Development of Elderly’s Digital Skills Through Family Learning

KA204 – STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR ADULT EDUCATION

PROJECT

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE

Rapid technological and social development requires people to accelerate their adaptability to new situations. Some find that challenging due to unfavorable circumstances, such as age-related lack of certain skills or lower motivation to learn. Older people experience a shortage of modern skills in different fields, primarily digital competencies. As they have fewer qualifications in the rapidly growing technology sector, they struggle to take full advantage of public services and virtual communication tools. Their quality of life gets affected.

To deal with these challenges, it is important to create new training models by expanding the synergy of various adult training institutions and by improving the competencies of their staff. For this purpose 6 organizations from Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, and Turkey joined their efforts for a common project.

The aim of the project is to improve partners’ potential in developing the elderly’s digital skills by empowering adults’ educators to promote and organize family learning.

This type of learning is becoming increasingly popular around the world as it provides a range of opportunities for families to learn together.

For the elderly, family learning can be the first step to taking up learning opportunities. It leads not only to the improvement of one’s skills, but also activation of the intergenerational collaboration, develops moral values and positive attitudes, uplifts mood and has a substantial impact on health, family relations, and lifelong learning.

ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES

To achieve the set goal, specific objectives were implemented:

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE

4 international experience exchange events have been arranged with a purpose to improve the competences of adults’ trainers on family learning. As a result, 40 adults’ trainers broadened their professional horizons and grow their competences.

INVOLVEMENT IN FAMILY LEARNING

New ideas for family learning have been generated and tested in all partner institutions. 120 elderly people and their family members have been involved and improved their digital competencies by discovering the benefits of family learning.

BEST PRACTICES & TRAINING RESOURCES

Examples of the best practices and training materials on the development of the elderly’s digital skills through family learning have been collected and published in this internet resource and can be used as ideas for other adult educators. 

PARTNERS & EXPERIENCES

Utena a. and m. miskiniai public library

LITHUANIA

"Values, Virtues, Integrity" Foundation

BULGARIA

EDU VITA

ITALY

NAZHAYAT association

TURKEY

UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA LA MANCHA (UCLM)

SPAIN

Pärnu Central Library

ESTONIA

TRAINING & LEARNING

"VALUES, VIRTUES, INTEGRITY" FOUNDATION

First transnational training event.

NAZHAYAT ASSOCIATION

Second transnational training event.

UTENA A. AND M. MISKINIAI PUBLIC LIBRARY

Third transnational training event.

EDU VITA

Fourth transnational training event.

TRAINING MATERIALS

CANVA

An online graphic design platform used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. The app includes templates for users.

AHNENBLATT

Ahnenblatt is an easy to use full featured genealogy software suitable for beginners and even experienced genealogists to organize genealogy research.

ACTIONBOUND

An app for playing digitally interactive games to lead the learner on a path of discovery. It is a platform developed in Germany as an educational project to create location-based, interactive, mobile experiences for students. Started in 2012, it is now used worldwide for everything from team-building, tours, escape rooms, and many other purposes.

COMICSTRIP

An app that helps to create the perfect blend of text, images, and emotions. You don’t have to be a professional cartoonist or need any comic strip designing experience. All you need to create your comic is a good mood, imagination, and creativity.

WEVIDEO

Online video editor for all. Helps to easily create video stories for families, friends, classrooms, etc.

SUBTITLES EDIT

A free (open source) editor for video subtitles.

QUIZIZZ

Allows creating free gamified quizzes and interactive lessons to engage any learner.

GET INSPIRED

IDEAS FOR FAMILY LEARNING

Throughout the project, all partner institutions have created, prepared, and ran various activities to encourage the adoption of family learning practices. The implemented practice can be implemented equally on a small and large scale and are easily adaptable for various goals.

EXPLORE IDEAS

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Tradition and modernity go hand in hand

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A bee flies from Utena to Sofia

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Storytelling and Digital Skills

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Happy summer holidays: Postcards creation with Canva

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How to make a tourist excursion interactive and inclusive for an intergenerational group?

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Virtual escape rooms

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Pärnu in fiction

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Usage of smart phones and social applications

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Creative lab with CANVA: creating mandalas from plants and moving them to digital space