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Month: June 2022

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EFOS

EFOS was founded in 1990 at Bressanone (Italy) by Mr. Leopold Auinger from Innsbruck (Austria) with its Headquarters at Brussels and its General Office in Austria. The aim of EFOS is the protection of the interests of older students in universities in Europe. Since its foundation EFOS has had international meetings twice a year in various European countries. EFOS is in contact with the UN in Vienna (a representative of EFOS is a member of the “Committee on Ageing”) and with AIUTA (International Association of the Universities of the Third Age).

Aims of EFOS:

– Promoting high level education of older people alongside younger students or at special academies/universities for older people

– Fostering of joint projects for older students throughout Europe

– Fostering and securing the access of older people, including those without formal qualifications, to education at the highest level

– Representing the interests of academic education for older people in politics and society

– Fostering of autonomous national organizations with similar goals

– Identifying possibilities of using the skills and expertise of older students for the benefit of science and society

– Cooperating with other international organizations that support lifelong learning (LLL).

Members:  Institutions and individual senior students in the following countries: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, Switzerland. At this moment (2020) EFOS has 19 institutional and 19 individual members.

Source: https://www.efos-europa.eu/

Access date: 04.12.2020

SeLiD – Senior’s Learning in the Digital Society

The project Senior´s Learning in the Digital Society (SeLiD) has been approved as an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for the period 1 September 2019 – 31 August 2021. The project is carried out by 8 partners from European universities. Comenius University Centre for Continuing Education Bratislava is the coordinator.

The main objectives are open education and innovative practices in a digital era, focusing on improving and extending high quality learning opportunities for digital technologies and ICT, tailored to the needs of individual low-skilled or low-qualified adults.

The project concentrates on learning and training of basic ICT skills and key digital competences of the elderly. Methods that will be applied are: classical teaching, group learning and training, peer learning, work with manuals, excursions to the shops with electronics, collection of good practices to develop digital literacy and skills of the elderly.

Source: https://selid.efos-europa.eu

Access date: 04.12.2020

Lighthouse Keepers 2020 (Latarnicy2020.pl)

The “Latarnicy2020.pl” project is one of the largest initiatives for digital education of adults in the country.

The substantive foundations of the activities were developed as part of the “Lighthouse of Digital Poland” project implemented by the “Cities on the Internet” Association („Miasta w Internecie“ Association) together with the Ministry of Administration and Digitization in 2011-2015 under the slogan: Digital Poland of Equal Opportunities.

The project has been implemented in Poland in 12 voivodeships.

The main goal of the project is to acquire and increase the level of digital competences by nearly 30 thousand project participants – residents of voivodeships where the project activities are realised, and to increase the use of information and communication technologies.

The general objective will have been achieved through the implementation of a number of detailed activities, i.e .:

  • recruitment and training of a group of 250 professional digital educators (the so-called Lighthouse Keepers of Digital Poland) who will provide training support to project participants,
  • implementation of the “lighthouse method” – a model of adult education developed in the Digital Poland of Equal Opportunities project,
  • increase of the level of digital competences of important professional and social groups – officials, teachers, employees of local government institutions, councilors and village leaders, who will motivate adult residents to use Internet resources,
  • reduction of the scale of social and digital exclusion of persons with disabilities.

The project will have a significant impact on improving the operation of local government units by increasing work efficiency (improving employee competences) and increasing the ability to create and develop public e-services and to integrate persons with disabilities with persons without them thanks to creating opportunities for wider social interactions through the use of the Internet. It is assumed that as a result of the project implementation, the operation of local government units will be improved and the use of public e-services will be enhanced.

The website of the initiative https://latarnicy2020.pl/ features educational materials (reports, brochures, workshop materials and lesson plans) and films that have been developed in the Digital Poland of Equal Opportunities project. They can be useful in lighthouse work as a didactic aid or inspiration in developing scenarios for classes with seniors.

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, Operational Programme Digital Poland for 2014-2020.

Source: https://latarnicy2020.pl/

Access date: 12.03.2021

Association of Universities of the Third Age in Slovakia

The Association of Universities of the Third Age (ASUTV) of Slovakia was established as an initiative of Slovak universities and other institution of high education at a founding conference held at the Košice Technical University on 1st December 1994. Representatives of individual Slovak UTAs meet regularly, exchange information and consult organizational, financing and educational – methodical matters involving UTAs. Common professional sittings indicate the presence of rich activities of UTAs in the whole country. Today, apart from UTA at Comenius University and the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. UTAs exist in Nitra, Martin, Banská Bystrica, Zvolen, Košice, Trenčín, Trnava, Žilina, Liptovský Mikuláš, Prešov, Dubnica nad Váhom and Ružomberok.

ASUTV is a member of the International Association of Universities of the Third Age (AIUTA), which has the seat at University in Toulouse: www.aiu3a.com

The UTAs offer a three-year program. The study system of the UTAs is adjusted both to the capabilities of the aged and to the possibilities of their main universities. The study plan of each year usually provides 14 three-hour lectures to be presented each fortnight. During their first year, the students are offered basic lectures in each of the offered discipline. The second and third year is devoted to the study of optional disciplines and students enrol in the study of specialised branches.

Source: https://asutv.sk/

Access date: 11.09.2020

Memtrain

MemTrain – Memory Training for Older Adults (55+) Linking Physical Exercise and Brain Training to Promote Healthy Ageing. MemTrain is an Erasmus+ Project Strategic Partnership in the field of Adult Education.

Project Memtrain is intended for professional sports trainers, brain trainers, lecturers, community workers and other adult education professionals who want to provide a professional training course for older people aged 55+ to improve memory and to help prevent brain deterioration. It is aimed at equipping trainers with scientific knowledge and important background information, but mainly with a step-by-step guide to conducting a sport and memory training course.

During the MemTrain project, seven partners from six European countries created a set of activities, which includes physical activities (adapted physical activity, Zumba, Nordic Walking and athletics) and brain training activities (brain training using both hemispheres of the brain and memory games).

Main outputs:

The project was funded by the European Union within Erasmus+ Programme.

Source: https://memtrain.eu/

Access date: 11.09.2020

The Silver Code

Living both in a rapidly developing digital world and in aging society, the Silver Code project goal is to make older learners active players and citizens, equipped with competences required by our hyper connected world.

The main Silver Code project objective is to increase the digital literacy of older learners and offer basic knowledge and skills in coding.

Older EU citizens from the 27 EU countries are both the target group, reached through direct activities (30 learners per partner country will take part in the training activities), and direct beneficiaries, reached through peer-to-peer learning methods and dissemination events (about 100 people per partner country). A relevant number of participants, among older people, will be medium-high skilled, such as retired professionals and older people being professionally active and willing to improve their knowledge and competencies.

This will be reached through:

  • The development of a training course, delivered by professional trainers (for theory and general supervision) and youngsters, possibly ICT students, expert on coding, acting as “tutors”(for the practical sessions).
  • Creation of a “Silver Coding” community based on tools such as platform, forum, social network groups.

Source: https://www.utzo.si/en/projekti/silver-code/

Access date: 30.09.2021

SPERO – Social Communication Platform for Seniors

Seniors living in their home face a great risk of loneliness. The risk is much higher when the extended family is not living in the same house. Usually they are linked to the local environment through church visits, doctor visits, grocery shop, newspapers and television. The project develops an innovative social communication platform and end-user device designed for seniors who can easily communicate to everybody who joins the platform. They are able to read news; they can be immediately informed on the local events, sport activities, clubs’ activities. It can be used also as a reminder. The end-user device is designed to have only five buttons. It is connected to TV since it is senior’s prime display in the house. By implementing new communication channel to seniors, and sourcing multiple digital communication channels of senior’s friends, family, local community and care organization, we can tackle the social isolation problem raised by the introduction of the digital communication in the society.

Source: Development Centre oft he Heart of Slovenia

Access date: 12.12.2021

 

Slow Learning – Making Digital World Easy for Seniors

Learning & education can play a very important role in reducing age segregation, as it regulates imbalance between generations and opens up new opportunities for social inclusion to seniors. The training of seniors requires andragogically well-trained providers, who are familiar with the theory and practice of adult education. The main problem that IT educators are facing is that they don’t have the needed skills and competences to educate seniors in new technology. Educators of elderly, and specifically IT educators, need knowledge of seniors and contemporary image of old age in society. On one hand they are aware that older people are not all the same, that they are very different, that they are more different from each other than different members of the younger generations, but on the other hand they also know, they lack knowledge both in theory and practice on better working methods with this target group. Lot of teachers are more pedagogues (school system of teaching) than andragogists with merely basic knowledge on working methods for seniors. Main objectives of the project are:

  • Better understanding of senior expectations & needs in learning environments, focusing on IT
    training;
  • Improved knowledge & use of pedagogical tools, new technology in educating seniors;
  • Exchange of good practice among partners;
  • Create the basic theoretical foundations for the implementation of education of IT to seniors;

Primary target groups of the project are adult educators, teachers, mentors, trainers, professionals in IT. Secondary target group are seniors who are impacted with an increased accessibility to nonformal IT learning activities, especially adapted to their needs & expectations.

Project offers compendium with best practices: https://slowlearning.eu/compendium-2/

Source: People’s University Ptuj

Access date: 01.03.2022

PHARAON – Pilots for Healthy and Active Ageing

The overall objective of the PHArA-ON project is to provide support for Europe’s ageing population by integrating digital services, devices, and tools into open platforms that can be readily deployed while maintaining the dignity of older adults and enhancing their independence, safety, and capabilities. The project will utilise a range of digital tools including connected devices (e.g., the Internet of Things, IoT), artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud and edge computing, smart wearables, big data, and intelligent analytics that will be integrated to provide personalised and optimised health care delivery.

The Slovenian pilot aims at improving well-being through passive monitoring using a variety of sensing devices like wearables, sensors embedded in furniture, and environmental sensors.

During the pre-validation phase, a number of Pharaon technologies were used to monitor physiological indicators of residents directly (wearables, imbedded sensors), as well as to monitor their environment (environmental sensors, embedded sensors):  SmartHabits (ENT), InvisibleCare, IoChat, IoTool (Senlab),  Amicare (CETEM), MOX wearable (MAIN), Wearables (CORO), Discovery (Ascora). Furthermore, a system was tested to easily browse events, register, and potentially arrange transit using a familiar system, like a television with remote control using the following Pharaon technologies:  IoChat, IoTool, SeniorsPhone, InvisibleCare (Senlab), Sentab system (SenTab).  The communication support tools are centered on an easy to use, television-based communication tool (Daisy, SenLab) and a smartphone interface designed specifically with older adults in mind, with chat and other communication tools supported as well.

Source: National Institute of Public Health of Republic of Slovenia

Access date: 01.03.2022

m-Ageing

Digital inclusion and active ageing: Developing a user-centered methodological approach to investigate the use of mobile phones among older people. Development of a model of user involvement for studying the needs, use, usability and benefits related to assistive technologies integrated in mobile phones.

PROBLEM

  • The need of older adults to live at home for as long as possible;
  • Economically unsustainable health and social care systems;
  • Burdened informal carers.

SOLUTION

Model of user involvement which is involving older adults and informal carers in 3

stages of the R&D:

  • eliciting user needs and generating design ideas;
  • evaluating selected mobile application in lab setting and real environment and generating redesign ideas; and
  • evaluating redesign ideas.

IMPACT

Potential for triple-win outcome: improved QoL of older people nad informal carers,

financial gains for the health and social care sector, new market opportunities.

TRANSFERABILITY

Has been (and will be) applied by other companies and researchers, as well as within EU

project proposals.

SOURCE OF FUNDING

Slovenian National Research Agency and Simobil

Source: UNI Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ceneter for Social Informatics

Access date: 14.10.2021