Sam & GKD Readers, Thank you for a truly outstanding contribution to this conversation. Your comments should be required reading for my college's partners in Africa, and for the donor countries who work with them. The notions of knowledge management and networking, and a culture of learning and change within an orgasnization, are at least as important as the development of professional skills on the part of individuals.
--Bob Spear Dr. Robert J. Spear Past President, Maryland Distance Learning Association Professor, Computer Information Systems Prince George's Community College Largo, Maryland 20774 phone: 301-322-0156 fax: 707 982-7178 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On 06/14/04 Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Skilled personnel seldom work in isolation. They work as part of an > organization, institution, team or community, and they constitute > 'communities of practice' where access to knowledge and skills are as > critical as access to material resources. For professional development > to translate in a society with a better supply of professional services > they have to be employed in organizations that have embraced some degree > of knowledge management and knowledge networking. ..snip... > As much attention should be given to the role of ICTs in generating a > culture of knowledge management and knowledge networking within the > institutions where skilled personnel and professions work. As much > attention should be given to how communities of professionals can use > ICTs for knowledge networking to sustain skills and share knowledge -- > across time and space and on as a "just-in-time as needed" basis. ..snip... > Lastly, it is probably impossible for organizations, institutions and > communities to go beyond the most rudimentary of knowledge management > unless they are also willing to transform themselves -- to some degree > -- into learning organizations. Without the elements of learning > organization culture present in the settings in which professionals > work, it is difficult for them to do the right things right. The end > result is either a waste of professional talent, or the lost of that > talent to employment abroad. ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
