The Knowledge Illusion

When I was at school and university I spent a lot of time taking notes. These notes were sometimes much better than others, but they were always invaluable for revision – even if only to identify the gaps in my knowledge.

I still take notes, in meetings and at talks, for example. Increasingly these notes are technology based and much more structured than those of my youth. In fact, part of the reason I blog is to help myself remember key findings and issues as well as to flag them up for others. Another of the 19 learning acts that I have been discussing is:

Annotation. This can be described as an interaction with existing knowledge material (particularly text) such that the learner is able to construct a personal elaboration of that material. This might take the form of elaborative commentary closely attached to the original (“marginal notes”) or it might be a form of personal précis or reflection (“summarising” etc.). Knowledge is thereby elaborated or personalised.

This practice suits situations where a body of well-formed material is available for study. Its cognitive benefit arises from the effort of actively re-casting material and selectively linking it with existing knowledge. Clearly annotation is something that can be done more or less skilfully and demands practice and support.

Technology can structure annotation as well as providing an infrastructure for composition and storage. There are many tools for writing and filing the results of annotation and a whole range of practices for organisation.