Personal Knowledge Networks Research Articles

A personal social knowledge network (PSKN) facilitates learners’ wayfinding and its differences in behavior patterns between high and low performers in connectivist learning

Wayfinding, which is a part of learning in connectivist learning, involves consolidating a wide variety of resources and information and building connections among them. However, learners often encounter difficulties in wayfinding, and are lost without technological support in connectivist learning. This study examined the wayfinding processes occurring within a network of learners in a personal social knowledge network (PSKN), explored differences in behavior patterns between high and low performers in PSKN. The results reveal the diversity and complexity of wayfinding in a PSKN, including finding and connecting nodes, forming cognitive maps, finding and filtering information, and creating new nodes. Moreover, the characteristics of wayfinding in the PSKN differed across participants, and high- and low-performing participants demonstrated different and unique wayfinding behavioral patterns, which provided a basis for comprehensive analyses of wayfinding. These findings can be used to provide instructional support and network navigation in connectivist learning for learners at various performance levels. The proposed PSKN shows promise in facilitate wayfinding including finding nodes and connecting nodes, as well as relations between knowledge nodes and the course base demonstrated by PSKN, providing great convenience for learners to form cognitive maps based on the node sequence. Compared with current studies, this research focuses on diversified interaction data and resource behavior rather than teaching videos and quizzes or exercises as the main resources and considering that course and technological factors influence the ways in which learners access resources in connectivist learning.

BSL Case Study

This Master of Criminology subject has a mix of postgraduate students with a wide range of learning strategies, skillsets, and experiences. Half the students were physically located on campus and the other half were online in a Blended Synchronous Learning (BSL) environment. Although the subject suffered technology failure across the first seven weeks of the 12-week semester, and subsequent changes to the structured learning experiences, the students kept turning up for class. The student cohort worked out ways to engage even when the technology prevented them from engaging in the intended way. In response to the technology fail, the subject coordinator, (me) reverted to a more didactic approach, reducing risk associated with learning, proportional to the risk associated with the technology. Unfortunately, the most important element of the subject design, was also the first technological component to be dropped. The lessons learned included thinking carefully about the vulnerability of the pedagogy in the BSL subject; always have fall back options for interactivity and protect the most essential features of the pedagogy. The deeper lesson however, was that the technology fail allowed for a new set of relationships to emerge in the learning environment. Within the knowledge ecology of the space the cohort responded and adapted through their personal knowledge networks in ways not previously envisioned. The student experience is important – by keeping a focus on the experience (rather than the content), the students will remember it and have a better learning experience.

Applying The Personal Knowledge Management In Network Quality And Value Creation Toward Sustainable Competitive Advantage (Sebuah Konseptual Model Pada Industri Garmen Di Salatiga)

Abstract Organizations must manage information and knowledge effectively and allow knowledge-based value creation. This study examines the role of personal knowledge management in increasing Value creation to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This research is explanatory research using quantitative descriptive-analytical methods. Respondents are managers of 30 garment companies in Salatiga, the sampling method used is a census and scoring using a Likert scale of 1 to 5, and the data is processed using SEM AMOS software. The results showed that personal knowledge management had a positive and significant effect on value creation. Personal knowledge management has a positive and significant effect on sustainable competitive advantage. Value creation was found to positively and significantly affect sustainable competitive advantage. Network quality strengthens the influence of personal knowledge management and network quality on sustainable competitive advantage. Further research is suggested to examine the influence of other factors that influence value condition to knowledge management by considering the quality factor of HR Industry players and product marketers who can competitiveness/ innovativeness in achieving sustainable competitive advantage Keyword: Sustainable competitive advantage, personal knowledge management, value creation, network quality

Research on the Construction of College English Mixed Teaching Model Based on Modern Educational Technology and Computer Technology

Without computer Internet technology, there would be no modern educational technology. Thanks to the Internet and server terminals, education extends beyond the classroom. People use computers, tablets and even smart phones to search materials and communicate with teachers and students outside class. With the gradual popularization of Web2.0 technology, students can take the initiative to learn and build personal knowledge network. With research showing that 80 percent of knowledge is acquired outside the classroom, technology’s contribution to education goes well beyond classroom projections and megaphones. Therefore, the integration of such technology in college education will be a major direction of future teaching. Based on this, this paper discusses the construction of college English mixed teaching mode based on modern educational technology and computer technology.

An investigation into the formation of learning groups on social media and their growth

ABSTRACT This study aims to identify the formulation differences of groups in two online activities in a university course with different strategies by using social network analysis. Specifically, the connections within the members and identification of brokers were analyzed. Whilst the group enhancing a “community of practice” in WeChat by assigned posting showed larger evolution on the social graph, it lacked active involvement of students’ friends and structural holes and their diameter were shown to increase towards the end. Another group enhancing a “personal knowledge network” in Twitter by their free posting showed no ties with any social actors, implying a cold-start and problems of sparsity in the social communication. From the discussion about brokers, we concluded similar future needs to develop their social skills to promote itinerant and liaison brokers to evolve learning groups socially.

Social Capital and Knowledge Networks of Software Developers

Software development is a problem-solving activity, where ideas are combined in complex ways to create a software product that embodies new knowledge. In this endeavor, software developers constantly look for actionable knowledge to help solve the problem at hand. While knowledge management efforts in the software development domain traditionally involved technical initiatives such as knowledge repositories, experience factories, and lessons-to-learn databases, there is a growing appreciation in the software community of the role of developers' personal knowledge networks in software development. However, research is scarce on the nature of these networks, the knowledge resources accessed from these networks, and the differences, if any, between developers of different experience levels. This research seeks to fill this void. Based on a case study in a software development organization, this research explores the nature of knowledge networks of developers from a social capital perspective. Specifically, it examines the structural and relational dimensions of developers' knowledge networks, identifies the specific actionable knowledge resources accessed from these networks, and explores how entry-level and more experienced developers differ along these dimensions. The findings from the qualitative analysis, backed by limited quantitative analysis of the case study data underpin the discussion, implications for practice and future research directions.

The Geography of Knowledge Sourcing, Personal Networks, and Innovation Effects: Evidence from the Biomedical Firms in Guangzhou, China

Personal networks, in contrast to organizational relations, have recently increased their significance to firms by allowing them to acquire external knowledge and strengthen their innovation capacity. Hot debates on the geography and innovation effects of personal networks persist, but these discussions are mainly derived from research works on western economies. Since personal interactions are context-sensitive, this paper examines the geography and the innovation effects of personal networks on biomedical firms in Guangzhou, which has a unique political and socioeconomic context owing to the transitional nature of China. This case study indicates that the geographic nature of personal knowledge networks is largely locally-based, and the primary driver of such networks is experience-based practices, such as repeated face-to-face contacts, labor mobility, and shared life experience. Personal knowledge networks contribute to both problem-solving and radical innovation for firms as a result of the guanxi-based relations in China that transform personal networks into channels for mobilizing innovation-related resources. Moreover, by dividing personal networks into bonding, bridging, and linking networks, this paper also de-homogenizes personal networks and delineates specific and differentiated innovation effects of manifold social relationships. Based on the research findings, policy implications aiming at laying the social ground of innovation are addressed.

Exploring a Personal Social Knowledge Network (PSKN) to aid the observation of connectivist interaction for high‐ and low‐performing learners in connectivist massive open online courses

AbstractThis study adds a new perspective to the observations about connectivist interaction behavior in cMOOCs by extending the notion of network building from the perspective of individuals. We explore the possibility of building a learning network named Personal Social Knowledge Network (PSKN) to support in the monitoring of learning performance and interaction in cMOOCs. The sample in this study included 284 preservice teachers and their learning lasted approximately 12 weeks. Data were primarily gathered by PSKN graphs. The results revealed a correlation between connectivist interaction measured by the PSKN (including density structure) and learning performance. The results also revealed differences in connectivist interaction behavior and patterns, indicated by PSKN (densities and structures), for high‐ and low‐performing learners in cMOOCs. The high‐performing learners show deeper knowledge interaction and social communication in addition to simple knowledge sharing and social communication. Additionally, as time passed and the PSKN of high‐performing learners extended further, their interaction behavior became more complex and their role had gradually changed from “learning” to “teaching” as well as from knowledge acceptance to knowledge creation in cMOOCs.

A collaboration centric approach for building the semantic knowledge network for knowledge advantage machine

Knowledge advantage machine (KaM) is an advanced system for knowledge exploitation. In this paper, we propose a Collaboration Centric Behavior Model, which helps one or more knowledge-workers to discover and link useful knowledge objects dubbed JANs into a semantic knowledge network. The JAN is constructed as a semantic web service to semantically present three categories of service behavior: expected service behavior that presents what requestor expects it to serve; actual service behavior that presents how it offers its service; and quality evaluation that presents whether its service behavior is consistent with requestor’s expectation by checking conformance. On the basis of the KaM architecture, we build a process model to implement to discovery a JAN and link different JANs as a personal knowledge network or a group knowledge network. This is illustrated using an academic research scenario. Experimental results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

Five years in Sports Sciences

Five years in Sports Sciences

Interdisciplinarity in ferment: The role of knowledge networks and department affiliation

This paper examines the relation between department affiliation and interdisciplinarity in terms of knowledge creation. While the claims made for the benefits or limitations of interdisciplinarity are diverse, they have been largely related to modes of academic governance or to the bare nature of disciplines. Less is known on the precise role of social networks in fostering or hindering interdisciplinarity within intraorganizational contexts. Thus, to explore the influence of network structure, tie strength and nodal properties in interdisciplinarity within higher education institutions, we study the structure and dynamics of academic's personal knowledge networks. It is used a mixed methods approach combining the delineation of personal networks with the ties' content analysis regarding a conceptual model specifically developed for this study. Personal network data were collected and semi-structured interviews were held with 32 academic staff members of the academic and research system in Catalonia, Spain. Findings suggest that belonging to a department decreases interdisciplinarity and that institutional constraints are more significant than the strength of the ties. Researcher's network centrality and strength of ties are positively related to interdisciplinarity. Structural holes control for certain organizational rewards and individual attributes but are not directly linked to interdisciplinarity.

Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools by Annette Lareau and Kimberly Goyette

Book Reviews 218 and Transformative Leadership for Sustainable Futures into a new book that invites educational practitioners and theorists to speculate on—and craft visions for—the future of environmental and sustainability education. This will be another volume in the Wageningen Academic Publishers series on the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, with support from the Dutch National Program for Education for Sustainable Development. In this research project, we wish to explore what educational methods and practices might exist on the horizon, waiting for discovery and implementation. How might the collective project of imagining alternative futures help us rethink environmental and sustainability education institutionally, intellectually, and pedagogically? How might we use emerging modes of critical speculation as a means to map and (re)design the future of environmental and sustainability education today? We seek to explore how environmental educators and education policy makers can engage in imaginative mapping concerning large scale, global processes, as well as create useful, situated knowledge for dissemination within their respective socio-ecological contexts. Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools Annette Lareau and Kimberly Goyette, editors (2014). New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 328 pages. $49.95 (paperback); ISBN 978=0=87154-496-4. This edited book brings together studies of residential segregation and school choice, making the important point that processes in both areas combine to generate the inequalities that are increasingly visible among public schools in the United States. Part I deals mainly with residential patterns, beginning with a careful overview of the racial segregation literature by Maria Krysan, Kyle Crowder, and Michael Bader. Paul Jargowsky contributes an analysis of how race and class combine to produce segregated outcomes, each one operating partly independently of the other. Anna Rhodes and Stefanie DeLuca explore residential choices for disadvantaged households. Their qualitative interviews in Mobile, Alabama, provide new evidence of how constrained the choice set is for these parents. Despite their recognition of the importance of good schools and their desire to provide greater opportunities for their children, their actual housing searches are limited by instability and frequent moves. When there are options for attending a non-local school, factors other than school quality—such as how to coordinate children’s schooling with parents’ work schedules, or where there is a relative who can assist with before or after school care—are primary. Annette Lareau’s chapter in Part II provides more information about how schools are taken into account as parents decide on residential locations. Her research team interviewed parents in three suburban school districts, including both white and black households and people with a variety of class positions. She found that Book Reviews 219 choices were largely based on personal knowledge (keeping many working class families close to the neighborhoods where they had lived before) and social networks (which were more wide-ranging and informative for middle-class families). Other chapters give more emphasis as to how schools are chosen. Salvatore Saporito and Caroline Hanley probe the patterns of private school attendance, focusing on the well-known finding that whites are more likely to select a private school if they live in a more racially mixed setting. This relationship was relatively weak in 1970, when many districts operated separate schools for white and black students, but emerged clearly by 1980 and it has remained strong in subsequent decades. Shelley McDonough Kimelberg’s chapter in Part II reports on the other side of the coin: decisions of middle-class parents in Boston to remain in public schools and forego the option of moving to the suburbs. She describes how parents evaluated the risks of attending a city school, the upside potential of doing well and gaining admission to the coveted Boston Latin School, and their sense of the options if things turned out badly. Another chapter by Mary Patillo, Loree Delale-O-Connor, and Felicia Butts uses personal interviews to look into how less advantaged families approached schooling decisions. In Chicago, where charter schools are a viable alternative to public schools, they found that many parents chose the neighborhood public school by default, unaware of their options. The majority of charter school parents that they interviewed, in contrast, had actively used information sources, learned the procedures, and even...

Research on Personal Knowledge Network based on Ontology

Research on Personal Knowledge Network based on Ontology

Knowledge management: a personal knowledge network perspective

PurposeThis article aims to introduce the personal knowledge network (PKN) model as an alternative model to knowledge management (KM) and to discuss whether personal knowledge management (PKM) is better adapted to the demands of the new knowledge environments. The PKN model views knowledge as a personal network and represents a knowledge ecological approach to KM.Design/methodology/approachKM and PKM have attracted attention over the past two decades and are considered as important means to increase organizational and individual performance. In this article, the author reviews previous models of KM and PKM and explores their failure to address the problem of knowledge worker performance and to cope with the constant change and critical challenges of the new knowledge era. The author further highlights the crucial need for new KM models that have the potential to overcome the shortcomings of previous models. In light of these shortcomings, the article introduces and discusses the PKN model as an alternative model to KM and PKM that is better adapted to the demands of the new knowledge environments.FindingsUnlike traditional KM/PKM models which view knowledge as a thing or process, the PKN model views knowledge as a personal network and represents a knowledge ecological approach to KM.Originality/valueThe article focuses on personal knowledge and the links to networks and knowledge ecologies in an innovative way for consideration within KM.

Knowledge-sourcing of R&D workers in different job positions: Contextualising external personal knowledge networks

This paper systematically examines the role of external personal knowledge networks vis-à-vis alternative sources of work-related knowledge. Specific hypotheses on whether the importance of external personal networks varies for job positions, knowledge functions and sources of competitiveness are examined. The study is based on a survey and interviews with 105 R&D workers in 46 information technology (IT) firms in the Greater Cambridge Region (UK).The results show that alternative sources of knowledge are considerably more important than external personal networks. Specifically, the results confirm the hypothesis that the lower the job position, the less important are external personal networks. The most frequent type of knowledge that is uniquely available through personal networks concerns business knowledge of senior managers rather than technological knowledge. Furthermore, the analysis supports the view that external personal networks are most important for exploratory keeping up-to-date than for problem solving. Finally, the paper shows that external personal networks are more important for firms whose competitiveness is primarily driven by being cutting-edge in technology.Overall, the results suggest that academic theorising and R&D management/policy on external personal networks needs to be more context-sensitive and would benefit from differentiating between job positions, knowledge functions and types of firm competitiveness.

On the Sociospatial Dynamics of Personal Knowledge Networks: Formation, Maintenance, and Knowledge Interactions

Whilst personal knowledge networks between organisations have been argued to be important for regional economic development, their functioning and, within this context, the exact role of spatial proximity has been empirically underexplored. This paper addresses these issues by, first, examining the dynamic mechanisms of the formation, maintenance, and knowledge interaction of important knowledge relationships of R&D workers in the Cambridge information technology cluster in the UK. It is demonstrated that personal relations tended to transform from an initially professional context into privately governed relationships. Furthermore, it is argued that a sophisticated understanding of the role of spatial proximity requires an investigation of the spatiality of several stages of the network mechanisms. The results show that permanent spatial proximity and face-to-face interaction are more important for the formation of relationships than for the maintenance stage and, in particular, for work-related knowledge interactions. Finally, it is argued that, in contrast to the emphasis in much of the literature on communities of practice and epistemic communities, the knowledge relationships do not tend to be anchored in collective groups. Instead, the paper highlights the usefulness of the concept of individualised networks.

Networking practices and social gathering in Coworking Spaces – Working between Digitalization and Re-Localization

The following paper is concerned with the idea of “Coworking Spaces”. This is a new concept of very flexible leasing of desks in an office space which has spread widely in the last few years. The idea of Coworking is based on a ‘culture of sharing’: not only office space is shared, but also knowledge and ideas with other people from heterogeneous backgrounds and professions. The article focusses on self-employed people who are the main users of Coworking and who work in very dynamic labour markets, especially in digital-based segments of the creative industries. With reference to the theory of structuration (Giddens 1988) and concepts of personal knowledge networks (Grabher/Ibert 2006, Wittel 2001), Coworking Spaces are described as “market places” for networking practices and as a new form of contextualization of working situations. The results presented in this paper are based on a participatory observation and qualitative interviews.

Semantic and structural analysis of web-based learning resources

Semantic and structural analysis of web-based learning resources

Teaching and Learning Guide: Rethinking Economic Geographies of Knowledge

Teaching and Learning Guide: Rethinking Economic Geographies of Knowledge

Bad company? The ambiguity of personal knowledge networks

Recent debates on learning have shifted the analytical focus from formal organizational arrangements to informal personal ties. Personal knowledge networks, though, mostly are perceived as homogenous, cohesive, and local personal ties. Moreover, a functionalist tone seems to prevail in accounts in which personal knowledge networks are seen to compensate the shortcomings of the formal organization. This paper sets outtoexpandthedominantconstrualofnetworks,whichislargelymoldedby the notion of embeddedness. Against the background of in-depth empirical analysis of the project ecologies of the Hamburg advertising and the Munich software business, the paper will first venture into the neglected sphere of thin, ephemeral, and global personal knowledge networks by differentiating between connectivity, sociality, and communality networks. Second, the paper not only elucidates the supportive functions of these ties but also explores the tensions between personal interests, project goals, and the firm’s aims that are induced by these personal knowledge networks.