Communication of Experience: A Guidebook for the Management of Information

摘要

This guide is designed for U.S. Office of Education Arts Education project direction or other administratively definable units in a local or State educational system. The material was based on 4 regional workshops in which more than 80 local and State arts educators considered how to manage information. The workshops explored information documentation, dissemination, and evaluation. They emphasized the basic premise that information initially comes from the experiences of the project staff as they work toward their goals, and the guidebook's structure reflects this experimental orientation. A discussion on organization relationships, suggesting that project managers can begin to identify the various sources of information they need to document their project's objectives while already formulating information required for the purposes of others, begins the guide. The relevant network of people can best be identified by referring to desired project outcomes. Information dissemination is seen as the movement of information among those who have the questions to those with the answers. The content of disseminated information should include the 'how' as well as the 'what' of an experience. The third and final step, the evaluation, is defined as a look at the experience's effect on clients, staff and environment, and making a judgment about its worth. Thus, this approach identifies information management as a unifying, learning process, which is involving, controllable, and natural. Tabular and illustrative material is included.