Questions – (not necessarily answerable)
Subtle difference between:
I know… (Know how to drive)
I have knowledge of… (Have a manual on how)
To know is to have incorporated that knowledge into yourself. Taking external knowledge and making it internal. To become unconsciously competent.
At the end of the degree people often think there is a whole lot that they don’t know. Often they find in a job that everyone else doesn’t know a whole lot either.
Tacit Knowledge vs. Explicit Knowledge
- Explicit means exposing all – out there in the world for others. Explicit knowledge is external to you.
- Tacit knowledge is internal to you.
When you are teaching someone you are taking the tacit knowledge that you have and making it explicit so that somebody else can use it. Manuals, tutorials, etc are knowledge that other people have made explicit. Anything you read is the result of someone/many taking what they know and making it explicit – communication.
Research usually incorporates explicit knowledge from many sources. If they all agree you assume it to be true and try to incorporate it into yourself. You may also try to disprove what those others have said. You will always evaluate other people’s explicit knowledge against your tacit knowledge – what you know / think you know.
Jumbo sat in a teacup… Many different thoughts – based on your own personal tacit knowledge. It’s an elephant, jet…
No different when Clare says to read an academic paper. You read the paper on the basis of your tacit knowledge. You are always trying to find tacit knowledge that makes sense. Always trying to find proof for what you think. A problem if your tacit knowledge is wrong.
Tacit knowledge is sometimes referred to as a mental model. Mental models are like frameworks that we carry around in our heads. We attempt to fit explicit knowledge into that framework. If you don’t have a mental model you have to build the framework before you can take in the explicit knowledge.
Real: Is there and you can see it
Transparent: Is there but you can’t see it
Virtual: Isn’t there but you can see it
Virtual link to Blenheim – assume they are real despite them being on the screen. Golem is on screen but we assume he is not real. The students in Blenheim may not be real – pre-recording, cgi, etc. Second life blurs the bounds – real/virtual – you assume that you are talking to a person but it could be a computer.
For a long time we have assumed reality based on being able to experience it with our senses – i.e. see it and believe it. Screens, cgi, etc have changed this to some extent. Usually if you can touch something you believe it is real.
Five dollar note has value because we all accept it. Value is not real – only the paper it is printed on is actually real. The fact that it has a value is something society has constructed. Zimbabwe – people won’t accept today that the money has the same value it had yesterday.
Ontology is partially about determining what is real and what is constructed. Ten pound note – we don’t consider it valuable – 30+ years ago it was valuable. If everyone decides something has/hasn’t got value it therefore hasn’t. Green dollar – Nelson currency.
Reality What you believe Real in a general sense / people accept it as real It exists without human documentation.
Law of gravity requires human beings. Gravity as a force exists with or without our input.
Reality defined by existing without anyone to believe in it. By this definition ghosts cannot exist. “Realist” Ontology.
At the other end of the scale someone sees a ghost and believes it – everything that I experience is real. “Nominalist” Ontology. Only interested in that it exists for me.
A large number of things we accept without having seen – we accept based on other people’s word. Viruses – could be due to “bad air” – we have never seen them.
“Interpretist” Ontology is a mixture where you accept some reality and some constructed reality. Most people sit somewhere in this range.
Something makes sense and evidence can be produced – is thus true.
Fact Validation Belief. A fact can be proved repeatedly. Fact requires evidence. A belief probably won’t be repeatable (go to cathedral on 14 Feb and you will see a ghost).
Epistemology – how do we know? To prove something you carry out experiments, measurements and observation. You create a process that can be repeated.
