Knowledge Management and
Virtual Learning
Learning machines support learning individuals
Prof. dr. Walter R. J. Baets
Director Graduate Programs Euromed Marseille – Ecole de Management
Professor Information, Innovation and Knowledge
Universiteit Nyenrode, The Netherlands Business School
NOTION
The Nyenrode Institute for Knowledge
Management and Virtual Education
Achmea
Microsoft
Atos/Origin
Philips
Sara Lee/DE
Wanderer, your footprints are
the path, and nothing more;
Wanderer, there is no path,
it is created as you walk.
By walking,
you make the path before you,
and when you look behind
you see the path which after you
will not be trod again.
Wanderer, there is no path,
but the ripples on the waters.
Antonio Machado,
Chant XXIX Proverbios y cantares,
Campos de Castilla, 1917
A very great musician came and stayed in our house,
He made one big mistake …
He was determined to teach me music
and consequently, no learning took place.
Nevertheless, I did casually pick up from him
a certain amount of stolen knowledge.
Rabindranath Tagore
The problem
You don’t know what you don’t know
You only know what you don’t know when you need it
… then, all classical learning comes too late
Hence
Just-in-time
Just-enough
Learning-by-doing
Learning-while-doing
Learning from past (corporate) experiences
By the way
It has to do with the pedagogical metaphor
Empty Ship’s metaphor
versus
Traveler's metaphor
Just like the optimal process does not exist
The optimal learning solution does not exist either
Strive for a 60 % solution
The advantage of e-learning technologies
Communicative tools on a wider (flexible) scale
Search engines
Origin of Taylor’s thinking in Management
The computer: attempt to automate human thinking
Manipulating symbols
Modelling the brain
Represent the world
Simulate interaction of
neurones
Intelligence = problem solving Intelligence = learning
0-1 Logic and mathematics
Approximations, statistics
Rationalist, reductionist
Idealised, holistic
Became the way of building computers
Became the way of looking at minds
Some principles that apply to knowledge
1. Complex Adaptive Systems: unpredictability
2. Irreversibility of time principle (Prigogine)
3. Behavior far away from equilibrium (Prigogine)
4. Autopoiese (Varela)
5. Embodied mind (Varela)
6. Enacted cognition (Varela)
7. Artificial life (Langton)
8. Emergent behavior (agents; Holland)
9. Law of increasing returns (Arthur)
OADI-cycle/Individual learning
ASSESS
DESIGN
Environmental
response
OBSERVE
IMPLEMENT
Individual double-loop learning
Individual action
INDIVIDUAL MENTAL
MODEL &
FRAMEWORKS
Single-loop
learning
Organizational double-loop learning
ORGANIZATIONAL
ROUTINES &
SHARED MENTAL
MODELS
ENVIRONMENT
Organizational action
EXPERIENCES
CONTEXTUAL
KNOWLEDGE
INDIVIDUAL MENTAL
MODEL &
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
SHARING AND
COMMUNICATION
SHARED MENTAL
MODEL &
KNOWLEDGE
REPOSITORY







Contextualization
Real life
Databases
Procedures
Simulators
Executive seminars
Concepts
Theory
The Hybrid Business School
.
CASE BASED
REASONING
SYSTEM
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL
NETWORKS &
OTHER A.I.
TECHNIQUES
Sharing and
Communicating the
Emergent
 DATA BASES
 LEARNING
Learning Material
Expertise




COMMUNICATION
PLATFORM /
NEURAL NETWORKS
ENVIRONMENT
SIMULATORS
EXPERT SYSTEMS
COMPUTER BASED
TEACHING
VIDEOCONFERENCING
IT for the Hybrid Business School
Some interesting technologies
Artificial Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms
Genetic Programming
Fuzzy Logic
Artificial life/Agent simulations
Negotiating Agents
Semantic Search Engines
Case Based Reasoning
Language technologies
Machine learning technologies
Conversational technologies
Your knowledge infrastructure
Ownership (search/learn principles)
Remains with those that use it
Those that want to learn decide what to learn
Just-in-time, just-enough
Culture
Learning platform
Turn XYZ
into a learning
culture (via
projects)
Provide an ICT
infrastructure
that allows full
access and
sharing
facilities
Rewarding
Content
What knowledge
to share:
•explicit
•implicit
•learned
Learning platform and search/learn principles
The knowledge net
Explicit knowledge (database)
Implicit knowledge (case base)
Case based reasoning system
Cases stored in an adapted way
A methodology for case analysis and storage
Corporate knowledge repository
Notion
Learned knowledge (case base)
Explicit knowledge that is enhanced via experience
Using the same methodology for implicit knowledge
Interviews with key knowledge owners
Open learning platform
Collaborative tools
Dedicated search engines
Accessibility for all
Open to connect ‘any’
application
Solution for e-learning
The user
with its learning
agenda
Some (Best) Practices
Xerox
Heineken
Atos Origin
Sara Lee/DE
McKinsey
Dutch Police Knowledge Network
General practitioners and hospital knowledge
A TYPICAL MANAGEMENT DIPLOMA COURSE
3O % SELF-STUDY (learning-by-doing)
2O % WORKSHOPS
50 % PROJECT WORK
C
A HYPERTEXT
S DATABASE
E
S
CONCEPTS
INTERNET
INTRANET
PC
CD ROM
LEARNING/DATABASE SOFTWARE
EXECUTIVE
COURSES
WWW site
+ other knowledge applications
BOOKS
Executive
Programs
E-learning
solutions
Design of
corporate virtual
universities
Modules
of the MBI&I
MBI&I
E-learning support
for classroom
activities
Workshops on
innovation
Action
research
programs
Over a period of 18 months
Developing an
intrapreneurial project (1)
6
9 courses based on
Developing an
on-campus
virtual (tutor
weeks
intrapreneurial project (2)
supported) individual
of
and group study workshops
E-ntrepreneurships project
700 hours
900 hours
300 hours
Methodology
Actions
(company-specific)
The Hybrid Business School
Building Blocks
Brainstorm
content
ICT
Knowledge platform
Practices
Implicit
knowledge
Search
engine
platform
culture
Ownership
learn/search
Learning Agenda
(Pers. Development)
Explicit
knowledge
learner
+
learning
agenda
4 Brainstorms
Project team
• Notion
• MD/HRM
• Line mgt
• IT
• Marketing/R&D
cases
IT/Application plan
Concepts
Outcomes
White Paper
(Board approval)
E-learning view
4 Action plans
(Board approval)
Infrastructure
(Plan)
Architecture
Knowledge Management and
Virtual Learning
Learning machines support learning individuals
Prof. dr. Walter R. J. Baets
Philips Chair in Information and Communication Technology
Universiteit Nyenrode, The Netherlands Business School