Conversation for Comprehension

Suddenly people are talking about the idea of plain conversation and a way to learn and share knowledge. We argue it is the most natural thing to do. What ever we are calling it talking, discussion, or dialogue in essence it is conversation between individuals to enable comprehension to certain topic. Today we discussed on the different perspectives of conversation. We discussed on the need to have a formal structure for useful conversation as planned learning solution to happen as well as an informal conversation for ideas and new knowledge to be created. Quality conversation could be achieved within a formal structure by embedding the practices of enabling good conversation to happen. As an example in a meeting structure participants should know their role to allow and encourage conversation to happen. Formal or informal to me the realization of what conversation really is, is very important.

Conversation

My past experiences doing a lot of public presentation thought me one great lesson about comprehension and learning. During those periods I did, on average, around three (3) presentations a week. The topic varied between MSC, eLearning and KM. At one time I was also teaching KM in a graduate program. The greatest realization was the more I talked to people about a subject the better I could comprehend the subject matters. Last week I was alerted to a blog by Nancy Dixon on conversation. He cited a research by researchers at University of Michigan on conversation. I copied below what she cited.

“In these meetings individuals exchange their data, conclusions, reasoning and questions with others. Although the cognitive benefits to the receiver of such an exchange are apparent, there is evidence that it is the speaker who makes the greatest cognitive gains from the exchange. Individuals organize information differently if they are going to present it to others than if they are trying to understand it solely for their own use. It is in the act of speaking that people tend to organize cognitively what they know.”

This is what I have been experiencing through those years of teaching and presenting. Furthermore, according to Nancy Dixon this finding also implies that whenever one listened to somebody talking or presenting it would be helpful for the listeners’ cognition if they talk about it. Which actually put more conviction to the idea of having unconference format for conferences. Instead of having one way presentation done by conference speakers we open up opportunity for participants to have a dialogue, discussion or just allow time for them to converse about what had just been presented. Dixon also blog about this phenomenon and urge speakers instead of at the end of their presentation ask the audience if they have any question to turn to each other and discussed for a while what he or she had just presented.

On The Train, Feb 23, 2009

KTMB messed up my Monday morning by being incompetence yet again. This time another ‘technical’ problem somewhere before Labu. I presumed a continuation of what had happened last Friday. What supposed to be a 0651 train became 0711 train and of course the train arrived at Bangi solid packed. I squeezed myself in and continued reading Outliers. Naturally it got worse at UKM station but I stood my ground by not moving an inch from where I stood and I was rewarded at Kajang station when the man seating in front of me disembarked. Although I got a seat I was still annoyed with KTMB. Not wanting to stress myself unnecessarily and not trusting KTMB anymore I went home just after maghrib and it was a bliss going home.

I was busy typing and aware of an Indian guy that came on board and sat next to me at Mid Valley. Ever since he was onboard he kept on looking over at my laptop and what I was typing. I was a bit uneasy but luckily I was typing about Conversation rather than this one. Anyway after a while he asked me about my laptop and we had small talk. I waited until the very end to start this piece. But luck has it he disembarked at Bangi just like me he he he. Thinking back I would have loved if we had a longer conversation. Some people might think or assume that it would impossible to have intelligent conversation with certain types of people. But that was a wrong assumption and attitude. In fact my behaviour on the train could be conceived as someone who’s looking for an opportunity to start a conversation or just plain ‘please I am working do not disturb’. Now thinking about it either way I am ok he he he.

On The Train, Feb 5, 2009 (Connection, Conversation)

I was sitting at the office, while waiting for my personal and office laptops to boot up, and staring outside overlooking the railway track when I realized I have one too many gadgets at my disposal. Thinking about it I asked myself if I really need them. While trying to find a clear understanding and answer to the situation the answer was right in front of me.

Virtually I am connected almost 24/7 and at one time or another one of my gadgets would ensure my connectivity. Of course on top of that I am present virtually as well. My virtual presence is via several channels and identity. I am in several social networking communities – Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter, hi5 and maybe two or three more that I could not remember. I am an owner, moderator and member of 15 mailinglists within Yahhogroups and Google Groups. On top of these I use Google Reader to aggregate all the blogs and sites that has RSS that I subscribed to. At least I’ll be looking at around 100 postings a day. I blog on six personal blogs and have 4 very active email accounts managing on average 500 – 600 emails a day. Being exposed is one thing being amazed at how I have coped so far is amazing. Let see – in the office I deal with my office emails and sometimes use the social networking tools for work. I also, most of the time, read my feeds using Google Reader at the office. I mostly blog on the train going home and read my other emails and alerts at home at night. Although I seems to be too expose virtually I am not worried. One thing good about virtual life is that somehow the degree of trust is very high. Without this element I am very sure nothing on the net would last long. It you betray this trust the whole community would reject you and your deed would travel across the Net making you an outcast.

The busy virtual life that I live also open me, even more compare to others, to information overload. Yesterday I was introduced to the concept of agnotology. According to it the more we get information the less knowledge we gain if we do not filter and evaluate the information that we receive. This is due to misinformation that somebody or organization purposely published to mislead people to see from their point of view or make us confuse.

I was welcomed at the station with an announcement that the incoming train was a shuttle to Kajang. It was around 1636 the time for the Seremban train to arrive just like the one I took yesterday. So my first instinct just likes before to take that train but when the train actually arrived I decided not to as I was sure the next Seremban train won’t be too far behind. I was right. It was more or less the same number of commuters on the train as yesterday. But looking around I was surprised to find out they are a different set of commuters. I did not see many familiar faces as yesterday.