Thoughts on "Working Out Loud"

Recently I completed an online work, "Personal Knowledge Mastery" with Mr. Harold Jarche.  As I go back through the material and activities, I find myself reflecting on "working out loud" (WOL) - which to me, is one of the major concepts I pulled from this course.

The question I am reflecting on is "why should one work out loud."  Since WOL typical is done in a public way, my first thought was that we narrate our work so that others know what we are doing.  The second reason that comes to mind is to put information out there for others to use.

After re-reading Mr. Jarche's notes on the topic and trying to actively converse and create artifacts about one's activities, WOL provides a means to generate understanding for ourselves.  While talking with others or creating some artifact about an idea to share with others, the process forces one to work through the information to make it's understood.

My current answer to the question of why one should work out loud is to make sense and generate a better understanding of the work we are doing.  What's created by the activity we choose to work out loud is the by-product of our understanding.  The act of working out information in public or at least in a medium outside of our own minds provides us the opportunity to think creatively and put together different ideas from seemingly unrelated experiences.

I don't believe that one needs to broadcast every activity if one does not want to, but I do think if it's not something you do to try it.  Often additional clarity comes out during the process, this often occurs for me while having conversations.  I sometimes find that the same conversation with different people provides opportunities for iteration and additional chances to be inspired.  So go ahead and  talk about what you are thinking and doing.  You'll find that you understand more.

Some notes on the 70:20:10 organizational learning framework

https://www.702010forum.com/about-702010-framework

My take aways:

• It acknowledges that much of our learning comes from actually doing work.  So much problem solving that needs to occur to do my tasks that I feel like I am always learning and challenging what I know. 
• This frame work acknowledges that we need to set aside time for learning.  The opportunity to explore new things that might be useful for future work, but we might just not know it yet while exploring it.
• Promotes that most of our learning is informal.
• Promotes learning from each other.

Learn, unlearn, and relearn

http://www.pelerei.com/blog/2014/01/24/pulling-the-chocks-out/

My take aways:

• Learn, unlearn, and relearn: it’s about iteration.
• Unlearning and relearning are not about forgetting what you have already learned about something.  Instead they give you space to  challenge your assumptions about what we know and build off of that knowledge in light of new evidence that proves those assumptions as no longer valid.  In the end, I believe you will be even more knowledgable about the topic/issue/problem.
• This promotes a collaborative, participatory learning environment where ideas are explored and what you know from the past can be revalidated or unlearned by building and creating with others.

PKM, cooperation, collaboration, and communities of practice...

Currently I am taking the Personal Knowledge Mastery 40-day workshop with Harold Jarche. There was some discussion on cooperation, collaboration, and communities of practice.  Thinking of my own work in environment I think I work in a collaborative environment.  While it is sometimes necessary to each take a part of project and work cooperatively, I would say that if there is more than one person on a project we each bring our skills and perspectives to the table to make something great.  I find this to be an agreeable way to work.

Collaborative work does have a tendency to go slower.  It takes time to come to agreement of what to do and how to go about.  While at times this discussion and pace can be frustrating, it does force us to really look at a problem and usually make well thought out discussions.  The team I work with is small and have worked together for years and I find that as an advantage for us to work collaboratively.  We've had to explore many different ways of talking to one another and have employed many different systems to facilitate our discussions, but we got there.

As for participating in a community of practice, I would say that my team operates as a small one.  We each bring things we encounter and learn back to the group and incorporate what we can.  I have yet to take part in anything external, but I am working on changing that.  In part, that is why I am taking the PKM workshop.  I am looking forward to making more outward facing habits. I have pulled information for quite some time and now I am looking at pushing some of it back out there.

Why I need an idea blog

From: http://thediagram.com/5_4/whatwouldhappen.html

I need a space that keeps track of my ideas. I like the thought of Blogger being that space for now. Why do I want this?

•  I think of things...I forget things;


•  I am not that good with paper notes; and


•  I am looking for a way for this to be timeline of ideas.

I find that I need to be reminded of things I've thought about.  A blogging space with a theme that displays entries in a visual Pinterest or in a timeline fashion provides a way to create wall for me to grok and wander.  Maybe it will be just something I look at.

While I am creating separate blogs for my work related items and sound art, this idea-blogging space needs to be for any ideas.  The use of labels will help me sort it out.

The act of writing ideas out also provides the opportunity to work with them a bit.  This turns them more from ephemeral thoughts to something a bit more solid and explainable.  In writing, I first have to explain it to myself.  After that I am more likely to be able to explain the idea better to someone else.

The idea blog will be a separate place from this blog.  It will be private.  It will be just for me - but, I it's a place that might spur posts for this blog - in fact - it already has.

From the end to a beginning

Recently I completed my Masters degree in Educational Media & Technology. It was a wonderful program that took place mostly online. The online environment allowed me to work full time and continue to raise a family with little interruption to either - just interruption to my allotment of sleep. School is done and my sleep schedule has improved, so onward I must go.

Though I am no stranger to creating content for the web, I have not been one to take part in it socially. I wish I could have done this during my program, but I had enough to accomplish then. My plan is to journal my thoughts, finds, and learnings on the topics of organizations & learning in a connected world. Lets see how it goes.