ICT 4 the Elderly Erasmus Project

Project Title

ICT 4 the Elderly

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project aimed at enhancing the digital skills of the elderly, by creating awareness on Internet use among the elderly, and their communities. This project aimed to create networking and capacity-building between project partners and stakeholders involved, from 5 different countries. Consequently, the objective of this project was to facilitate a pathway for up-skilling individuals between the ages of 55 and 75 years in their digital competences and to make them aware of some of the many opportunities and benefits that the Internet has to offer.

This project was carried out transnationally to make sure there is a solid ‘exchange of practices’. This strategic partnership project brought together countries from different levels of the digital gap spectrum. Taking a look at Eurostat statistics of individuals who have never used the Internet between the ages of 55 and 74 years of age, sees Malta and Slovenia in the same level of digital gap of 45%, while Germany’s stands at 20%, Belgium 24% and Switzerland at only 11% at the time of application. Through this project’s outputs we offered a catching-up opportunity to target what has come to be called “online ageing” by offering different possibilities on how the Internet can play an important role in improving the quality of life through on-line social interaction.

This project took into account issues that come along with ageing. These are problems that the elderly have to overcome when interacting with a computer. For this purpose, a session was also held during Piloting 2 with all participants called “Rethinking Pedagogy” with Dr. Maria Cutajar on the preparation of teaching material taking into account all the difficulties that seniors might suffer to be able to follow. This project featured Life Long Learning covering formal, non-formal and informal learning, which can become the most effective and efficient instrument for combating social exclusion by empowering individual empowerment especially in the last 2 years where many people, mostly seniors and people living alone, were isolated during lockdown. This situation created a particular sadness amongst the elderly, as it continued to seclude them not only from the outside world but also from their immediate families.

The results achieved through this project were to reach and increase a more digitally inclusive elderly society and they in turn, as project participants themselves, further continue to reach other seniors through the dissemination of the project, thanks to their successful following and completion of training received. This created a ripple effect of learning within society on making use of the Internet and its benefits. These project results are meant to be beneficial for other organisations, researchers and training providers working with older adults seeking to improve their digital skills and increase further their awareness on the benefits gained by accessing technology. The Training Manual and Online Academy have been designed in English which made it easier for other countries to use and translate. Participants, also referred to as ambassadors, were chosen through a public call, requesting the possession of the following criteria, in order be eligible:

– Ability to speak, read and writing of the English language;
– Be between the ages of 55 and 74 years of age;
– Willing to take part in dissemination activities;
– Be involved in the community in a such a way to be beneficial to act as an ambassador for the project to disseminate its results.

Consequently, the consortium of this project worked to bring together:

– A set of best practices and Open Educational Resources (OERs) (Output 1) (30 face to face hours);
– Development of a training manual, with a supporting Online Academy available online for the public (Output 2), to keep practicing at the leisure of their home and as much as they like;
– Choose eligible participants, also called ambassadors, through a public call (24 participants in total for both piloting phases);
– Transnational Partners Meetings and other online meetings during the worldwide lockdown;
– Learning, Teaching and Training Activities1 (LTTAs) and LTTA2;
– Production of Golden Rules to all modules produced;
– Log book written and collated by the participating ambassadors;
– Production of a set of recommendations for stakeholders and policy makers (Output 3);
– Multiplier Events, as part of dissemination;
– An exploitation plan on how to best sustain the project a year from its closure; and
– Conclusions that came out following the implementation of the project.

Project Website

https://ict4theelderly.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 269216,33 Eur

Project Coordinator

MALTA COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY & Country: MT

Project Partners

• Foundation Ynternet.org
• ALL DIGITAL AISBL
• STIFTUNG DIGITALE CHANCEN
• Simbioza Genesis, socialno podjetje