Community and Knowledge Building

Being the publisher of niche community content means accepting the time commitment and the processes involved. It means being brave enough to make mistakes, show my weaknesses, and face my self-contradictions. It means being fully present in body, mind, and spirit, and willing to learn. It means being as much a part of the processes as other team members and contributors while remaining aware of my role and the narratives I bring to these projects. Part of that narrative is my experience as an educator in community colleges and vocational schools. I’ve developed curricula and established learning centers focusing on the success of adult learners. A personal objective is making the process of growing knowledge experiential and enjoyable.

Through my work with The Cartomancer, I strive to create an open learning community where knowledge is shared, expanded upon, and ignites innovation. I work to provide not only a reliable learning base, but an environment that fosters shared expertise, reflective dialogue, interaction, and collaboration. And I desire this publication to create lasting supportive connections among community luminaries, contributors, and readers.  

A learning community connects people. It convenes change agents across disciplines, experiences, and geographies to connect, share ideas and results, and learn from each other. These communities unite participants around theories of change, technique enhancements, measured achievement, and areas of practice. They enable shared learning. Communities share learning from both successful and unsuccessful experiences to deepen its collective knowledge.

Learning communities lend themselves to a form of guided discovery. Knowledge is socially constructed and best supported through collaborations designed in a way that participants eagerly share knowledge that incorporates teamwork features, real-world application, and the use of varied information sources.

Knowledge building directly addresses the need to educate people for a world in which knowledge creation and innovation are pervasive yet expanding. Knowledge building may be defined as the production and continual improvement of ideas of values to a community, through means that increase the likelihood that what the community accomplishes will be greater than the sum of the individual contributions and part of broader efforts.

Important distinctions exist between learning and knowledge building. Learning is an internal, unobservable process that results in changes in belief, attitude, or skill. Knowledge building, by contrast, results in the creation or modification of public knowledge—knowledge that lives “in the world” and is available to be worked on and used by other people. Of course, creating public knowledge results in personal learning, but so does practically all human activity. Whether it's scientists working on an explanation of cell aging, engineers designing fuel-efficient vehicles, nurses planning patient care improvements, or tarotists blending psychology and self-development into their reading sessions, knowledge builders engage in similar processes with a similar goal. That goal is to advance the frontiers of knowledge as they perceive them.

Take what you know, add insightful discoveries, make it your own, and then share your development. Doing so will strengthen your base and your community, propelling both toward new and exciting horizons.