DIGITAL ACQUISITION THROUGH INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING Erasmus Project

Project Title

DIGITAL ACQUISITION THROUGH INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING

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 2017

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

The world population is ageing causing changes in the society as whole. Ageing is a global phenomenon. Senior citizens represent an important and ever growing part of our European population, economy and society. Irrespective of the current economic crisis, this poses manifold questions as to how member states can best ensure that these citizens are socially included, actively engaged and can fully enjoy all their rights.
The Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth acknowledges LLL and skills development as key elements in response to the current economic crisis, to demographic ageing and to the broader economic and social strategy of the EU. The economic crisis has highlighted the major role which adult learning can play in achieving the Europe 2020 targets, by enabling adults to improve their ability to adapt to changes in the labor market, the family and the society. Adult learning provides a means of up skilling or re-skilling those affected by unemployment and age, as well as makes an important contribution to social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development.
The direct target group is grandparents (seniors 60+) who will acquire essential digital skills that will enable active aging, participation and access to the e-world: use of social media and communication platforms, use of smart phones and tablets, use of on-line services. The indirect target group is grandchildren who will benefit from their involvement and participation in the intergenerational learning opportunities and will share their digital competences with their grandparents in order to support them to keep in touch with the e-world. “DIAL” is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership project in the Adult Sector targeting mainly elderly people. The main aim of the project is to provide intergenerational and Life Long Learning opportunities to grandparents to acquire essential digital competences that will enable active ageing and access to the e-word.
The DIAL project on Senior Digital Skills took place from October 2017 to September 2019. This Erasmus + Strategic Partnership project has reached its set goals – the team conducted a senior citizen survey in four countries (Portugal, Turkey, Latvia and Cyprus) developing a list of digital skills which the respondents of the survey pointed out as topics of interest to learn in depth. Based on the results, 4 teaching modules were created and are now available online http://moodle.dialproject.eu/. Furthermore, the team organized trainings in all four partner countries, presenting the materials, registering participants on the Moodle platform and disseminating the results. On July 27, 2019, the project organized a Conference, disseminating the results, introducing the attendees with the teaching material and the digital situation nowadays as such. If you could not attend the Conference, follow the link and watch the recording on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEFP4W9mUtk&feature=youtu.be
In total, there were 7 trainings held in 4 European countries, DIAL team taught 142 seniors and youngsters within the training programmes. The petition about the project was signed by more than 1000 citizens from Portugal, Latvia, Cyprus and Portugal. 3136 Facebook users were informed about the final Conference of the project. Throughout these two years, the society was informed via project official Facebook page (dialErasmusPlus) and partner pages about the project’s progress and results 94 times. DIAL was communicated via various media channels throughout all four partner countries, for instance among them there were articles in Latvia’s newspaper “Diena”, online media “Jelgavas Vēstnesis”, in Portugal there was a radio interview on Radio Sim and an article in local news portal of Almeirim. Turkey’s partner had a significant interview on NTV radio etc.
After the project, the partners came to a conclusion that the partnership was very well planned, as the partners were fulfilling each other and each of them had expertise in different field which was useful during the different phases of the project implementation.
The DIAL project helped raise awareness not only of the need and interest in seniors’ digital skill development, but also of seniors’ opportunities to be active overall. Drawing on the good practice from the DIAL project partner RUTIS (Portugal) on running Senior University for many years, DIAL’s Leading Partner, Project Net, decided to live by their example and announced that they will introduce the Senior University or in other words the Third Generation University also in Latvia. During the conference, it was solemnly announced that in the autumn of 2019, a branch of the Latvian Senior University would open its doors, meaning that it would be the 347th branch of its kind in the world.
Work on promoting digital skills will continue beyond the end of the project with seniors and young people. DIAL had a unique experience for all four partner organisations i

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119050,17 Eur

Project Coordinator

PROJECT NET & Country: LV

Project Partners

• Associação Rede de Universidades da Terceira Idade
• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd
• SISTEM VE JENERASYON DERNEGI