In this session, Dr. Clement Camposano argued that if UP’s General Education (GE) program must be revisited, then it should be framed more explicitly as education for citizenship. This should squarely address the question of its usefulness perennially raised by critics. In one important respect, the question is misguided. The GE program, by design, is not meant to be "useful" in producing technically competent engineers or doctors, or any other kind of professional for that matter. Furthermore, anyone with a profession engages in it as a member of society and this membership entails certain obligations. If that society aspires to be democratic, then among these obligations, and perhaps the most important, is the obligation to participate in public life.

Dr. Joey Balmaceda talked about the need to slow down for a more careful examination of the new modalities of learning that we have started to utilize, and to consider some structural issues and concerns in implementation (e.g. models/levels of blended learning) as well as administrative and academic policies and practices (load credits, work hours, grading policies, etc) impacted by the shift.

Dr. Bomen Guillermo discussed the possible obsolescence and irrelevance of GE courses due to the move towards standardization and the development of digital learning platforms and interfaces that are governed by algorithms for replication, and he outlined some ways by which this might be avoided.

In the discussion it was pointed out that some technology issues, such as AI, seem more mysterious and serious than they are because of the disciplinal divide that still exists. In fact, technology is the product not just of one discipline but by ideas and labor from all disciplines, and there needs to be a more natural and informal interaction and engagement between for example social scientists and computer scientists.

It was also pointed out that there is a need to reflect on and problematize spaces for learning GE, which include digital spaces as well as traditional classroom spaces and local domestic spaces. It is also worth looking into how liminal spaces – which are spaces where learners are invited to reflect, powered by stories, narratives, and playful experiences that make learning alive – can be designed using the technological resources accessible to us.

More generally, there is a need to ask students, perhaps in a GE conference with and by them, what they want to learn in GE and how (and where) they want to learn.