KM's Issues brought to our class

Lots has happened in class since I posted last, but I think the most interesting thing to comment on is the way our class is encountering problems just like any ordinary business. Recently I have been having trouble keeping up with all of the different places our class is requiring us to utilize KM. Between this blog, the discussion board on WebCT, and the Wiki it has just seemed like there isn't enough information or time to go into doing all three well. And in class on Monday, it came out that I was not the only one having this problem. A few things that happened in class are prime examples of what can happen in the work place.

1. Passive Resistance

The first problem our KM system has encountered is a passive resistance from students. Students are not participating in the wiki and blog's as much as they should be. The common response is a lack of time, which I won't deny I have used myself. But something I brought up on a blog discussion last week, and was resonated by others, is a lack of confidence. I personally have never been involved in the content creation and organization of a wiki before and it is very intimidating. I have no idea where to begin with what content and where? How will other students take my content? So the problem before us is how do we get people to WANT to be involved with KM?

2. Lack of Consistency

The second problem our KM system has encountered is a lack of consistency. Like mentioned above, there are three different places that we are supposed to be updating and constantly using. I am not alone in my overwhelment. I realize that for our classes purposes our professor is trying to expose us to as many different KM 2.0 tools as possible, but I can see how this would be a large problem in the workplace. Personally I have been more involved in the discussion board on WebCt and I know others who have been more involved with the Wiki. These two tools seem too similar, and have too many similar functionalities to be seperated in my mind. I also think that if each student were to have their own page on the Wiki, that it could act as their own personal blog as well. Overall, the three tools assigned to us are very similar to companies who try to use too many tools in their workplace. There is great information in all three places, but the information won't be maximized unless users know where to find it....all in one place.

So what do we do about these two problems?? The first problem might be solved through more incentives or structure. Even if the structure isn't assigned to us by the professor, if the students sit down together and decide what they will be responsible for they might be a lot more likely to particiapte. Regarding the second problem, we have already started to fix this problem by changing the discussion board over to the Wiki. The next problem we might encounter with this is keeping track of all of the discussions. But by moving the discussions over to the Wiki we might begin to also solve the first issue. The greater lesson we can learn from all of this, is how we can fix our problems until we are satisfied by the results. Hopefully we get there by the end of the semester!!