Network Logic - Index of

Network logic
demonstrable ‘best practice’, rigorously defined? If so, this process
would have relevance to a wide range of professional development
and reform activities in education.
The process of transfering knowledge
We know that transferring knowledge from one person or one
context to another is often difficult, and especially so, as in the case of
many of the classroom practices of teachers, when the knowledge
involved is heavily tacit rather than explicit, and not easily put into
words. It is possible that NWP owed much of its success to the fact
that unusual amounts of knowledge were successfully transferred
between teachers, which would be rewarding to both donors and
recipients of such knowledge. But what exactly were the processes by
which the knowledge was transferred and what role did particular
forms of networking play in this? The knowledge management
literature would entail treating knowledge transfer between teachers
as a topic worthy of detailed investigation.
Networks, ICTs and best practice
A third example is the new information and communication
technologies (ICTs), which again have grown dramatically over the
last decade. We do not know what role the ICTs might play in creating
and sustaining professional networks: they will have limits and will
have yet to be discovered strengths, even though it is virtually certain
that they will complement face-to-face interactions rather than
displacing them. ICTs may be of particular importance for
networking by teachers who are isolated in their teaching specialism
or in their physical location.
At the same time, we should not underestimate the capacity of
innovation and best practice networks to devise solutions to
problems that arise and to borrow ideas from the internet. Take the
way Amazon.com works, for instance. You look up a topic, and are
provided with a list of books. You look up a book and in addition to
details of its content, price and so on, two further resources are put at
your disposal. First, you are offered reviews of the books, by the
86 Demos