their analysis.

Overall the article didn’t conclude anything that I could tell. It said that there was a clear structure the organization of knowledge transfer and, even more importantly, evidence that generations had tendency towards a particular location in this system. Even this was somewhat doubtful to gather from the data. They raised so many questions, though I suspect this is the way it will always be with research. The article had little information that pertained to my study but was a good sample of writing style. 

Response to Higher Education, Blended Learning and the Generations

The authors of this article introduce the concept that "blended learning is transforming higher education by altering the metaphors" used to describe the institution. The metaphor focused on is "knowledge is power". It's an age old expression and we've all heard it, I personally however have never thought to apply it to the way people approach teaching and learning.

As the article progressed the authors introduced four different "generations" and their different approaches to life and learning. First is generation "Matures", born before 1946, lived through WW II, the Korean conflict, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. The metaphor designated to this generation by the author was "hard work is the key to success."
The next generation is the Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, lived through the Cuban Missile crisis, the Kenedy assassination, the assassination of Martin Luther King. The metaphor given to them was "Buy it not, pay later. Everything is going to work out once I get my degree."
Generation X came next, born from 1965 to 1980. They lived through Watergate, anti-war protests, and massive layoffs. The metaphor given to them was "I have no idea what's happening after graduation." In this sense the university became another place to doddle in until you went out into the "real world".
The final generation known as the Millennial, sometimes as generation Y or generation why?, is born from the years 1981 to 1994. The author characterizes this generation as people who challenge any tradition, institution, value, or person they choose, and who are in many cases confused about the scandal and dishonesty in the government and business world. The metaphor given to this generation, applying to the university, is "I'm piecing together a program from four departments."
Because of the differences in the "nature" these generations grew up in the author proposed each generation takes a different approach to learning and to their view of the university. As a resolution to these different approaches to the university the authors analysed Blended classrooms ( a hybrid classroom that involves some online class time and some in face-to-face class time).
According to this study the more recent the generation the more the liked the blended classroom. the authors hypothesized that this was because it allowed for the generation to take more control of the classroom setting, which they have grown used to because of the internet and such instant gratifications. One potential downside is that is requires some of the skills, self control and commitment that the generation is supposedly lacking.
Over all this study helped me to have a more concrete understanding of differences that could take place between generations, and perhaps because one of the environments I would be study in (Huron County) is in my mind a lovely example of time selection (they make changes in the community structure very slowly and only after many years). I disliked some of the vagueness with which the authors referred to statistics (a few, or a bit more than). If you're going to quote a statistic quote it. This vagueness makes it sound like the authors are trying to fabricate information. I'm sure they're not it's just something to look out for. Sometimes it's not what you really said or did but how others perceived it.
 In fact this very problem is what the authors point out as a flaw with the current education structure. Students perceive the teacher and their role one way while the teacher fails to understand this miscommunication. An idea that the authors presented about this was the comparison of a dysfunction relationship of husband and wife and the teacher-student relationship, derived from misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Overall the study used a survey method (which I'm not a fan of) to collect it's data. It introduced some good theory about learning and the generations and has reminded me of the importance of the language used by my informants and during the interviews.

Final Draft for HON 399

Key Questions:

Well, after a semester of reading and drafting and thinking its come to this... for now. 

How is motivation linked to the acquisition and application of knowledge? What roles does motivation play in the resources used by an individual? Is there a particular classroom/teaching/learning environment that best promotes the motivation needed to grow self-regulated learning outside of a structured environment?

Introduction

The classroom structure that I grew up with, likely seen in many public classrooms across the US, was one of clear boundaries. The students had clusters of desks all facing each other towards the center of the room with the teachers desk off to the side (some years it would be in the front and some it would be in the back of the classroom but always separated from the students). This arrangement made it easier to have student shift their attention to the teacher, by making it physically more difficult for students to not pay attention. Off to the side of the board would be the daily schedule, which typically followed a pattern depending on the day of the week. During a particular subject, the teacher would have a habitual method of teaching, for example history was frequently taught by having us pull out our books and reading the books. Then we would talk among our table or a small group and discuss what we had read in the book, trying to answer guideline questions that the entire class had. For math we would see examples up on the overhead or chalkboard and then get assigned a certain number of problems from the book for homework (every night until I came to college I had math homework).  For english we would always have some worksheets to fill out answering questions about books that we had just read (sometimes they were short stories, sometimes novels or poetry).

The mind needs organization and has been known to create it where the organization may not have previously existed (Dunne, 2012). For example people have been looking at the stars for millions of years, and they keep seeing or finding patterns in the random assortment of dots and their movements, like the big dipper or even the sun. It’s hypothesized that this skill came in handy way back into our ancestors past by helping ancestors to make associations between events and reactions as well as seeing things that just didn’t belong (Benziger, 1996). Today we use this part of our brain to read text and see symmetry in faces (perhaps why some appear more attractive to us) (Betran, unknown). The classroom setting previously described capitalizes on the ability of the human mind to appreciate patterns, but is not the only type of environment that is need for intellectual growth in the future.

In school we are told to excel, in sports we are told to push ourselves to our limits. We are told to take chances and step outside our comfort zone, that’s where we will really learn (Vygotsky, ). If these statements are true why are we learning in classrooms with so little changing during the lesson? Classrooms structured with more inherent, organic change in the future may lead to a deeper understanding in the students. The human mind is naturally motivated to find patterns in the world around it, so perhaps for us to learn to the greatest extent of our ability we should learn about the world in a situation that aids us in seeing patterns but has such a variance as to keep us “on our toes” mentally.

The more our surroundings change the more chance that cognitive dissonance will occur. The brain will naturally work to find a way to resolve this cognitive dissonance, providing an opportunity for some, like a teacher, to step in and offer a proper schema, or way of organizing patterns of thought (Bernstein). This would hopefully be a way of teaching that is closer to that which the brain has evolved under, a more natural learning environment.

One could hardly expect school systems to revolutionize their programs quickly. It also would seem important to discover what it is in classrooms and in people that keeps them searching for these patterns, and for more knowledge. Therefore, this research asks: How is motivation linked to the acquisition and application of knowledge? What role does motivation play in the resources used by an individual? Is there a particular classroom, teaching, learning environment that best promotes the motivation need to grow self-regulated learning outside of a structured environment?

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
-Albert Einstein

Literature Review

                When observing education, many researchers will need to acknowledge any preconceived notions they have about the process due to an enculturation in western methods they have experience through their education experience (Wilson, 1977). Before you set out on the task of “observing” and “documenting” learning, first a thorough understanding of what is being researched should be understood. To define learning, consider some implications or assumptions. Firstly what is intelligence? For the purpose of this study someone is intelligent if they have a possession of knowledge and the ability to efficiently use that knowledge to reason about the world and the ability to use that reasoning adaptively in different environments, simply put the ability to overcome challenges that present themselves in their environment (Bernstein, 2010).

Some individuals learn this through education, but what is education? What does it mean to be educated? For this study the term education is making use of the cultural narrative to manipulate the environment, thus enhancing one’s ability to overcome challenges. In this sense, one would be educated if he is a farmer who understands the growth of his crops and the impact different environmental factors may have on it. Farmers need to rely on their observations of previous growing conditions in their surrounding area, they need to be able to “read” the plants and determine if they need water or food. Farmers can create ditches going through their fields or tile the field to overcome an abundance of rain. They can place sprinklers in their fields if there hasn’t been enough rain. All are different aspects of them showing an ability to overcome challenges in the environment enhanced by their use of the cultural resources around them (technology in many cases). They would be educated if they used internet access to read up on articles about increasing production or quality of crop (assuming internet access). They would also be educated if they began talking with other farmers in the surrounding area about their growing methods.

The definitions of intelligence and education call on the use

of analytical skills and a certain amount of interpersonal

 communication by the individual. Like sports would not be

 present without athletes and the physical motion unique to

each game, so to education does not exist without the learners

 and those learning. So, what is learning and who are the learners?

	Knowledge (the stimulus around us) can be viewed as the droplets falling around the cylinder. On top of the cylinder is a funnel (education), so to be educated would to be able to move the funnel around to collect the most droplets in the cylinder. Intelligence is not just how many droplets fall into the cylinder, but also the allocation of droplets. The entire system is the process of learning.

 

Some anthropologists have come to view learners “as mentally and physically active seekers of knowledge and skill” (Zimmerman, 2010). Modern western society has created school systems, internships, etc to further the knowledge certain individuals have, but is this too closed off a look at learning and education for a “truthful” interpretation of what is going on. Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, the authors of Reflections on Situated Learning Legitimate Peripheral Participation, claim that “learning is a process that takes place in a participation framework, not in an individual’s mind.” (Lave & Wengner, 1994) Imagine, your mind is completely depending on the people that you surround yourself with. It’s a rather frightening concept.

Another scary concept, and it would seem to me one not talked about enough, is that of the changing brain. The concept generally held by our society is that once you reach a certain age your brain stops changing, but new research is finding out that it doesn’t stop. It may slow down but your brain is changing in response to your environment as mode of survival (Carr, 2010). Why isn’t anyone warning us of this when we do things like watch TV or use the computer? Consider if you pull through most fast food joints and get a cup of coffee there will be a warning on the side of the cup “caution: Hot fluids”, there’s no warning on the side of your computer “mind altering device, limited time advised”. Why is that?  The more important question is: is this changing a bad thing?

                The environment we surround ourselves with, including the technology that is a part of that environment, is in some ways an attempt to homogenize the way we learn. Then the prevalence of new technology in everyday life can be used to the advantage of humanity, to further our learning in a classroom setting. Chan, a professor at the Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology of the National Central University in Taoyuan Taiwan, proposed a few “conjectures”. Firstly that a “digital classroom wave- is imminent” (essentially that technology is constantly improving an invading other aspects of our lives thus has to intersect the education sphere at some point, as shown in the image to the right). The next conjecture was that “classrooms undergo radical change over the next 20 years” (for this Chen held his own small experiment on a classroom to create an ‘individualized’ classroom setting). One conjecture was “individualization will be increasingly emphasized”, for this change in classrooms to occur Chen suggested that “teachers (would) increasingly (become) Mentors”. The final conjecture I will mention though Chen goes on state a few more, is that these new classrooms would solve the age old “all-up-to” and “mobility” problems.

The “all-up-to” problem is that the education system pushes all students to reach up to the same standard. Think of an industrial packaging line, packing all the minds of students with the same information and expecting to get a uniform result of educated people out (Robinson, 2011). Industrialization has had a worldwide impact, so it would make sense that its influence on education has been worldwide and that in itself seems rather odd. In countries such as America where individualization is said to be highly prized and encouraged, the school systems don’t yet show this value.

There is the idea among some education researchers that “institutions are responsible for the indoctrination of the young and that they aren’t doing it effectively” (Chomsky, 2012). Financially most students of today face rising debt due to the cost of university education. The debt is created in such a way that students once they have gone through this process of indoctrination are from their limited monetary resources that they are trapped into conformity (Chomsky, 2012).

During the enlightenment era learning was viewed as harnessing the quest for knowledge but during the preceding eras in education more of an emphasis had been placed on the rote memorization of facts rather than the quest to acquire them. The Enlightenment era shifted emphasis onto the methods and the ability to question doctrine, authority, and work with others, not simply on the conformity and rote memorization that most standardized education now contains (Knowledge, ). This is important now because of the developing belief in American and world culture that the process is more important than simply the end. However this does not mean the end has no importance.

In today’s world, the ability to cultivate knowledge is imperative because it means an individual can function on their own and create new ideas. This is especially important because of the access to the internet that many of today’s students have, access that creates in many cases an overload of information that without self-regulation can create feelings of despair or incorrect understanding of the topic. Students without the proper guidance may have a “cultish”, inaccurate understanding of the topic they are trying to explore on the internet (Chomsky, 2002). If all you know about a subject is a fact here and a different fact there the image that you have created from these facts will be very different from the image of someone who had background knowledge or at the very least the ability to cultivate their knowledge may have created. Imagine seeing the same picture in the dark with only a match to illuminate it vs. looking at a more or less complete picture. Ultimately does not teach students how to cultivate their knowledge to their best ability. Modern classrooms are not teaching people to be free thinkers, who can be trusted to make the right decision, because they are not teaching them enough about learning.

(If you give a man a fish he will eat for a meal, if you teach a man to fish he could eat for a lifetime.)

Methods

In Anthropology, participant observation is a frequently used technique to gather data.  Participant observation is an ethnographic technique that involves engaging in the day to day activity as fully as possible while at the same time maintaining an analytical distance for quality observation. During the act of collecting data through participant observation one must do a few things. First, establish a credible role within the group being observed. This is fundamental in the research and data later collected. The researcher should “work methodically to avoid being identified as the member of any particular group” as this might limit access to information or the quality of information obtained (Wilson, 1977). Aside from establishing your role in the community being observed, the researcher should be careful to avoid emotional attachments that will over bias the results of the study. If such a thing were to occur new research subjects should be found (Wilson, 1977).

Another technique frequently used by Anthropologists is the interview. There are three major kinds: the structured interview, in which the interviewer has a set list of questions and does not deviate from them, the semi-structured interview in which the interviewer has a list of questions but can ask them in different order and ask other questions as the interviewee begins to answer, finally the unstructured interview in which the interviewer has no questions and lets the interview direct completely where the interview goes (Bernard, 2002).

During the summer months of 2012 I will be traveling to observe the transfer of knowledge from generation to generation in the formerly polish community of Huron county and surrounding areas. As that area is where my Grandmother and Grandfather lived for most of their lives and they still have family up there I will be using some of the family connections created over the years.

I will need a recording device, a journal to keep notes in and a computer to transcribe my interviews and observations daily. First I will meet with the sources and develop a stronger network in the community, as is suggested for participant observation. I’ll ask certain older members of the community about their family history (particularly focusing on when they were learning to farm). Also I will shadow the younger generation, in the process of learning and perhaps hear more stories about the family, as well as be able to observe the methods with which they teach/ learn.

During the same summer I will build contacts at Michigan State University’s agricultural department. During the fall of 2012 school year I will analyze the data collected over the summer in the Huron community as well as take beginning observations of the classroom settings in the agricultural department. By the end of my study I will analyze the interviews and primary modes that each group used to convey their knowledge to the “students”.  The different bits of learning that are passed on and the observable difference in the students’ attitude towards learning it and then applying said knowledge should be discernible from transcribed data.

For the collection of data in Huron County I will use participant observation methods, perhaps scattered with impromptu interviews. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted for primary collection at MSU, however I would also be doing a bit of participant observation in the classroom.

The interviews they can be sorted by three main lenses. For this study I shall sort the interviews by relationships (so as to better define the “classroom” settings found in Huron County) (Jennings). Included in the research may be family maps, and property locations to better explain the possibility people have to interact with certain individuals in the community, thus “learn”.

Purpose

Eventually the analysis of both types of learning methods may prove relevant to all those in the academic community. Once the study is complete the western academic community will be able to have a better understanding of students from the Huron community’s lifestyle learning (the learning styles they group within the community around them). Students will also be aware of this, and if necessary make changes to their approach to learning to learn better in the new learning environment. It may also provide key insight into the gap between generational learning and Western education, the synthesis of which could provide a well rounded and well educated individual and support network for learning purposes.

Refrences

Benziger, Katherine, and Sue Holmes. "The Human Brain." Benziger Thinking Styles Assessment. Unknown, 1996. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://www.benziger.org/articles/brain.php>.

Bernard, H. Russell. Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2002. 213. Print.

Bernstein, Douglas A. Essentials of Psychology. 5th ed. Vol. 1. [S.l.]: Wadsworth Pub, 2010. Print.

Betran, Cecilia. "Beauty and the Brain." HubPages. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://ceciliabeltran.hubpages.com/hub/The-Power-of-Beauty>.

Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

"Chapter Three: Knowledge Through Prescribed Experience." Knowledge Through Enlightening Experience. Hermes Press. Web. 08 Apr. 2012. <http://www.hermes-press.com/Perennial_Tradition/PTch3.htm>.

"The Purpose of Education." Interview by Graham Brown-Martin. YouTube. Learning Without Frontiers, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08>.

Dunne, Tim, and Maggie Dugan. "Assumption Busting." What Does It Take to Innovate?2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2012. <http://www.instantbrainstorm.com/bust_assumptions.html>.

Jennings, Gayle R. "Interviewing: A Focus on Qualitative Techniques." Tourism Research Methods: Integrating Theory with Methods. Cambridge, Mass: CABI, 2004. 99-139. Print.

Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge [England: Cambridge UP, 1991. Print.

Wilson, Stephen. "The Use of Ethnographic Techniques in Educational Research." ERIC – World’s Largest Digital Library of Education Literature. Spring 1977. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true>.

Zimmerman, Barry J., and Manuel M. Pons. "Development of a Structured Interview for Assessing Student Use of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies." Jstor. American Educational Research Journal, 2010-2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1163093?uid=3739728&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56139756663>.

http://loldaddy.com/pics/3981 (4/21/2012)

During interview: Watch for family pressures, individual vision of the future and the present (how do they see agriculture, how has the community’s history played into the teaching and application of knowledge)

a brief history of the Huron Community may be important to include in this study (perhaps also that of the agriculture program at Michigan State University).

The importance of self-regulation in learning (my preference for learning without being presented a structure to put the ideas in) my derive from an inherent distrust of the source the information, and a desire/ free will to place the facts in the location the learner sees fit.

The difference between knowledge and skill