Knowledge Society has been characterized thus far by the rapid sharing of access to knowledge – access to the internet, access to mobile technologies, access to television and access to education in its various formal and technology-enabled models.
This almost unlimited access to knowledge has in many ways revolutionized society – the rapid spread of ideas, an explosion in the number of participants and participation in knowledge creation, a drive towards freedom of expression that has broken geographical and political boundaries, and the transformation of workplaces due to the use of information and information technology. This process has taken almost a half-century with the greatest advances having taken place in the past 20 years.
As the access revolution matures, a new and infinitely more potent revolution is beginning to unfold – setting the future direction of the knowledge society.
As mankind recognizes the universal and easy availability of ideas, it has also begun to recognize that individuals, organizations, communities, and even nations can differentiate themselves only if they build the capacities, mindsets, and purposes needed to assimilate the fruits of those ideas.
This revolution, we call the assimilation revolution – wherein mankind learns to digest the fruits of the past 50 years and takes on challenges for the next 50 years.
What are the dimensions of the assimilation revolution?
First, the shift from learning vs. doing to learning-doing (the integration of knowledge with work).
Second, a shift in the way we think – from manipulating ideas to transforming our very models of thought.
Third, a shift in the way we communicate and teach – from telling to engaging, from giving knowledge to enabling discovery.
Fourth, a shift in the purpose of knowledge itself – from illumination of the material world to illumination of the individual.
In short, a shift from knowledge as resource to knowledge as becoming.
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