On October 6, 2005 I was listening to Switchboard on Vermont Public Radio. Bill Schubart was one of the panelists discussing "The Future of Vermont". At a certain point Mr. Schubart was asked if he could describe the ideal student that universities should be producing (or something like that). I found his answer very insightful and decided to transcribe it here for others to ponder:
" I think what I want more that anything out of the schools is a critical learner. A person who is curious, a person who understands the navigation of information, who doesn't necessarily know everything but knows where to look for it. They can tell appart between real experience and vicarious experience. They know how to engage in discussion of something complex and listen as well as talk. They can communicate in writing and in speech. These are the things that are so critical and the fact that we have 5 or 3 different careers in our lives can and will be accommodated later on.
But I think understanding how to convert data into information and then have your experience become wisdom, so you can then make the migration from data to information to wisdom is really the critical part of education and it doesn't necessarily fit into the current industrial mold".
What caught my attention was the sequence pointed out by Schubart data > information > wisdom. So I followed his advice and assumed that he was repeating a model that somebody out there in the world of information management has already elaborated. After a few google minutes I found this interesting site. All of a sudden the sequence was broadened to:
data > information > knowledge > wisdom
There is one thing missing in this puzzle, where does ACTION fit in? Who cares about all this if there is no change, no implementation? One could argue that embedded in any of these 4 core groups there are specific actions but I rather emphasize the ACTION part right before wisdom like this:
data > information > knowledge > ACTION > wisdom
Quoting Mary Beard: Action wit out study is fatal. Study without action is futile. So "Action Action" otherwise we'll all end up like Jeremy from the Yellow Submarine. There is really no need to know that much if we are not going to do that much with it.
