Knowledge Integration

The didactic fiction project is getting more and more interesting. With my first attempt at writing a novel, I had picked themes that I was interested in but not sufficiently comfortable with to write the story without additional research. With this second attempt, not only do I know better than to overdo the research and procrastinate on the writing but it is becoming clear to me that I know enough about the topic I am writing about to write the first draft without any additional research. If anything, I have too many ideas flying around and the key is to find the right way to integrate them. As I am writing the story, one small section at a time, a whole range of things I know from my own experience are emerging as ideas that can be integrated into the story. I do have to be careful to avoid making it autobiographical in any way but that doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment.

This brings me to the concept of knowledge integration. When we learn something new, we are essentially attaching a new nugget of knowledge to previously acquired knowledge. It is in the process of linking the new nugget to the others that we create "ah ah" moments. Beyond connecting individual new nuggets to specific preexisting knowledge, additional reflection can lead to a reorganization of the broader mental framework within which these nuggets are stored in the brain. It can be a paradigm shift, a turning around of a basic assumption, or simply a clearer, more organized picture emerging.

I'm not sure this makes a lot of sense but the didactic fiction project is turning into a wonderful knowledge integration experience. Writing this story isn't just fun, it's allowing me to do a lot of knowledge integration without having to think too much about it.

I came across a website with a visual that expresses all this a little better than my words.

" Knowledge integration is the process of fitting our ideas – our theories of how-the-world-works – together into a coherent structure." Source: Ideagram Ideas