Should we be teaching PKM in higher education? If so, how? This is a question I'm grappling with as a teacher-researcher at the faculty of law of the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam).

Honestly, it's personal. I recognize myself in a subset of students I guide through their bachelor thesis process. They're enthusiastic, impulsive, curious, totally chaotic, and not digitally fit. They get buried in their own ideas and don't manage to switch from gardener to architect mode. Is it up to the University (read: me) to extend a helping hand by teaching PKM and/or offering PKM coaching? Why (not?) And if the answer is yes, what would be a good pilot project to test this out?

Did you also go through college without PKM, and sometimes imagine how much more effective and joyful studying could've been if you'd have known about PKM then? What did you need? Let's talk about it.

Notes

During this open discussion, there were a variety of comments and ideas around the question of teaching PKM in schools. Marleen initiated the discussion by asking the group what brought them to PKM, and whether they are struggling with it.

Here are some of the responses and suggestions that came up in the discussion:

• Yes, I wish I had had PKM in school.
• No, I had a course in “learning to learn” and found it traumatic because the system that was taught did not work with my brain.
• Perhaps its better to integrate PKM into the subject that is being taught rather than it being its own class.
• It’s hard to find a one-size-fits all approach
• We’re still experimenting with PKM and there is currently a range of ways to approach it, so it’s more like alchemy now.
• We all probably have a system, it just doesn’t have a name.
• I am an undergrad and feel that I need to get a handle on my PKM before I can consider starting a PhD.
• Students are primarily transactional these days, where an education is only a means to a degree, job, and money. There is a dichotomy between productivity and knowledge. It’s hard to find the motivation that gets students to learn.
• We are teaching too much knowledge and need to teach more skills; how to use your creativity.
• PKM can help students be more aware of their knowledge, which can help them differentiate themselves from colleagues when job searching. This is a potential use of PKM when productivity is the goal.
• When I was a student during covid, my inbox exploded and I forgot about half of my assignments. This motivated me to build a system that works for me. Maybe we need to care about how to make a system stick. We need a bottom-up approach, what’s right for each person.
• Maybe we can use PKM to sneak in more serious topics.
• Why not teach teachers to use PKM, then they can lead by example.
• We need to explain to students what’s in it for them.
• As a grad student, I’ve found that my consumption of information has become more intentional and slower after my introduction to PKM.