The purpose of the presentation is to point out the need to go beyond knowledge acquisition to something broader and deeper. Wisdom is a somewhat ambiguous concept. We know it when we see it, but defining it isn't easy. The Pennsylvania Dutch saying is apropos here: We get too soon old and too late smart. Do we really have to wait until we get old before we get wise?

We live in a unique time, and I believe we are not yet taking full advantage of the information access and the communication tools we have close at hand. Is there a way to more systematically use, organize and extend the information we need and to grapple with it in ways that make us wise?

I will demonstrate ways to use readily available tools that will move us in that direction. Self-directed knowledge management can become a part of our regular routine and it can be accomplished by the smart use of blogs, wikis, concept maps and other web-based applications. We can model these things for our own younger learners and help them move beyond superficial understanding as well.

Outline

0:00 The complexity of life today, and the greater complexity today's children will face. Symptoms of shallowness. Kids today are fast, but not deep. Adults are overloaded and rarely know what they think about things. Impacts on our culture.
0:10 What is wisdom? How is it different from knowledge or intelligence?
0:15 The tools at our disposal: web searching, concept mapping, wikis for knowledge construction and blogs for reflection
0:25 Putting it all together. Self-directed, lifelong growth. A technique (not yet named) for actively finding, organizing, questioning, valuing, deconstructing and synthesizing information, retaining and extending it, extracting patterns in it and applying them to other information.
0:40 Scaling it down for children and integrating wisdom into technology-based school activities.
0:50 Q&A

Supporting Research

The session is based on research conducted by Robert Sternberg at Yale, and David McClelland's study of the impact of a Harvard Liberal Arts education. It will also draw from studies of metacognition and reflection.

Presenter Background

I have presented at NECC at least a dozen times since the mid-80s, and have spoken at conferences and delivered workshops in fifteen countries. I'm most often asked to present about WebQuests, and look forward to an opportunity to speak about something different. This topic is something I've been thinking about on and off for three years and this presentation will mark the first time that I'm presenting the results.

Prerequisites

Have a brain, and feel some dissatisfaction with its ability to deal with the complexity of life today.

Referenced Web Links

Not yet.