Higher Education and Local Economic Development

It is an intellectual necessity for universities to be open to participation by scholars and students all over the world; despite this, their sources of funding are almost entirely domestic and primarily governmental. The downloading of universities from national to regional government means that funding is increasingly even regional or local. Policy makers, firms and students, who are increasingly funding universities, are not interested in the development of academic knowledge: they demand teaching, research and services that are useful for local economic development and employability. As a consequence there is a divergence between the aspirations of universities and their stakeholders' needs. Establishing beneficial relations between universities and their stakeholders is vital for the survival of European districts and clusters of SMEs. The research highlights how critical the dilemma is and suggests a theoretical framework for resolving it, through the introduction of a new model of governance for universities and a new concept of knowledge

From the invalidity of a General Classification Theory to a new organization of knowledge for the millennium to come

Proceedings der 10. Tagung der Deutschen Sektion der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Wissensorganisation. Wien, 3-5 Juli 2006The idea of organizing knowledge and the determinism in classifícation structures implicitly involve certain limits which are translated into a General Theory on the Classifícation of Knowledge, given that classifícation responds to specific parameters and structures more than to a theoretical concept. The classifícation of things is a refiection of their classifícation by man, and this is what determines classifícation structures. The classifícation and organization of knowledge are presented to us as an artificial construct or as a useful fiction elaborated by man. Positivist knowledge reached its peak in the 20* century when science classifications and implemented classifícation systems based on the latter were to be gestated and Consolidated. Pragmatism was to serve as the epistemological and theoretical basis for science and its classifícation. If the classifícation of the sciences has given rise to clastification systems, the organisation and representation of knowledge has to currendy give rise to the context of the globalisation of electronic information in the hypertextual organisational form of electronic information where, if in information the médium ivas the message, in organisation the médium is the structure. The virtual reality of electronic information delves even deeper into it; the process is completed as the subject attempts to look for information. This information market needs standards of an international nature for documents and data. This body of information organization will be characterized by its dynamic nature. If formal and material structures change our concept of knowledge and the way it is structured, then this organization will undergo dynamic change along with the material and formal structures of the real world. The semantic web is a qualitative leap which can be glimpsed on tiie new knowledge horizon; the latter would be shaped with the full integration of contents and data, the language itself would include data and its rules of reason or representation system. The new organisation of knowledge points to a totally nCw conception; post-modern epistemology has yet to be articulated. In the 21 st century, the organization of electronic information is presenting a novel hypertextual, non-linear architecture that will lead to a new change in the paradigm for organization of knowledge for the mülennium to come.Publicad

On the epistemic foundations of agent theories

We argue that none of the existing epistemic logics can adequately serve the needs of agent theories. We suggest a new concept of knowledge which generalizes both implicit and explicit knowledge and argue that this is the notion we need to formalize agents in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. A logic of the new concept is developed which is formally and practically adequate in the following sense: first, it does not suffer from any kind of logical omniscience. Second, it can account for the intuition that agents are rational, though not hyper-rational. Third, it is expressive enough. The advantages of the new logic over other formalisms is demonstrated by showing that none of the existing systems can fulfill all these requirements simultaneously

The ecology of wisdom

This is the first of two papers concerning wisdom as an ecosystem appearing in sequential editions of Management & Marketing journal. The notion of wisdom as an ecosystem, or “the wisdom ecology,” builds on work by Hays (2007) who first identified wisdom as an organisational construct and proposed a dynamic model of it. The centrepiece of this paper and the companion part to follow is a relationship map of the wisdom ecosystem (the Causal Loop Diagram at Figure 1). This first instalment provides background on wisdom and complex adaptive systems, and introduces the wisdom ecosystem model. The second instalment, “Mapping Wisdom as a Complex Adaptive System,” appearing in the next edition of Management & Marketing, explains systems dynamics modelling and discusses the wisdom ecosystem model in detail. It covers the four domains, or subsystems, of the wisdom ecosystem, Dialogue, Communal Mind, Collective Intelligence, and Wisdom, and walks readers through the model, exploring each of its 24 elements in turn. That second paper examines the relationships amongst system elements and illuminates important aspects of systems function.causal loop diagramming, complexity, dialogue, organisational learning, systems dynamics, wisdom.

Matching higher education and labour market in the knowledge economy: the much needed reform of university governance in Italy

In the knowledge economy and current public finance constraints, matching higher education and labour market is not one of the main issues in higher education policy sustainability: it is “the issue”. Being universities’ sources of funding almost entirely domestic and in most countries primarily governmental, politicians are expected to ensure that the increasing public investment in higher education is justified by the fact that the benefits are captured by domestic workers and investors. In doing so they must avoid disrupting the international and free community of scholars and students pursuing knowledge, killing the goose that laid the golden eggs for so long. The European debate and frontiers of research concerning the interactions between universities and labour markets are analyzed. The much needed reform of university governance in Italy is evaluated in its premises and implications for the matching of higher education and labour market.higher education,university,knowledge economy,labour market,governance,new managerialism

Looking back and forward: From the Net Generation to knowledge in education

The development of digital technologies and the Internet has changed modern society. Concepts such as “network society” and “Net Generation” are key concepts describing this development. In educational research, this development, in particular the use of new technologies by children and young adults, has created high expectations about changes in education. These expectations encompass the ideals of a transformation of learning in schools and a transition to student-centered forms of learning, guided by new concepts of knowledge in education. This article takes up these claims, pointing out that they are based on normative ideals and generalizations, which ignore the fact that the use of ICT is formed by pedagogical practices in education. Using the results of my earlier research, this article argues that ICT research should focus on these knowledge practices as well as on the organizational principles they are based on. These principles, here expressed as inherent knowledge-knower structures and specialized codes, are factors that can shed light on different forms of learning, knowledge building, and the use of ICT in education

Knowing What, Knowing How, or Knowing Where? How Technology Challenges Concepts of Knowledge

When bringing innovative technology into school education it has been challenging to get full benefits from the technology. Instead of seeking new ways of teaching we tend to adapt the use of technology to traditional ways of teaching. This can relate to the fact that we lack theoretical concepts that help us rethink and revise our practices. In Norwegian curriculum we see different learning discourses represented, that makes it difficult to change our concept of knowledge. It is therefore time to look for new ways of understanding the concept of knowledge, to be able to build new perspective on learning and teaching that opens for a more innovate way of using technology in education. George Siemens’ connectivism gives interesting contributions to this transformative process, and may inspire to new concepts of knowledge