BURCA TEKİN - 11535024 -

Sebastien Shahmiri (SS): Yesterday, we had interesting
sessions. Because, I was not expecting this kind of setting
and the participants were not prepared to think about the
outcome and even thinking about the competences. Therefore,
what came out was very spontaneous. However,
the outcome was not complete because, the participants
were not in the presence of mind in order to tackle the
questions which had been placed in them. However, I was
satisfied with the outcome of the second session where we
got together in order to make a murre between the three
people. It also showed roots one could take until university
education. After that, it was more depended on the way
the society was pushing that person to go through. It also
came to me that a lot of us are building our competences
according to the social chances if we have them. These
opportunities which is socially available for us or not
would create our competences in one section or another.
But how is it connected to lifelong learning? This exercise
showed me that quite a lot of it are by expectation of the
society which push us to go through lifelong learning. If
the society is demanding enough, fine. If not, then we go
back to the nature of human to sit down and do nothing.
This is my observation from yesterday.
Halil Nalçaoğlu (HN): What I gather from yesterday is
the existence of a need to recognise, identify and register
competences which lie outside the formal domain of
education. That is important. Since we are discussing
lifelong learning, there should be something outside or
as the offerings of the formal system. You want to find a
methodology or a philosophy, a perspective to catch those
competencies which lie outside the formal working or educational
systems. The most important thing that I remember
from yesterday with the help of David’s comments, is to
structure the findable and repeatable ways to catch those
aspects that are missing from the formal systems. We live
in a society where there is a plâtra of certificates, rewards.
But there should be a genuine, identified, registered,
measurable, method of bridging the gaps that exist in a
formal system. Why do we have that need? Because life
is so dynamic and so fast. In one of my groups, we were
discussing how the existing milieu of whatever we are
doing is always late. The academy is always late because
we have rules, classes, administrators, schedules, and all
these things constrict and limit our ability to become more
dynamic. Besides, technology is adding a twist of all these
so, there should be a system outside the formal system
and that is actually called lifelong learning. The problem
with lifelong learning is with certificates that is just given
out. So that should be structured and recognised by the
institutions, organisations or groups that are created by
the university itself. But there should be a zone outside and
beside the existing system. That is what I gathered from
yesterday.
AF: I agree with Mr. Halil that there should be new ways
of learning beside the universities, classrooms and online
systems. We should show the alternatives where a designer
could learn and see a way of learning in different
methodologies.
AS: Your group was very much concerned with credentials
right?
HN: Yes.
AS: So, I wonder after the day if you had any idea that you
did not before on how these credentials looked like? Today
you also talk about certification and how that could work.
Is there anything you gained? Do you have any insight
based on yesterday?
HN: What I remember from yesterday is the little pieces of
post-its. I can still see them on the board. So these are the
credentials.(CCA_WS_DATA_REF_20161022_Actions_
S3_01_edit_aa) These green post-its really represents what
I just said like plâtra of credentials falling from the sky. That
should not be the case because learning from experience
already exists. We always learn from our experiences. The
beginning of learning is by experience anyway. So credentials
in the case of life long learning should stay somewhere
in between a chaotic everyday learning and a formal
structures of learning. I constantly turn back to our own
institution because we are experiencing this day to day. My
mind is filled with the faculty of communication. What we
did, was to open up a space inside the formal structure. It is
not extremely liberal like getting rid of all the constrictions
but it is not also as structured as a course system, a curriculum.
We tried to snatch pieces from the formal system.
Almost like putting all in the middle so that people can start
playing with them. So that is more creative. It involves and
encourages people more. At some point we realised that
we do not give any credentials and we do not recognise
work of our students who create things. Someday I was
leaving the school, I bumped into a friend of mine in the
television department. He said we had just finished the
editing of our latest video by staying all day long on saturday.
So they come at school, edit their video with students.
At that point we realise that we do not credit, appreciate,
recognise the work of this extra curricular work that is also
curricular by academic outcomes, we devised IIW crediting
system. No matter where you are, at any time, your work
should be appreciated and credited. It is not just a courtesy.
The student is being paid by credits because students are
after 240 credits. That is what they look for. Their mind set
on going to a university is to finish the amount of credits
successfully necessary for graduation. We realise that it is a
valuable thing the crediting in ECTS. So we converted activities
into a kind of a business model and we devised time
credits. I am telling this because you cannot really operate
within the formal system. If you are teaching editing a
video for instance, you cannot teach it every wednesday
from one to four because it is a continuous job. Sometimes
you would like to edit for two days long and sleep for two
days. That is for instance how editing goes. I am guessing
there are some other tasks also like that. To wrap up, there
is this formal structure, there is life which is totally chaotic,
and in between there is lifelong learning which is semi-structured,
recognised and identified.
David Grossman (DG): I agree with you on many things
you have said. I also think we would agree on rest of the
things you have said but I look at it a little bit different. For
example, in a formal study what students are interested
in is not 240 credits, they are interested in the degree. In
order to get the degree you need to complete 240 credits.
There is a difference there because if they had to have 246
credits they would just be as interested in 240 credits. They
are interested in fact in formal studies is this first big yellow
one. Because in the beginning of our studies 90 percent of the
time we go to formal framework of study.The way the world
has developed the best way of knowing it is to make credits
and grades. It is the way the world works and at a certain
point we need a degree. When you get the degree, it is a
recommendation, a recognition and people feel alright to
take the next step. In terms of the formal universities, they are
very good at making a first, second degree and so on, and
handling all the rest of it. It sort of works. People have high
motivation in investing more time because they understand the
culture of the university that is good for them learning and it
is also good as they get recognition. It is also good if they are
in a faculty so they go up the ladder. It is a system where you
play by the rules and it works. Then you go out into the world
and you work. People usually without too much realisation
know that they have to continue to expand because things are
happening. So they do go to competences and they do participate
in projects to learn by themselves. They do lots of things
which is lifelong learning and there are some minor awards
for it. I think what we are saying in the discussions we had
yesterday is that in the competences we know that there is a
lot that is worse learning. That is changing all the time especially
in the world of design. If a designer wants to be current, it
is a good idea that he continues to learn. That is not a difficult
concept and I think everybody agrees upon that. I think from
the activities section, we saw without too much discovery that
there are many many options that can provide opportunities
to learn. From more formal to less formal, more personal to
less personal, intended to unintended structure. There are
many opportunities to learn. The thing that is missing is something
when we are in school, there is a very formal structure
so you do what you told and hopefully you learn. When you
go out into the world there is no really a structure if you are
highly motivated and able. It is also a question of time, money
and things like that so you learn by yourself but not only there
is no structure that encourages you in an orderly way to learn,
but unfortunately there is also for many people no frame
of mind that automatically causes you to say you to learn.
People who are lazy and do nothing. There is no motivation
and there is nothing fostering it. That is what is missing. I think
it is difficult because in a school the professors tells the student
to come on tuesday to do his work. If he comes he does work
if he does not he is out. In the world it is a personal thing in
a competition. So I think on the one hand yesterday in terms
of competences, I think it is possible to recognise a balloon of
changing competences. It will change every time so, it always
needs more things and there is a basket of things that are
competences that a designer needs. A slightly different basket
for architects, engineers, every profession has their basket. In
terms of activities, there is also pretty understandable menu
of opportunities for activities that permits you to learn. It is
really a menu, you do not have to take one. You can take one
from here two from there but what we are agreeing is that as
long as we have some of them it is ok. But what is missing is
to convince people that they have to do it number one and
create some system that fosters that. I think that is the glue
between the competences and the activities and I think that
is the trick. That is what does not exist. How do we create a
frame of mind so that a professional understands
I should be doing something on the menu of lifelong
learning. But if I do not do it then the other guys are
doing it so he is going to be better than me. I think that
should be planted in the schools which did not. I think
it is an opportunity for schools to be more active after
graduation. But it is not only the schools I think also the
professional organisations, governments and individuals
have a role to play. I think that our challenge is to
suggest to that have a form, a brand, a societal imprint
on it that people think that it is a right thing to do. It
cannot be too formal because it should not be too formal.
Because people have to think of it as a right thing
to do so it is creating a behaviour pattern that is accepted.
People learn how to drive and there are rules about
driving and if you do not go according to the rules you
get a ticket. But none of us are going according to the
rules because we behave with the other cars. It is culture
that you learn. It is this culture I think that we have to
learn. That is the opportunity and that is the new thing
that would change lifelong learning. To my mind I call
that credentials. It is not so much of a credential in a
stamp. It is more a credentials in individuals and society
recognise that as the right thing to do. Just as you are
polite, you do not get a badge on it but you can see
when someone is polite. If someone is really interested
in lifelong learning and you see him in a conference or
a project he becomes interesting, he teaches all these
things and he tells himself it is the right thing. I think
that does not exist. It somehow creates a culture of
activities between the formal education and the professional
activities of individuals. I think that is what is
most interesting so when you say when these things are
meaningless certificates, I do not see them as meaningless
but I see them as little stars of good behaviour that
you value. How can we create a system that people
recognise that these stars are a good thing. It is sort of
a passport. Does not have to be a physical passport but
if you look back over the past year you say what did I
do this year to learn. Well I went to a conference and I
did this so ok. And if I look back at my passport and it
is empty, I say that this is not so good. More than that, if
the professional association looks at his member and he
says what did you do this year? Because when I came
to this workshop I learned something for the last two
days. I cannot help but learn when you have a meeting
like this. That is a good thing. It is a question of creating
this passport system in the mind. I think that would be a
good outcome. I think that we agree but we look at it at
different angles.
HN: Totally.
DG: Just between us in terms of the universities,
it is a big opportunity. Because in this point, in
most of the cases when the students leave for
formal education, bye bye. But universities are
in the best situation in terms of not only content
and expertise, and research but also in terms of
facilities. Your are in the best situation to create
more formal necklace of events that people can
voluntarily participate in that is good for you too.