Learning, knowledge and meaning: the Singapore diary - a book from the blog

By Julian Stodd

In the Social Age, knowledge is no longer enough: our value comes in our ability to create meaning. Tools like Google let us find out 'facts', but agile learners use those facts to inform their actions. But how do we do this? How do we make sense of the world around us and use that meaning to take action, to learn? This book, based upon five days of writing in Singapore, is a reflection on learning, knowledge and how we create meaning. It's a personal journey through the subject, based on reflections as diverse as the meaning of the Starbucks logo and the workings of the Singapore docklands. It's a journey of discovery, to discover how we create meaning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julian Stodd
• Release date: May 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301838554

Julian Stodd

Julian Stodd is a learning and development professional based in the UK, specialising in elearning, mobile learning, social media and learning theory. As founder and co-captain of SeaSalt Learning, Julian is heavily involved the strategic and operational development of learning solutions in a range of areas, working at a strategic level with global clients to understand how their learning needs can be met. Julian started out volunteering in museums at the age of twelve, doing every job imaginable, from conserving artefacts and cataloguing collections, through designing exhibitions, and into giving guided tours and working with school groups. He loved the opportunities to work with stories, to meet people, and to walk with them along a learning journey. Via a conservation sciences degree with archaeology, this led him into postgraduate research around educational theory, communication theory, psychology and design. Julian is grounded in understanding how people learn, whatever the technology, and what the barriers are that can prevent them from learning. Today, he writes widely in his learning blog around various aspects of learning: mainly e-learning, social learning and learning technology. Asked recently what the most important skill was for an aspiring e-learning specialist, Julian's answer was ‘storytelling’. At heart, everything revolves around the clarity and coherence of the narrative.

Book preview

Learning, Knowledge & Meaning: the Singapore diary

A book from the blog

Published by Julian Stodd at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Julian Stodd

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Discover more from Julian:

www.julianstodd.wordpress.com

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JulianStodd

Table of Contents

Introduction

Day 1: Learning, knowledge and meaning

Day 2: meaning from chaos

Day 3: Foundations

Day 4: reflection and feedback

Day 5: closing chapters

Reflection

About Julian

Connect with me

Introduction

There's a reason why computers find it hard to recognise a table. Even with all the advances in artificial intelligence and object recognition, they struggle. It's not just that tables look different from every angle (which they do) and come in all shapes and colours, (which they also do), but it's the fact that sometimes they are upside down and sometimes a table isn't a table at all. If I sit on it, it's a chair.

Context is everything: our perspective influences what we see, influences the evidence we gather and, in turn, the meaning that we create. The broader our perspective, the