Strengthening Media Literacy

© Tekijät ISBN 978-952-67783-1-0 (nid.)

ISBN 978-952-67783-2-7 (PDF) 1. painos Kansi: Kari Delcos Teksti: Ritva-Sini Merilampi Kuvat: Kari Delcos Käännös: Mikko T Helminen Taitto: Johanna Viherä Kyriiri Oy Helsinki, 2012

STRENGTHENING MEDIA LITERACY - Know-how-talkoot as a Pedagogic Model Ritva-Sini Merilampi

Kyriiri Oy

CONTENTS BACKGROUND KNOW-HOW and MEDIA SKILLS COOPERATIVE LEARNING Views on learning Dewey ideology Cooperativeness in learning Three interests of knowledge OBJECTIVES OF KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT Implementation of the objectives Outcome of the implementation EVALUATION OF KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT ACTIVITY Research data Data analysis KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT AS A PEDAGOGICAL MODEL Evaluation results and their interpretation Cooperative group work – classification Choosing food, preparing and enjoying a meal Pilots and pilot training Partners CONCLUSION A crystallised conception of learning An empowering interest of knowledge Know-how-talkoot – what, how, why Fostering media literacy COMMODIFYING KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT PEDAGOGY HINDSIGHT AND FORESIGHT SOURCES 5

Know-how-talkoot

BACKGROUND The Know-how-talkoot project is part of the national ESR development programme 2007-2013, in the administrative sector of the Ministry of Education and Culture. The programme focuses on developing active citizenship in open learning environments.

According to the socio-political statement of the development programme, “active citizenship makes foundations for a society where future know-how and participation is emphasised�. Free access to the techniques of information generation, publishing media, channels of interaction and related user skills, cooperative aims of individuals, peer production and peer learning are common features of open learning environments.

Equality and partnership are mentioned as general guiding principles. Equality, in

this context, refers to the right and the required abilities related to knowledge, citizenship, self-expression and creativity.

Partnership means trust, openness and cooperation.

The goal of the development programme is to increase the possibilities of lifelong learning and equality, social cohesion as well as more varied services of culture and education, and to make them available for learners of different ages. A central goal is to provide the citizens with a good level of education and citizen skills.

With the programme, skills related to information society and information management are developed into active citizen skills, which is helpful for instance in improving the quality of living of aging citizens.

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The above-mentioned definitions of policies of the EU Social Fund development programme are clearly visible in the planning and development of the Know-how-talkoot concept.

The basic idea of Know-how-talkoot goes back to the communication camps organised during summers by Viestintäkasvatuksen seura, founded in 1987. The camps are still organised every summer. In the background of the development of the communication camp concept were ideas of people involved in communication and education about the importance for people to participate in the process of communication.

Communication camps were created for the purpose of finding ways to increase people’s possibilities to participate in communication, as receivers and senders.

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The intention of communication camps is to find ways to learn about and make use of the possibilities offered by media and networks in daily activity. One of the aims is also to learn to know the power of media in shaping meanings and attitudes, and to find ways to exploit the messages communicated by the media. Learning to give the right answers is not among the central goals; we aim instead at asking the right questions.

In this evaluation work, the researcher’s own perspective, the angle of view, is partly based on experience from the Communication camps. The writer also has a long experience on monitoring both formal and informal learning. This evaluation moves in both directions in the terrain between theory and practice.

KNOW-HOW and MEDIA SKILLS

Know-how is a common term, but the use of the concept is unclear and ambiguous.

The basic idea, however, is probably that knowledge and skill are inseparable. All skill requires some degree of knowledge and all knowledge – in the best case – leads to some kind of skill, although skill, in order to develop, requires repeating experience, practice, action.

Skill can be evaluated either by observing the action or by its results, either as a process or a product. Skills do not develop through other people's experiences; one can only acquire one by doing. Acquiring a skill may require concentration, practice, training, and also a will to improve one's performance each time. It takes time to develop a skill.

There have been different attempts to

describe and structure the concept of skill, for example by dividing skills into mental and physical skills. Physical skills give some sort of concrete product: mental skills create ideas, resolutions and plans.

The ability to listen and take others into account are examples of cooperation and interaction skills. Skills related to the acquisition of information and processing it mean that one is able to seek information, evaluate and compare it, and able also to solve problems. In the real world, skills do not appear in pure form, but are manifested as different clusters of skills.

Know-how alone is not enough to change human behaviour; emotion and will are needed as well. In the background of know-how lies the idea of a knowing, 9

feeling human being with a will of his own. It would be mentally unsatisfying to be only able to know and feel but not to have the will to act. It would be equally awkward for an individual to have only the will, without feelings and knowledge.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of acquiring

know-how is a balance, as optimal as possible, of these three mental abilities.

In information society, a central sector of know-how is media skills/media knowhow: media literacy (reading and writing).

Becoming literate in the traditional sense is said to take approximately four years of

Figure 1. Stages of media know-how 10

systematic studies, and the same probably applies for the new dimensions of literacy, media skills and media know-how.

Still, the ability to read is not enough. It can even be viewed as a medium for social control, unless it is combined with the ability to write. The latter can be understood as a means of liberation for the subject, a skill to be used in the creation of media culture. The Aglo-American term literacy includes the skills of reading, writing and calculating (whereas the Finnish language has three separate terms for all three).

Like traditional literacy, media knowhow is also divided into several levels (Fig. 1) Reaching the highest level demands a great deal of know-how, experience and vision. Media know-how is not absolute but relative, with different levels.

In the digital everyday life of information society (Viherä 2009, 115124), media skills can also be classified in terms of abilities, emphasising the same range of know-how as seen in the figure above.

• technical ability to use different media of communication, to choose the right medium for each situation

• ability to compose a message according to the medium used and the situation at hand • ability to receive a message and interpret the sender's code of meaning in the correct way • ability to participate in interactive processes of communication • ability to evaluate the reliability of a message • ability to to use media of communication for facilitating everyday activity • ability to understand the structures of and services provided by communication networks; how these two, within the society's infrastructure, affect one's possibilities to organise activities.

In the information society, the limit between mass communication, small group communication and individual communication is blurred. It is now easy to understand mass media through small group communication: we know how to act as senders and receivers in the communication process – as readers, watchers, listeners – but also as writers, or producers and intermediators of different media texts. Social media, by definition, enable both media culture generating channels, where one reciprocally acts as the object and the subject.

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COOPERATIVE LEARNING Views on learning Behind all systematic studying lies a conception of learning, or an idea of the nature of the leaning process. Learning is a complicated process that can focus for example on the quantitative augmentation of knowledge, memorising, acquisition of know-how, abstraction of meaning, and interpretative skills, by which we attempt to get a better understanding of reality.

Constructive learning underlines flexibility and the need to take the learner’s potential into account. Previously adopted information is used as a basis for learning more. Learning is then a result of the learner’s own activity. Action is guided by its goals, but learning is regulated by what the learner does. In constructive 12

learning, the emphasis put on understanding contributes to a meaningful construction of knowledge. A single piece of information can be interpreted and understood in different ways.

Learning is always context- and situation-related; it does not take place in a vacuum. Social interaction plays a crucial role in learning, which brings us to the concept of socio-constructive learning. The fact that members of a group justify their opinions and findings is a prerequisite for, not only learning from others, but also for questioning one’s own processes of thought.

Goal-oriented learning is a skill that can be improved. However, the crucial factor in goal-oriented learning is motivation. If the learning situation is forced – one is

forced to learn – inner motivation remains absent. Learners with an inner motivation work because they find pleasure in it.

Participation is not dependent on external rewarding.

Inner motivation emerges when a learner feels his existing skills being challenged, curiosity towards deviations from his own standard ideas, or realises the possibility to control his own progress and a true freedom of creating something new.

Dewey ideology There are at least three wide theoretical lines in western education ideology: the view derived from Plato and Aristotle, and the two antitheses, Rousseau’s romantic theory and, on the other hand, Dewey’s pragmatistic theory.

John Dewey (1859-1952) sees the human being as an active and curious actor. Learning, according to Dewey, is primarily problem-solving. New situations raise expectations and assumptions based on previously adopted information, which are then “tested”. The learner redefines his previous information from the basis of self-evaluation of his actions and their results; this process forms the core of learning.

Dewey emphasises the importance of experiential learning. Learning, he claims, has to be anchored in the everyday reality of the learner. The best learning experiences are related to problems raised by the learner, to be solved according to the principles of investigative learning.

The learner’s activity is primordial, especially active search of information.

However, it is essentially important to know what is done and how action is

harnessed as a part of a planned overall event.

Cooperativeness in learning The essential element in cooperative learning is that one grows into taking responsibility over others while taking care of the progress of one’s own learning process. Cooperative learning aims at leading the learners to understand that the group’s success requires everyone’s effort, and that common success benefits all members.

Cooperative learning emphasises, besides cognitive learning results, also the development of selfesteem, social group work skills and learning strategies.

Cooperativeness often implicates internalisation of a new set of norms, viewing learning as a collective, active process. The intention of collaborative learning is not to learn quicker, but better, in a more meaningful manner.

Three interests of knowledge Interests of knowledge are a way of observing learning, especially the way learning experiences organise themselves into social knowledge. The ideas around the interest of knowledge concept are mainly based on the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas.

A technical interest of knowledge is related to skills. Interest is focused on gathering technical information, and it is characterised by instrumentality.

A practical interest of knowledge is related to functionality. It implies activity in historical-societal issues and its 13

characteristic is culture-relatedness.

An emancipatory interest of knowledge is related to power; to the liberation of the human from the chains of tradition and social coercion. It is dynamic and critical by nature. Interest is focused on

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developing the individual’s own life conditions and society. The first two interests are fundamental to social development. The third one is an inevitable element in all interpersonal relations, but is based on the first two interests.

OBJECTIVES OF KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT Implementation of the objectives People often take part in social decisionmaking and activity through civic organisations. In order to fully participate, both communities and their individual members need communication skills and knowledge.

The objective of Know-how-talkoot is to provide communities with better communication skills and create communication policies that are in use also after the project. In the background of all action is the idea that everyone has the right to be seen and heard, to express themselves and participate. This requires access to networks, technical know-how, understanding and motivation.

We also aim at bringing IT professionals and citizens closer to each

other, adopting a user-centred mode of thought, changing the model of action and increasing innovativity.

In order to implement the objectives, information technology skills are divided into four sectors: basic skills, unconstrained skills, creative skills, and an ability to understand the meanings, influence and possibilities of a network.

(Talkootuutti 1/2009) Food, prepared and enjoyed together, is considered an important issue in a successful talkoot event. Preparing and enjoying meals together is an attempt to create forums for interaction, on which creative ideas come bubbling out and develop into shared goals. The purpose is to create a good atmosphere and a spirit of cooperation.

There are always two pilots present in a 15

Know-how-talkoot event. They bring along software and expertise according to what the group is about to produce. The pilots are trained as instructors, so that they are able to cooperate in a creative way with the talkoo group. They give advice and guide the participants, and ensure that the event keeps in schedule. However, pilots give only support and assistance; members of the community for which the talkoot event was organised will do the work themselves.

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Outcome of the implementation The results are evaluated in this study from the perspective of “pedagogical testing�.

The evaluation seeks to give answers to the following questions: 1. What kind of conception of learning is Know-how-talkoot activity based on?

2. Which interest of knowledge can be perceived in the background?

3. What is done in a talkoot event, how, and before all why, for which purposes?

EVALUATION OF KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT ACTIVITY Research data Project diaries (dated 4.12.2008 – 9.12.2011) are the central material used in the evaluation, as well as descriptions of talkoot events (2.2.2009 – 11.12.2009). Background interviews made by members of the project steering group/Susanna Kivelä in the beginning of the project are used as additional material.

Self-evaluation reports by 2009 – 2011 students of the Laurea University ofApplied Sciences are used as a discretionary sample (final reports by 30 students). The group of students took a 5 study point optional pilot training course.

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Data analysis Project diaries and event description materials are treated qualitatively, using a content analysis method. A ten part framework for classification, used for describing successful group work in cooperative learning, was adapted to fit the purposes of this study (SahlbergLeppilampi 1994, 69). a) Members of the group depend on each other: one for all and all for one. b) Group members are collectively responsible; no hitchhikers. c) Heterogenic groups; difference is made useful. d) Common leadership, shared on the level of attitudes. e) Group members assume responsibility for others and the functioning of the entire group. f) Task-orientation and commitment to persistent work with joint responsibility within the group. g) Interaction skills are practiced repeatedly. h) Learning is a process where the instructor observes the group’s activity, interfering if need be, by guiding and encouraging. i) The group evaluates its own work. Members give each other feedback, and comment the feedback they receive. j) Listening, appreciation, putting one’s own stake in the entire group’s work.

A content analysis is also made on selfevaluations by students who took part in pilot training. A five step framework is used here: conception of learning, motivation, group work skills, application and future perspective. The framework is developed on the basis of the answers given.

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KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT AS A PEDAGOGICAL MODEL Pedagogical testing has basically progressed as a hermeneutical circle: presuppositions on the subject in the theory section, preliminary understanding accumulates as the work progresses, then a spiral-like approach to the results. In the following, research findings are presented discretionarily as direct citations (indent and smaller font size a markers)

from talkoo diaries, event descriptions as well as final reports of pilot trainees.

Interpretation is based on the citations, theoretical concepts mentioned above, and the questions used for evaluation.

Evaluation results and their interpretation Cooperative group work – classification A. INTERDEPENDENCY

Group members depend on each other: all for on, one for all.

We found strengths in different projects, and now we are boosting this community spirit.

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The human being is vulnerable in information warfare. Sustainable development and longterm effects develop slowly in a culture, based on its values. Schooling and education are in a key position, as well as all cultural work, of course. Discussion and communication, the Habermasian type of communication and argumentation. Only through these can we become independent, faced with information pollution. Increasingly, I see talkoot as a means for growing into a culture of peace.

Clever methods in information technology are also useful in our progression towards transparency and openness.

In the background of collaborative learning lies the idea that everyone learns individually in a community, also finding more joy in the process of learning. Cooperation brings a new dimension to this concept, it increases solidarity between the members, and probably grows the social capital – as defined by Bourdieux – of the active subjects. But learning, as it takes place in a community, must be at least partly different. – Could it be that a meaningful experience, a memory for instance, increases the efficacy of collaborative learning?

A library is a suitable place to organise a talkoot event. Cooperation with libraries is worth considering.

The biggest challenges of talkoot are to make the audience understand the paradigm shift in the initiation of technology: in talkoot activity, existing communities, the community spirit they create, their way of life are among the things to maintain. Technology is introduced in the service of this way of life.

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In a typical setting, individuals are the target of education. Here, however, the target is an existing community. A community is not created for education purposes, but the idea is to use an existing structure, in which education further enhances collaboration.

Interpersonal communication is a natural phenomenon within communities.

It may sometimes be difficult to set a common goal. It could be that no all are willing to participate, the time may not be right, perhaps someone already has a strong opinion and fails to listen to others.

Basic questions of learning organisation and collaborative learning are well exemplified in the diary entries. Talkoot events do not take place in a vacuum, but participants depend on each other and their connections in society. When action is directed towards a common goal, all work for one and one for all.

Know-how-talkoot, as the name suggests, is based on the old Finnish talkoot tradition: together, with a goal that all share, we achieve more than separate individuals would. The talkoo spirit raises itself spontaneously.

B. INDIVIDUAL REPONSIBILITY

Group members have an individual responsibility; no hitchhikers.

I am more and more convinced about the importance of talkoot in maintaining an open society of trust. If we only wrote anonymously on a global scale, what would happen to trust?

Would you dare to say anything face to face if

you did not know who will distort and change your thoughts? And where do elderly people’s opinions go if we cannot collectively learn the use of communication devices, and discuss things and topics beforehand.

learner and the world. There are plenty of things that raise interest – if one adopts new information or skills, one takes part in a process of transforming oneself and the world according to the knowledge and skills adopted.

In the context of talkoot, questions have been raised about individual ways of learning and the relation of these to collaborative learning. The answer to the question which comes first, the answer would probably be that social development takes place on a scale theory <- . -> practice. Development takes both The motive becomes ever more important. directions, alternately.

In talkoot, the learner has the ultimate There are people who first want to learn all the responsibility for learning. Therefore, theoretical background, and only start doing inner motivation to achieve a common things after that. But there are also people who goal is a key factor. In this situation, no one takes a “free ride” in common action; prefer to start doing, and ask about theory or every participant is responsible for user tips as they progress. Talkoot is intended achieving the work. for the latter. In talkoot, we learn in the same As we are learning a new way of acting, it is certainly best to learn together in the same place. If we have a common vision, and we all scatter to study in different places to follow through the vision, maybe then individual learning is more fruitful.

manner as a child does: we just get started!

Pick up a camera and start shooting. You must first give a motive and then give advice.

Experiential learning is more than cognitive learning; one can know and still not understand. Experience turns knowledge into understanding.

The dynamics and influence of the process is thus based in an individual’s or community’s own strength, and takes its direction spontaneously.

Could it be so that meetings/networking and learning can only be combined when all are willing to learn the same thing?

Learning (irreversibly) changes both the

C. HETEROGENITY

Heterogenic groups: making use ofdifference.

The concept demands courage and faith, as there are different people in every talkoot event: those who are more ready to join, and those whose enthusiasm is of a milder sort.

It is difficult to be sure beforehand the degree of heterogeneity in the group. The pilots have to handle the situation well and bring it all home.

Know-how-talkoot is a project that bites into Finnish everyday life, and it should be carried through in Finnish language, even technical

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language should be clarified.

overcome!

When the whole community is chosen as the target group, we ensure that the community cooperates. Making things go forward becomes easier and common understanding is increased. This has to do with democracy and openness, and the fact that communities develop a common language.

The pilot’s job is very challenging and requires a lot of different skills. Someone who gets trained as a pilot and can manage the task well, has got such a share of skills that he/she can make it just fine almost anywhere; it is a single package with lots of technical, social and organising skills, content-related skills, and even self-knowledge.

Immigrants from the school have astonishingly well found their way into the cooperation; they seem relaxed, have lively discussions among themselves and with us.

Communication works in many languages.

– It is encouraging to notice that this functional working method brings results, even with incomplete language skills.

Collaborative action shows that a group is more than the sum of its individual actors.

Difference brings new energy to group dynamics; difference is used successfully.

Working in a heterogeneous group supports the development of cognitive and metacognitive skills of the members, as the most skilled in the group can encourage the less skilled and act as a model for them.

D. COMMON LEADERSHIP

Common leadership, shared on the level ofattitudes.

I trust the pilots! It is wonderful to notice, to feel that pilots are skilled and can handle their duties. And of course the fact that villages have power, and cooperation and doing give results, and small difficulties are made to 22

Pilots should not – and may not – be besserwissers. On the contrary, it is nice to realise that the talkoot group members can do a lot, and a lot more than the pilots can. Skills are then useful for one’s own community.

A learning event is different from a training event. Training always involves a teacher who does the teaching, whereas learning is a situation in which we learn, by ourselves or together. In collaborative learning everyone learns something, in that situation, from others, or by experience – that is, from collective experience. This is what it is all about, and that is what we need.

If you took this model of pilot training to a company or other organisation and worked there for five days, their social income would go exploding to a new level, new perspectives would be found for problems, and common objective-oriented thinking would increase.

How can you plunge into the world where all is not self-evident? How do you get the talent of helping others without taking the role of the boss!

The human being is a cultural, extremely

social phenomenon. Hyper-collectivity marks the difference between people and other creatures. People are made for teaching and learning. Talkoot is exactly based on the idea that all are each other’s teachers, and more things are achieved together than individually.

the other hand, the risk of failing is not the burden of just one person.

Everyone has the right, according to their individual needs, to be skilled in using and have access to data networks (proposed addition to UN Declaration of Human Rights).

Task-orientation and commitment to persistent work with joint responsibility within the group.

The idea of mutual responsibility and responsibility over the functioning of the whole group seems to be well adopted Common leadership, shared on the level of within the talkoot concept. It seems also attitudes seems to be effective within the that the three existential basic needs are talkoot concept (further explained in the answered to within the talkoot event: the need to be organised, the need to join, and section Pilots and pilot training). the need to do. It is essential for people’s existence and balanced development to become organised by means of thinking, to E. RESPONSIBILITY OVER OTHERS join others on an emotional level and to Group members assume responsibility exist through meaningful action. for others and the functioning ofthe entire group.

People whether they are entrepreneurs or others, young or old, do not know the policies and practices of the electronic world, and therefore there is a great need for talkoot.

In addition to developing new things, it is important to ensure that no one is left outside unwillingly. This is what we are here for at the talkoot event.

Should the hidden curriculum containing the objectives of talkoot be made public beforehand, for example getting started, making it through chaos, tolerating insecurity – these all useful skills in the future?

Working becomes in every way easier when we can for example write documents collectively. Everyone gets involved and, on

F. PERSISTENCE

Are we living in a pop in society? This is often done both physically and virtually. An important principle of talkoot, one of the good practices, is to finish the product. Nothing is finished by just popping in, the result is just a multitude of ideas and unstarted work. – Here the joyful feeling of achieving something holds the highest rank. Everyone has moments like this in every talkoot event.

When we talk about IT skills. technology and content, it is worth noting that in fact young people learn to use the equipment quite effortlessly. But one’s own inventiveness may not be enough, unless one is given a chance to try and work things out together, including the content. When you have your own subject to 23

photograph, you have the highest motivation and small technical limitations don’t bother you. Again, if you start working on a subject given by a teacher, you will find it harder to find enthusiasm, and you just complain about inoperative software, incompatible hardware etc. And you wait for someone to bring you the results. This tends to suffocate creativity and inventiveness.

Producing things on your own and in cooperation with others is important in talkoot, the process and its results that everyone can be happy about. Making things ready is one of the sources of happiness in life. Let us cherish it, instead of aiming for the best possible result – the best is the enemy of good.

Getting things ready is one of our good practices. Experience has proved that doing so, we also gain community spirit, fun and fruitful interaction.

One of the most important skills in the future is probably the ability to tolerate uncertainty.

It is good to have a basic plan, a vision on what you are going to do. Or, still more important, to know, to be conscious of the values and basic principles according to which you act and live.

Browsing active and other pages, different forums for meeting, we have had topics of discussion that have a deep relation with talkoot: trust, influencing, cooperation. We also asked ourselves what is the limit in the number of forums and meeting places one can regularly visit and be active in.

Young people are quite lost with futures 24

thinking, and also communities often lack future-oriented thinking and action. Why then should we not expand the content of talkoot into future-oriented activity? We should cling more on the principle of finished works. We should have taken less tasks and be more realistic as to what results we can achieve during the event.

Working together until the work is done is the most unique feature. There are many unique properties that could be transferred into education and business life. There are plenty of examples for best practice here.

Work according to the principle of talkoot justifiably reveals the nowadays typical “here and now” attitude, a certain lack of historical understanding: as an antithesis, we constantly return to the power of inner motivation and the necessity of accomplishing projects. Perseverance often seems to be linked with sensations of joy and success, essential for a good learning process.

Besides task-orientation, people in talkoo projects commit themselves to persistent work with shared responsibility.

G. INTERACTION SKILLS

Interaction skills are practiced repeatedly.

What kind of network services does Finland need: a nice application platform, easy and comfortable, with an option to write notes on the location you choose – are we moving towards a society of short and quick opinions?

In talkoot, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to groan alone with the computer and your problems, but solutions are found together. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s it! Doing together is fun and gives good results, and knowledge adopted collectively adds to the social capital of the community.

The atmosphere was again full of enthusiasm!

So many simultaneous things happen during the talkoot event that it is sometimes difficult to recognise them: we learn to understand information technology, both technically and in terms of content, strengthen our human and interactive relations, discuss topics that relate or do not relate to the subject, encourage each other, feed ourselves spiritually and physically, get things ready, laugh. Everyone plays some important role.

Everyone in a group gets to design layouts, write and take pictures for their own stories.

As we work in a group, et is important to take others into account. Regardless the size of the group, skills are strengthened. Everyone has special talents on some sector. Doing together, there is always someone available if you need support. The uncertainty you often feel when you are working alone does not appear in a group.

People are often not ready to have discussions and produce information to be published online.

An inspiring vision, a common discussion of local and village associations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; interaction between engineering and people!

This is like an onion: communities are the

core, and collective communication is strongly present. For a community, what are the best and worst consequences of being part of a network society?

In neo-liberal hegemony, we are always on the losing side. For that we need strong counterinformation. We have to be able to seek information and involve people who are already well informed. We must also be able to spread the information and know who to tell, when and what to do, and how.

Evolution in learning has turned communities into subjects. Through communities, different things are created, compared to a situation where we just serve the different needs of the community. You are then part of something to begin with.

In international comparison, Finnish communication has been considered by default slow, disinclined and reserved.

There are references to this also in the diary entries. Communicating face to face may well be more difficult, but communication devices bring relief to this Finnish clumsiness; devices give a suitable amount of distance and by that encourage into self-expression. People involved in talkoot get inevitable and excellent training in Interaction skills, repeatedly, all the time.

Development work can proceed linearly or in interaction. Interactive development is based on collaborative learning. In a process of collaborative learning, new skills are produced in interaction with others. It is therefore important that all participants bring their specific skills to the use of others.

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H. LEARNING AS A PROCESS

Learning is a process where the instructor observes the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activity, interfering ifneed be, by guiding and encouraging.

Adopting new practices in theory is very difficult, but trying things independently can change an old habit: it is about unlearning.

Once you have realised something, you cannot return to the past state of incomprehension.

This is a liberating experience, although it can cause anxiousness beforehand.

Two important skills of the future that are difficult to learn: open-mindedness and tolerance of uncertainty.

There are two different main points that guide the learning event: inner motivation to do or be able to do something, and the power of example. Inner motivation is a difficult thing: is it endogenous or do you just imagine it is.

Communication skills are strengthened when information technology is used together with others, in a way that differs from the typical.

Following a model of doing together, we are more eager to get started with things, more self-directed, and less hesitant in creating content on our own.

The most important elements in this project are the model of operation and the combination of communication and information technology. A method of collaborative learning has been created here!

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Viewpoints of the learner, the person, and the community are emphasised in the learning process.

One of the ideas in talkoot is that we choose the software and the participants donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to worry about them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; although they can, if they want to. They can also use their own software, in case there is a skilled member of the group who is able to delegate the use smoothly during the event and does not leave the rest of the group constantly dependent on assistance, for example in updating web pages. This is the ideal situation, of course, but we advance towards it, step by step. One can also always dream of technology becoming human-size.

The idea of giving advice: When you ask someone for advice, it is like giving a present, shoeing trust. The recipient, in return, has a feeling of receiving a gift, of being trusted upon. Step by step, they become mutually more conscious of their skills, and appreciate each other more.

Talkoot is unique in the sense that a lot of effort is put willingly into the project. It would be good if the concept and method were continued after the project. The working method is not that of typical project work.

The culture of empowerment. In order to be able to organise ourselves, we must be free and skilled people. Human conception is the thing. The world will crumble down unless we share that.

Collaborative learning can be described as interaction between a novice and an expert. In the interactive process, the

expert gives support to the novice so that the latter reaches a level of more advanced skills. A novice reaches the expert level through experience. Starting a learning process leads to the recognition of new possibilities, and to rising expectations.

Learning in collaborative group work is a process in which the instructor observes the functioning of groups, and, if necessary, interferes by guiding and encouraging. This exactly seems to be the basic principle of the pilots’ work.

skills and learning human qualities, or is it possible for example for a community to change its behaviour, learn a new model of action and in that sense be a learning community? Is that more than the sum of what individuals learn?

The group evaluates its own work.

Members give each other feedback, and comment the feedback they receive.

The word hindsight makes me first think of contempt. But it is not so! If we didn’t discuss and evaluate the event afterwards with hindsight, we could hardly do anything better the next time, we would just repeat the same mistakes. A complaint or a remark is actually a badly phrased suggestion for improvement. – In everyday life we practice for turning problems into solutions. This is what we naturally have to do all the time in talkoot.

In many talkoot events, it is wise to find out if there might be a demand for improving the communication skills in the existing community; is the community understood as viable and satisfying.

I had my reservations about the attitudes of the group towards this kind of training. However, everyone seemed to be happy; the event was different from any previous one.

I. EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK

What is work? When the target group of talkoot consists of working or job-seeking people, who are they actually? What jobs are they seeking? Is work only salaried work in the service of others, or can you include the accumulation of social capital that benefits the whole community and, by extension, work that improves the viability of the whole area?

In the case of more immaterial work, it is often challenging to measure the results. – We are dealing with quite a tangle of economic, cultural and social problems.

We pondered on many concepts, their meaning. For example: is a learning organisation possible, or a learning area? Are

It is usual in collaborative learning that the group makes a self-evaluation of its work.

Participants give feedback to each other and comment the feedback they are given.

At this point, a wise and cautious practice has been adopted – evaluation of the results and self-evaluation of the actors has been left to a minimum. Giving and receiving feedback can in the worst case damp down interactive learning; severe evaluation can restrict the space reserved for the joy of learning and the delight of self-expression.

People of different skill levels join talkoo groups. The intention is never to achieve results comparable to those of media professionals. The emphasis is on general education in media skills.

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J. APPRECIATION

Listening, appreciation, putting one’s own stake in the entire group’s work.

The talkoot project is also a little inner journey in today’s world, constantly performing, and above all in our profession, which is very focused on performance – a diploma alone is not worth studying for.

The most important component of social capital is trust and predictability, based on truth, actually. Networking requires social capital to become fruitful familiarity.

I am glad to see that the pages have been updated with events, which means that the villagers have adopted them and they are updated all the time.

Teachers cannot encourage into creativity and self-expression, as the pupils might create something the teacher does not intend or want.

If this is the case, it is wrong. People’s growth and possibility for self-realisation are then fettered. Still, a teacher should teach ethics and values. Is this the case with technology too? If you are not in the very centre of developing technology, you will never get your own creative applications, as they might be a threat to the image of developers. Are everyday innovations ever realised unless they are in line with an official innovation programme and immediately understood by the financer? Talkoot is ever more important, since it is a forum for creating new things together without anybody dictating what the product should be. Every participant brings along his or her skills and dreams. And they can result to something new, as long as the 28

working method is rooted into the day to day work.

The starting point of service and application development is almost unexceptionally technology itself. We could alternatively choose a way of life as a basis, and see how technology can forward or impede this way of life.

When we learn an entirety together, and are able to see every separate performance, we also learn to appreciate the doings of others, which brings joy in our work.

Cultural arrogance is obvious at least when you think you know better what is in the best interest of others, when you think you know better than an expert of another field, better than someone with a different experience etc.

The cure for cultural arrogance is tolerance, empathetic listening, finding out about things, recognising different views, seeing values in the background of things.

The basic principles of collaborative learning are carefully followed in talkoot: in collaborative group work, members of the group support each other’s personal growth and self-esteem; listening and appreciation, doing one’s part for the group’s work are essential things.

The concept of social capital, often mentioned in the talkoo diaries, is related to rtust, security and daring. Trust and appreciation seem to arise spontaneously; appreciation comes from encouragement, listening to others and examination of the finished product with the group.

Choosing food, preparing and enjoying a meal More and more often food is understood as culture that has an important role as a provider of collective experiences. Values based on human needs are autonomous.

Substituting one sector of values with another is impossible; all three sectors are necessary for fulfilling human needs: material, social and spiritual values.

Cuisine is a constantly topical and relevant subject. Food is part of the Finns’ daily life and celebrations. It has an instrumental function as we deal with societal issues, such as the well-being of people, animals and the environment.

Scoring food makes the atmosphere relaxed, and cooperation is relaxing too. Little by little everyone gets excited about the idea of their own web pages. Everyone can, and is committed.

The pilot day was started by scoring, giving points to food, since we had the opportunity to cook. A lot of time was used for explaining the method, for it is an important thing in talkoot, and scoring can be used for finding a solution for many other things as well. It is a method also for keeping the decision-making process transparent.

People who are used to eating whatever they get, and those who usually decide for others, may find the scoring method very hard.

Should it be so that it involves only those who want to take part and learn a creative method for problem resolution? In this way though, we would lose the advantage of everyone seeing how decision-making can be made

open and inclusive.

Food scoring is a guide to open decisionmaking, it gives a voice to the silent, takes away all the groans, lets you know how others think, creates an open environment for work.

The importance of food is tremendous, it keeps you going, and the day doesn’t feel hard. The importance of food is well understood in immigrant groups, for them especially, food is also a cultural factor.

Despite a difficult start, cooking was a success and raised our community spirit. Cooking lowers the threshold.

Light activity and precisely focused groups with their clearly focused themes – at best, social capital would give possibilities for other kinds of talks as well – cooking can open a path in this direction – it gives a break from focusing on the theme.

Social capital is interesting. It includes this thing of hearing and being heard, and sociability as well. Cooking is a fantastic part of it. This is the capital you can take with you, the constant kind.

To what degree is an emancipator process dependent on means and methods? This repertoire of methods could be quite varied, and it could be analytically defined which ones make it recognisably the same. Media, expression, togetherness – eating is also a part of life. In how many different ways can we act and still include these – the smallest necessary common factor?

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Food was a surprise in pilot training.

Organising the meal was a more festive event than I had expected. The food was delicious, one of the most impressive things during the day.

The process of preparing food is similar to learning processes in general: producing ideas, planning, getting materials, preparing, finishing and enjoying the results in a group. The analogy is obvious.

Common doing, more related to everyday life and familiar to all, produces intuitive understanding about the possibilities offered by technology in daily life. In this way, the languages of technology and everyday life come closer to each other.

For example, making a video on cooking is meaningful, because of the popularity of food programmes on TV. One indicator of the importance of food is probably the fact that Finnish TV channels broadcast over 160 cooking programmes weekly.

The scoring system used for choosing food is a method of creative problemsolving that aims at finding a common view. In the choice of food, the method works especially well as a “warm-up” when the group is not yet very intimate.

It has been stated in learning theories that the biggest obstacles for learning are emotional. The scoring method is efficient in removing those obstacles. This is an approach to suggestopedia, where a relaxed atmosphere is created before introducing the actual learning objects.

Furthermore, choosing food, preparing and enjoying the meal implement the transfer effect in learning: learning in one sector facilitates learning in new areas – food and the scoring method vs. information technology.

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Pilots and pilot training Metaphoric thinking guides our daily thoughts perhaps more than we realise.

Pilot or piloting is an excellent metaphor of Know-how-talkoot. A maritime pilot steps on board a ship that comes from the free, open sea, as a colleague who, together with the ship crew steers the ship on a safe route to the harbour. The pilot theme underlines the freedom of learning.

This is a way to avoid teaching from an authoritative perspective, an approach to shared leadership, a typical form in collaborative learning.

The following is a content-analytical observation of the students’ own evaluations of their pilot training, as they are presented in the final reports.

A different learning approach I think the talkoot was a nice event, and the method was refreshing, compared to normal teaching.

Entering the role of the pilot was the most significant learning experience during the whole period, because during those days, I could get a realistic image of what it is like to work as a pilot.

We were taught different methods of action, and personally I learned the importance of equality in team work.

The teaching style in talkoot is guiding and learning, simultaneously. The intention is to make observations of things, which then signal

that in cooperation, by joining resources, more and greater thing can be achieved than in a situation where people work on an individual level.

The action was insufficient, which made the situation quite dull and boring. However, it was a lesson on perseverance and on how to follow the situation in an uncomfortable setting.

If the pilots had first carried through their own projects, guiding new students might have concentrated too much on teaching and software. Using the method of starting to work as a pilot just like that, unprepared, the pilots are more focused on people and groups.

I liked the course in the sense that it was completely different from any course so far. It was organised in a different manner; projects were realised in different environments, free and independent work was made possible, and long working days were used for finishing each project.

This course has been an interesting experience. Lots of experiences, lots of learning too. It is nice to be able to learn and suss things on your own, and still be within the reach of help if you need some. One learns very well by doing. Also the cheerful and helpful attitude of the pilots made me excited and motivated. It was also nice not to be faced with expectations of previously adopted skills â&#x20AC;&#x201C; everyone was treated as an individual.

Talkoot as a course has been a mindbroadening experience, quite exactly matching my expectations about studying, that is doing

things in practice and learning through discussion. We have been able to use our creativity and express ourselves freely with no framework or limitations, which has been really enjoyable.

As I think about measures to ensure future skills, I could imagine that teaching information technology and community informatics at school could be started earlier.

Motivation and the joy of learning During this course were able to express ourselves in ways that differ from the normal, in different environments, which was energizing.

Talkoot unite people in an exceptional way.

Luckily, I was able to change my attitude in a positive direction, and things worked out. The result was truly rewarding.

Talkoot was essentially a nice experience, and I might feel the same way in the future too.

All the projects have been just splendid, and the best thing in them has been the fantastic group spirit. Ideas were abundant and we all had fun.

Guidance was good, not too authoritative. We were able to say our own opinions and they were heard.

I learned a lot during these days, about software and communications. The pilotsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own talkoot days were a good supplement to the 31

study module.

In my opinion, Know-how-talkoot proves everyone that anybody with the will can do it.

As an experience, the study module was perhaps one of the best.

It is a good thing that the instructors dropped by from time to time and asked how we were doing, if we were on schedule, and they gave us little hints and ideas for the projects.

Otherwise the project would have been left unfinished.

During the projects of pilot training one could think about the different starting points of users, such as lack of motivation, or the antipathy felt by some towards the use of information technology and towards their own role as members of the information society.

One of the main tasks of a pilot is to make people feel they have succeeded.

It was a happy surprise that we could do something creative and had the whole day to do it.

In general, it seemed that the general feeling of the group was positive about the whole thing. People were satisfied with the contents of the course and the activity, and there was nothing to complain about.

If my attitude was a bit negative when the session began, the good spirit of the group during the session and the positive way work was done did change my attitude to positive.

One must always get along with different 32

people, develop oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skills. Encouraging others and guiding them is always a useful skill, and there is no harm in boosting group spirit.

The Know-how-talkoot project is a good invention that teaches communication skills through the use of software, by working in groups â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in a way that is also fun.

Group work skills and teamwork A group is more efficient than an individual in gathering resources and problems are solved more easily together. Thinking back now, the atmosphere of talkoot was very encouraging and everyone in the group was in a good working mood.

As a whole, the atmosphere and spirit were excellent.

My own feelings afterwards are mainly positive. Education gave me more selfconfidence in new situations, with new people.

Pilots learn group work skills, making compromises, scheduling projects, making scenarios, recording and editing.

Instructors and teachers were good. You could always get help and guidance when you needed it, for that, a big plus for the whole course. They did not force their own opinions or views, but let everyone work in their own way.

The teamwork skills that are improved during pilot training can certainly be used in the

future. Planning and accomplishing are also things that should be taken care of in the future.

The course has been a good experience, and it is easy to keep that spirit in group work in the future.

Realising the projects during this course has taught me group work skills, which is useful in many situations, at work and on my free time.

It has been nice to come up with ideas for the project and figure things out together. I have learned to know other people and myself better during the course. The togetherness during the course was also a joy for me.

Applications in business life Things learned in pilot training can also be applied outside the talkoot concept; for example at work, you gain more self-reliance and new methods in project management.

You can certainly find quite a range of applications in business life for what has been learned during talkoot. Working on projects, you can manage the role of someone who leads the project and gets others excited about it. Surely you also have more courage to take new challenges, for example in a situation where you have to learn to use a new application. It becomes easier to work with people previously unknown to you, which of course paces up your work, as you have the courage to get acquainted with people in the first place.

Skills adopted during pilot training can be

brought to working life as well. Teamwork skills, leadership, transfer of information and learning new skills are typical activities in today’s working life.

As I see it, one cannot cope anymore in a modern work community without being able to cooperate with others, and without good skills for interaction within an organisation.

This is what we have gathered abilities for in talkoot by, for example cooperating with students we did not know in advance.

The know-how adopted during pilot training can be applied in the IT sector, in many ways and many different subsectors. Nowadays, teamwork is emphasised in almost every line of business, and this is true in information technology as well. It is a very important thing that people in the same workplace get along well. This is also a way of enhancing communication in a company, making it functional and uninterrupted.

Communication training could be offered as projects of the same type as talkoot, with companies and clubs and the like as target groups. There could also be courses open for all. Also schools should have communication training in their curricula at an early stage, only because of problems related to data security.

Especially the “straight to work” method in the beginning can bring some advantages when you are faced with new challenges at work, or when you have unexpected things along a project.

The group’s opinion was that the things 33

learned were useful for working life. It is good to have different views to compare in decision-making. It was stated that the methods are actually less often used at workplaces. It was important to understand how a method works. We had internalised the issue.

One has to be able to share one’s know-how in working life, and to present one’s own ideas on how to carry through a project, or ideas on developing work and working methods.

Openness is important, and one has to know how to adapt one’s own teaching methods so that those with a different style of learning can benefit as well.

I believe the know-how that developed or further developed during the course can be made use of in any IT job. There is always a demand for leaders and experts with social skills, and different kinds of informatics skills are naturally useful for someone in that business.

Future perspective The future. Unless education is provided, or some sort of guidance, people’s preparedness for using different technologies will drop. This can bring many obstacles in many people’s way.

I wish that at some point courses of this type that maintain the informatics skills of people of pensionable age would be organised in communes, at affordable prices, so that everyone could enrol.

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If we should be able to use developing technologies also in the future, we need to study and learn, pass on the know-how. I think the course was a worthwhile experience and I would be ready to take part in talkoot activity after this study period as well.

Pilot training is a crucial thing for the success of the entire project. Without pilots, there are no talkoot events, and without the latter, information technology skills will not be disseminated as planned, there will be no results or continuity.

Pilot training seems to have been particularly successful as an instructor training programme, despite the challenges of the task. The feedback in general has been positive, although it has been given by youth with sharp eyes and ears. Pilot training sums up well the fundamental ideas of talkoot. The old Socratic idea of using dialogue in learning is also brought out in the training context.

A pilot’s know-how requires skills in the areas of data processing and problem resolution. Psycho-physical skills are another requirement, for example creativity, ability to act intuitively, and practical, manual skills. Their experiential capital of skills is accumulated in each talkoot event: skills of expression, compassion, life management.

On a community level, pilots need to be skilled in planning and organising work: technical skills, work security related, process management, communication, leadership and management skills... All in all, the task is highly demanding.

Partners At the initial stage of the project, partners’ views on the talkoot concept were charted.

Technically speaking, a t3 model can be copied, but the set of values under the tip of the iceberg as well as the concept of man are the substance that does not feature on reports.

How does the hidden substance survive when people disappear?

Most of the important things start from the edges, the margin, instead of the middle.

addition to the actual, intended product. One of these is social capital.

A network-like society is a possibility and a threat. Solidifying networks vs. a network where new things are created.

Active citizenship is citizen activity on grassroots level. Participation – when the transition into electronic services takes place – you are able to take care of the things that concern you in that situation. You are an active member of the society once you have the basic skills.

The concept of social capital as defined by Bourdieu emerges and re-emerges. It is Natural wastage appears in statistics, as the eldest people may not learn this, but we should valuable that the concept of man and the underlying world view have been accelerate this cycle, especially in the age pondered on and sketched at the initial groups with the smallest proportion of users, stage of the project. Know-how-talkoot has in order to take the leap sooner. been active in finding answers to the many themes brought up by its partners.

Parmenides had the idea that nothing changes.

One might say that individualism, even Everything returns to the original place extreme individualism, is still on the rise in our society, whereas community-oriented, unchanged, in a cyclical way. Change is an illusion. Heraclitus in turn said the essence of altruistic values threateningly weakening.

Shared knowledge and shared values the world is that everything changes. figure among the basic constituents of Something has always changed. We are culture. What will happen to a culture attached to that time and environment, and it changes even if we don’t, and as it changes, so where these are lacking?

Know-how-talkoot works in a goaldo we. Stepping into the same stream, that’s oriented to increase social capital, giving the thing. In this project, both of these support to individuals and communities gentlemen have a role to play. alike, with a double purpose of maintaining media culture and changing Know-how-talkoot has many side products, in and renovating it.

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CONCLUSION A crystallised conception of learning The Know-how-talkoot project crystallises the basic policies of good collaborative learning and Deweyan ideas of experiential process learning. Talkoot even goes beyond these two, with a new type of fresh, holistic touch. The intention of talkoot is not to present problems, but to find solutions.

Talkoot learning has a central goal of “converting technology to human size”.

Talkoot ideology is probably influenced in the background by a concept of man where “free and skilled people” are trusted upon.

Talkoot learning is about constructing and transforming multi-dimensional, networked information. The danger of learning and understanding is often that they are substituted 36

by quasi-performance. But talkoot activity has been successful in creating strong inner motivation. The action is not merely superficial; learning has been internalised in a new manner. The project gives clear indications of what pedagogy should be practised in virtual learning environments.

Know-how-talkoot lives and advances according to its teachings. Activity is sectioned according to experiences in the field and adopted while developing the work of the pilots. Experiential learning is understood as more advanced than cognitive learning: experience transforms knowledge into comprehension.

It must be admitted that the initial phase of the project has been marked by many questions concerning information technology and administration instead of those related to learning.

Problems of compatibility emerge constantly, and there is an obvious need for standardisation. On the other hand, the project involves a number of partners from different sectors, which has lead to a broad understanding oflearning in information society.

The contents as such are not the objective of education; the focus is on the adoption of the tools and practices of citizen communication â&#x20AC;&#x201C; processes as the subject of learning.

However, the diversity and multi-dimensionality of communication has been well exemplified in the contents.

Talkoot events have given experience on learners of two levels: the actual talkoot crew, and students in pilot training, instructor trainees that is. Experiences in both groups were very similar.

TALKOOT ACTIVITY dependencies individual responsibility heterogeneity shared leadership responsibility over others persistence interaction skills learning as a process evaluation and feedback appreciation

Figure 2. Unconventional learning outcomes and methods of implementation in Know-how-talkoot

PILOT TRAINING motivation and joy of learning

future perspective group work skills and teamwork a different learning approach applications in working life

Talkoo diaries contain many concepts that are not typically associated with learning (Figure 2).

They are occasionally be highlighted as general goals of education and as part of the hidden curriculum, but the writers are seldom able to concretise them. In the course of talkoot events, the learners have at least partially been able to move from these theoretical concepts into actual implementation, from a written strategy to lived experience.

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Emerging feelings of joy and happiness during the talkoot event are repeatedly reported in the diaries. It is worth noting that anyone who has, out of free will, been able to take part in a project, regardless how small, and succeeded in it, has had feelings of joy and happiness. In pedagogics the term flow is used for this.

It is related to an experience of learning effortlessly, forgetting the things that happen around. With adequate talent and skills, something more creative can take form on the basis of such a working mood.

From the point of view of general education, small experiences of success often support a greater issue. Experience, the result of one’s know-how and action, is actually a central motivating force for humans. The spontaneous and concrete objective-orientation of talkoot activity increases motivation significantly.

Learning in Know-how-talkoot is a result of the interaction of cognitive and emotional factors.

Learning is development, and development is qualitative change in relation to one’s own thinking and actions, and the society.

Mistakes and even failed attempts are part of reasoning. They should be filtered out of the process of teaching and guiding.

Education is always based on a power relationship: the stronger guide the weaker.

There are horrifying examples of this also in European history. Therefore, it is no wonder that the developers of talkoot avoid the combination of words education/teaching, and prefer to use other concepts instead. On the other hand, debate over the harmfulness of traditional education and the primary nature of the new type of learning is vain, in the sense that all acts of teaching and guiding aim at learning.

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Always at the optimal age According to the prevailing view in adult education, people maintain their capacity to learn until the age of over 80. Still, perhaps a mature adult student should be granted the right to learn things he or she shows genuine interest for. Know-howtalkoot could present one perspective here.

In a networking information society, aged people have the skills and performance that are essential for value creation in a community.

An aged person in this programme is defined as over 55 years, at the age of working. Nevertheless, the civil society relies for a great part on people over 65; the specific group that requests and needs informatics skills. Also the creation of the society’s social capital depends on retired people; they are active in voluntary work.

In the situation where a community’s communication skills should be shared by all its members, collaborative learning is the alpha and the omega. Now, if you ruled out all the people over 65 in the community, all the members would not be provided with new skills This would lead to a situation with many overlapping methods ofcommunication, which is neither efficient or reasonable – and there are no resources for that. As a result, activities in communities would fade away and social capital would diminish. (Diary entry 3.12.2009)

According to 2011 statistics provided by Statistics Finland, 76% of Finns use the internet daily or nearly every day. In contrast, only 62% of the age group 55-64 years, and 35% of the 65-74-year-olds use the internet at the same rate. 40% of the

last mentioned age group have never used the internet. Reasons mentioned in the statistics are for example the high price of hardware, lack of technical skills and lack of motivation.

The topic has also been assessed on European level. The year 2012 was dedicated in Europe to active ageing and solidarity between generations. The motto of the year is “Always at the optimal age”.

An empowering interest of knowledge The basic problem in the pedagogical model of Know-how-talkoot is transition from theory into practice, and vice versa.

Practice can be said to represent everyday life, while theory represents sophisticated technology that gradually becomes practice, which, in turn, creates new technology...

The direction in Know-how-talkoot is mainly from the practical towards theory.

An emancipatory interest of knowledge guarantees the connection between theory and practical life. Dynamism and a critical touch that develops the individual’s own life and society are properties of the emancipatory interest. A person with know-how and skills is capable of reflecting, controlling and developing his or her own activity; thinking and action are intermingled. The same things apply for a leaning organisation and collaborative learning.

Learning, when it has the quality of creating something new, requires an emancipatory interest of knowledge.

Learning, creativity and innovations always have content, they do not arise from nothing. They are often based on a new ways of looking at old things. The

emancipatory, creative interest of knowledge is necessary for the development of communication skills when we are on a continuum “premises – problems – goals – measures of development – evaluation – re-evaluation of the premises”.

Talkoot activity and the communication related to it is clearly shifting from an emancipatory interest towards an empowering interest of knowledge. The latter provides the subject with power, knowledge and wisdom, relates him with values and goals, grows his potential and brings him closer to his goals. This is true for individual and collective learning – acting as an individual in the community.

Reality in talkoot is constructed by combining knowledge and skill. Tacit knowledge is used planning and learning, the kind of knowledge the Finnish talkoot tradition has always represented.

The goals of talkoot have been to bring IT professional and ordinary citizens closer to each other, and to adopt user-oriented thinking and tactics. The project has most likely been successful in achieving these results. On the other hand, the construction of creativity and innovativeness are difficult to explicate.

Communication camps can be described as an operating system for future society that has been developed for 25 years. Communication and information technology in this operating system are tools for communality and collective learning in everyday life. Talkoot is a new standard of activity, developed on the basis of this operating system; it fits the needs of the target community and creates new artefacts with the help of information technology.

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Know-how-talkootâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;what, how, why The process of developing Know-howtalkoot has followed the spiral-like pattern of a hermeneutical circle; from prefiguration to more precise ideas and concept development.

The initial vision in developing talkoot was based on the concepts of good life and desired future. The vision alone was not sufficient without discussion on and understanding of the available options. In the evaluation process, also methods of future studies have been used: new comprehension affects decision-making; when the goal has been attained, a new cycle of ideas begins.

While we strengthen peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interaction skills in talkoot, we also develop their ability to make critical observations on how and on which conditions we exist in our world, described as global and networked, and which coals and possibilities outside the information society we should be conscious of.

Criticalness has often a negative undertone in common sense. However, critical thinking, related to intellect and emotion, is positive and productive. We use it to question the obvious and create new. The term critical pedagogy is also used: the emphasis here is put on the critical observation of prevailing basic experiences and conditions.

The collaborative learning model of Know-how-talkoot exploits the skills of the entire community; the intercommunicating group produces new skills. Collaborative learning requires commitment to coordinated, common activity with defined goals. In sum, communicative development is a dialogical and communal way of learning 40

by doing.

The talkoot model has put into practice the mechanism of collective information formation which includes comparison and combination of different perspectives, critical examination of arguments and conclusions, as well as an aim of creating new perspectives and possible solutions.

Expertise among the members has been partly overlapping, but sufficiently heterogenic for achieving a new type of competence.

The group produces new language and culture. By means of collective learning and development of activities, the inner support network of the community gains strength and in the best case still exists after the project.

Talkoot projects implicitly strive for a solution to the dilemma of quantity of information and quality of communication in information society.

INFORMATION

COMMUNICATION

QUANTITY

QUALITY

The internet represents an infinite quantity of information. Things and phenomena can be described accurately, but their value and meanings cannot be distinguished; major and minor things can seem to have the same importance. We need to filter the quality of communication in order to find out what is really meaningful in the daily life of civil society.

Brain research has shown that the use of different media tools has a significant influence on thought structures. Scientists have lately used the term information fatigue syndrome, intellectual overload and brain fatigue to describe the situation where the internet piles up information in

the short-term memory, and data – as comprehended information – will not be transferred to the long-term memory. Brain fatigue occurs rapidly in a multitasking situation.

Therefore, persistent action and finished

products are among the objectives of talkoot. This, at least partially, leads to better quality in communication. Could talkoot activity also have an opposite impact: quality of information and quantity of communication?

Further pedagogic development of Know-how-talkoot To support more detailed pedagogic development, we need a thorough study or preliminary study. The following possible topics are proposed as the basis ofthematic choices. a) Although the talkoot model is mainly based on learning processes, active introduction of some content-related issues is worth considering. The question arises, whether it would be possible to include some elementary studies of visual expression and journalistics in both the talkoot activity and the curriculum of pilot training. These topics would be examined experimentally during the projects, as new questions arise. b) Contents are best found within the themes of the study programmes. For example, selfproduced audiovisual material should be used in vocational training; especially when the learners are not literally oriented and traditional texts or textbooks are not their preferred source of information. c) A lot oftime is spent in talkoot for learning the use oftechnology and equipment. It might be reasonable to make more serious attempts to solve this eternal dilemma between content and form; to aim for communicative competence and a balance between content and form. We should probably be able to make an even clearer shift from a technology-driven to a content-oriented touch. d) The same result should be obtained in communication technology as in driving a car: one must know the traffic rules and the basic functions of steering devices in different cars. Yet, detailed information on combustion engines or electronic mechanisms is unnecessary. e) Language is constantly changing and developing, especially the language of technology. In talkoot too, we have to use many difficult terms that ordinary people are unfamiliar with or even feel fear towards. We need a sort of a ”talkoo dictionary” to be studied already before the event, or at least to be used during the event. - There is also a more general need for a glossary of information technology among ordinary citizens who lack a specific technology orientation.

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f) The current model of talkoot is divided into three periods of different lengths. Further development of the model would be useful, so that the duration of each module could vary between one day and a week. During longer periods, work could be less hectic and questions of content could be assessed in more detail. Working with your own hands is slow, but in the best case it leads to results that correspond to the etymology of the word comprehend: "to catch hold of, seize". g) The noblest form of information technology in the service of humanity is supporting handicapped people’s communication skills. Technology as an extension of the senses, assisting in intellectual tasks and supporting mobility, would be one of the best plans for developing Know-how-talkoot. h) A subsidised training programme for small entrepreneurs, realised according to the Knowhow-talkoot model, would encourage for example artisans in opening and developing web stores. Commercial platforms are available, but at a (too) high market price. i) In the light of statistics, Know-how-talkoot proves to be very useful for people in the age group 65-74, and even older. Developing a “senior model” as cooperation of the public and private sectors for this age group would be one of the good targets for the commodification of the concept. j) Further development of the talkoot model for the prevention of young people’s marginalisation would be an ethically and morally productive supportive measure of the information society. k) Young students should learn the different creative uses of information technology. The question arises, should all students in universities of applied science not have pilot training as a compulsory course in their curricula. This would mean approximately one week of study time. Pilot training would support other studies and bring new, creative ideas along.

Fostering media literacy The intention of Know-how-talkoot is not to train media professionals, but to foster general media-related culture and education in civil society – media literacy!

To educate is more demanding than to teach. It is creative and unforeseeable. A mediator of education has to take the 42

learners’ uniqueness and individuality into account. Peer learning is a good model for education; the learners are in dialogue with each other. Education belongs to all active, independent members of a democratic society. Leaning on science and technology only turns the society into a large factory, a fast and efficient one. But the creation of an intellectually rich human culture requires education.

Habits and routines are the best explanation for human behaviour. This also explains why practices are so hard to change. One can ask whether the starting point of creativity is in questioning oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s habits and routines. On the other hand, everyday life would be impossible without routines; perhaps being and doing are based on balancing between change and routine.

Education is a fundamental thing; intellectual curiosity and knowledge bring intellectual freedom. The basis of our

culture has always been a majority conscious of its past. Dialogue is possible when people have shred knowledge. Good general media literacy trains a person to be tolerant and to tolerate uncertainty.

In the light of the above, we can state that the Know-how-talkoot project is in the core of media literacy. It includes the three sectors of human culture-generating potential: science, art and philosophy. This reveals the concept of man in the background of the project: a knowing, feeling individual with a will of his own.

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COMMODIFYING KNOW-HOW-TALKOOT PEDAGOGY

Now that information society has turned information into merchandise, its nature has changed. Marketing opportunities for information products may be reduced by the fact that many of these contain a large amount of hidden, experiential knowledge which is difficult to explicate.

The pilots’ experiences show that the model is functional, and it is improved every time. This must be documented in more detail as a “product” (sample from a talkoo diary 3.11.2009).

In experiential learning, the learner shifts from the role of an actor to an observer and from a person with experiences to a seeker of an analytical an objective approach. Learning is sustained by a tension between reflection and application, 44

between concrete experience and conceptualisation. Reflection skills are a requirement; they make it possible to observe an experience from different angles, one of which could be commodification.

A new practice can usually not be predefined in detail, except for rough presumptions. According to the so called expansive conception of learning, the introduction of a new model can lead to its disintegration into different versions and applications. A new model, as long as it is well structured, can be copied and multiplied – commodified.

Commodification requires an analytical and systematic study of the activity. When evaluation is based on interpretative analysis of the object and definition of the

usefulness and value of activity, communication is mainly understood as human interaction skills, which can be defined both individually and collectively in terms of usefulness and value.

The international image of Finnish information technology as a precursor has been obstinately maintained for a long time, although Finlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international rating has been on the decline. At the same time, Finland has got an excellent reputation in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

However, skills related to the information society have developed unequally. The still open gaps in informatics skills split society in different ways. The education export programme OKM 2010, started a few

years ago in state administration, could be the home base for promoting the export of the Know-how-talkoot concept. According to the Council of State decision in principle, cooperation and business expertise on the public and private sectors are further strengthened for example by developing education export into a cluster.

The objective is to grow significantly the proportion of education and know-how in the total Finnish export by 2015. Measured are taken for instance for strengthening and developing buyership of products related to domestic education sector in the public administration. In the international context, the project considers the possibilities offered by development cooperation.

a) Strong cooperation is needed on national level between public and private sectors.

If/when buyership of education products in public administration is strengthened according to the decision taken by the Council of State, Know-how-talkoot will be an excellent product for public procurement by communes, schools etc. Earmarked funding would in that case be in the budgets of the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Ministry of Education and Culture. b) There is an increasing number of old, disused school buildings and military areas all over Finland. In public and private sector cooperation these could be developed into Know-how Centres where education would be organised according to the talkoot model. c) In this era of mobile communication, mobile Know-how-talkoot could be developed as well, by building and equipping know-how buses, trucks or trains that would move to different parts of the country according to varying needs. d) Internationally, Know-how-talkoot is a concept that could meet the needs of for example so called new democracies, and development cooperation in particular. The contents are culture specific, but the educational format that supports active citizenship is quite universal.

International commodification of talkoot is mostly a question of copyright of the model, and possible export of instructor training in the target countries.

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HINDSIGHT AND FORESIGHT In Roman mythology, Minerva’s owl always travels with Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Minerva’s owl only flies at dusk. This refers to the nature of philosophy as a science that examines things retrospectively – in hindsight!

Hindsightedly thinking, the talkoot idea is a deserved slap to the cheek of the very fashionable ideology of efficiency and productivity. The quality of efficiency and the efficiency of quality are always valuebased settings. Basic values, such as the platonic “truth, good and beauty”, seem to be rather permanent, but value systems and meanings given to values vary.

Extrinsically motivated technological determinism is substituted in the Knowhow-talkoot model by an intrinsically motivated, user-oriented bottom-up 46

development perspective. The humanoriented view is based on the humanistic idea of civilisation and starts from people’s daily needs.

Humanism is an attitude towards life, according to which people use their perception, approach problems on a broad scale, and acquire information to liberate themselves from the fetters of false beliefs, power misuse and fear. Education based on humanistic and social science gives individuals the capacity to identify with different communities and thus construct their identity.

It is obvious that the future does not come. It is not a force of nature like a flood or an earthquake, but we make it through our own choices. The better our choices are, the better we are able to

interpret weak signals. The Know-howtalkoot project has been successful in interpreting for example the signals of lifelong and lifewide learning.

Tensions in development usually occur as single events in the beginning of a community’s learning process. These weak signals gradually become stronger and are recognised as pressure for change and possibilities. Outlining a new practice always requires recognition of untested

possibilities and genuine future orientation.

A new sense of community can change democracy: alternative forms of participation are created and coexist with representative democracy. Citizens take initiatives in solving problems related to the common good; new cooperation starts, with initiative and vision. At the same time, the boundary between private and public activity is called into question.

From information society to know-how society The term information society has been in frequent use for a long time, but how valid is it now?

In the 1920’s, C.G. Ogburn presented a theory on cultural lag. He says technology evolves rapidly, but human understanding and social institutions are slow. The talkoo spirit attempts to bring relief to the problem of cultural lag.

It might be the right time to start using the term know-how society, inspired by the Know-how-talkoot project. Technology and the conventional use of it in people’s everyday life would meet in a more fruitful way than they do in information society. It is time to start actively building a bridge between technology and humanity. Perhaps we can find inspiration in Aale Tynni’s poem “Kaarisilta” (“Arched Bridge”, approximate translation):

--- To others, I give other duties, but you, my child, I want you to build an arched bridge.

All the people, here on earth, are in great distress, and to the arched bridge they come, in all their agony.

Build a bridge over the abyss, an arched bridge, please do ---

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SOURCES HÄRKÖNEN Ritva-Sini (1994) Viestintäkasvatuksen ulottuvuudet. Helsingin yliopiston opettajankoulutuslaitos. Tutkimuksia 125.

KIVELÄ Susanna (2011) Viestintävalmiuksien laajentama saavutettavuus lähiyhteisöjen toiminnallisen tilan rakentumisessa. Väitöskäsikirjoitus.

KIVINEN Kari (2003) Assessing Motivation and the Use of Learning Strategies by Secondary School Students in Three International Schools. Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 907. Tampere University Press.

LUOKOLA Tuula (1989) Kertomus viestintäleiristä. Valtion painatuskeskus. Liikenneministeriö.

NIEMELÄ Seppo (2011) Sivistyminen. Sivistystarve, - pedagogiikka ja –politiikka pohjoismaisessa kansansivistystraditiossa. Kansanvalistusseura.

OKM (2010) Kiinnostuksesta kysynnäksi ja tuotteiksi – Suomen koulutusviennin strategiset linjaukset. Valtioneuvoston periaatepäätös. Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön julkaisuja 2010:11.

SAHLBERG Pasi & LEPPILAMPI Asko (1994) Yksinään vai yhteisvoimin? –yhdessäoppimisen mahdollisuuksia etsimässä. Helsingin yliopisto.

VIHERÄ Marja-Liisa (2009) Digitaalisen arjen viestintä. Helsinki: Kyriiri Oy. von WRIGHT Johan (1992) Oppimiskäsitysten historiaa ja pedagogisia seurauksia. Helsinki: Opetushallitus.

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The Know-how-talkoot project is part of the national ESR development programme 2007-2013, in the administrative sector of the Ministry of Education and Culture. The programme focuses on developing active citizenship in open learning environments.

The objective of Know-how-talkoot is to provide communities with better communication skills and create communication practices that are valid also after the project. In the background of all action is the idea that everyone has the right to be seen and heard, to express themselves and participate. This requires access to networks, technical know-how, understanding and motivation.

Pedagogy in the context of Know-how-talkoot returns to the idea of collaborative learning in a new, creative and innovative way. The intention of Know-how-talkoot is not to train media professionals, but to foster general media-related culture and education in civil society â&#x20AC;&#x201C; media literacy!

The author, Doctor of Philosophy (Education) Ritva-Sini Merilampi has a long experience in media education. The evaluation is based on the researcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal experiences from Communication camps, and on a long experience in monitoring formal and informal learning. This evaluation moves in both directions in the terrain between theory and practice.