I’m delighted to start this inspiring digital garden with which want to explore the role of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) in educational contexts together with you.
I work as a professor of Social Work Management in higher education at the intersection of teaching, social work management, applied intercultural research, academic development, and project management. My background is in social sciences, management studies, and theology, and I am especially interested in how PKM can support reflective practice, academic writing, knowledge creation, and meaningful learning. Last year, I completed an part-time master’s degree in higher education, with a thesis titled “Digital Gardening as a Reflective Practice for Teaching Development: A Phenomenographic Analysis of Higher Education Teachers’ Personal Knowledge Management.”
PKM is much more than collecting notes or using a particular app. It is a way of working with ideas and information that helps me make sense of what matters, connect it to other things I know, and use it in meaningful ways to support others in learning new things or developing new habits. It supports our thinking, writing, and learning, especially in a time shaped by information overload, scattered platforms, and generative AI.
I see PKM as an important practice for taking ownership of learning processes and knowledge work. It is not only about storing information, but also about thinking more clearly, writing more purposefully, and developing ideas over time. It also helps make learning and intellectual growth more visible – both to ourselves and, potentially, to others.
In education, I believe PKM should be presented as a flexible, reflective, and highly individual practice of working with knowledge. The real challenge is not only how to teach PKM, but how to make it feel relevant and useful for students as future professionals, leaders, and educators who accompany learners in different phases of learning.
PKM is closely connected to teaching development, academic writing, curriculum design, documenting my teaching portfolio, learning new skills, and reflective educational practice. I am especially interested in how PKM can become part of higher education not as an “add-on,” but as a meaningful practice that can help reduce some of the inequalities that still shape educational systems today.
I regularly work on questions such as:
I also work with digital tools and workflows in my own practice and am particularly interested in how systems such as Obsidian, Roam Research, Tana, and other thought-supporting environments can contribute to sustainable knowledge work in academia.
I would be very interested in exchanging ideas, concepts, and practical approaches for bringing PKM into higher education in a realistic and meaningful way. I’m especially interested in collaboration around: - teaching and workshop design - PKM for academic writing and reflective learning - PKM and AI integration - research on PKM in educational contexts, for example digital gardening approaches - academic development for teaching staff (e.g. a train-the-trainer approach)
This digital garden is open source and freely accessible. In this GitHub Repository you’ll find everything you need to get started.
Looking forward to hearing from you!