Information Policy and Social Media: Accept or Decline

In this article I examine how intersections between information policy and social media affect professional ethics and instructional decision making as considered through the lens of professional development and continuing education. The discussion uses techniques from autoethnography such as personal narrative, figurative language and scenarios. Data are extracted from my field notes, observations and writings. My experiences as an instructor of information policy and as an academic with a Ph.D. in Educational Communication and Technology who teaches online courses to graduate professional learners are included. My conclusions are: (1) The formal information policies of social media platforms create an environment requiring instructors to apply professional ethics considerations when deciding how students will use social media platforms. (2) The informal information policies which students hold affect their responses to the information policies of social media platforms used for educational purposes. (3) Instructors can examine the intersections of information policies, professional ethics and student preferences to aid their instructional decision making regarding the integration of social media platforms into professional development and continuing education.     

Approaching Knowledge Management Through the Lens of the Knowledge Life Cycle: a Case Study Investigation

More organizational leaders are recognizing that their greatest competitive advantage is the knowledge base of their employees and for organizations to thrive knowledge management (KM) systems need to be in place that encourage the natural interplay and flow of tacit and explicit knowledge. Approaching KM through the lens of the knowledge life cycle allows for the design and development of KM solutions that are systemic and address the dynamic nature of organizational knowledge. In this paper we provide a review of the literature regarding how organizational knowledge may be studied and propose a methodological framework for investigating the knowledge life cycle. To illustrate the framework we present a recent case study in which it was successfully used. This framework is intended to be useful to learning and performance improvement professionals who work in organizational KM as well as to researchers who wish to conduct further research in this area.