Information and Uncertainty as Strange Bedfellows: A Model and Experiential Exercises

Abstract

Because organizational reality yields uncertainty, an effective classroom experience must extend beyond the traditional coverage of a discipline by exposing students to methods of handling uncertainty. One potential practice is to teach students to differentiate data from information, and to engage in a search process, which reduces uncertainty by Identifying meaningful patterns in data. This paper presents a model and identifies related experiential exercises useful in making the uncertainty reduction process explicit for students.