For years, maybe even decades, I have considered developing a course on Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) but never found the right demand or audience.
I think I have now found both.
Encore Learning, a local nonprofit, relies primarily on volunteers to develop and deliver courses for a highly engaged audience: retired professionals who love to learn. Many have extensive experience and enjoy rich discussions with fellow adult students. The organization partners with George Mason University (GMU), and many of its instructors, like myself, are former faculty members. Next fall (2025), I will be teaching my first course in the Encore Learning catalog, likely in the same building and perhaps even the same classrooms where I taught Knowledge Management (KM) for seven years. No exams, no grading, shorter teaching sessions, therefore less stress and more enjoyment.
While my previous KM course within the ODKM Program at GMU focused on organizational settings, this new course shifts the lens to personal knowledge—how we manage what we know as individuals, how we continue learning, and how we navigate knowledge in our later years.
My initial course proposal was accepted, and just yesterday, I submitted a more detailed course description. Over the next few months, I will be designing the full curriculum with six sessions, each 90 minutes long. I already have some ideas and look forward to shaping the content.
This course is just the beginning. I envision it as the first in a three-part series exploring the intersection of knowledge, technology, and aging, with a focus on how Generative AI fits into this evolving landscape.
More to come as I refine the details.
