Polish | Language | Ageing in the Digital Age

60+ Virtual Culture was an international initiative in which 4 partner organizations of similar background in informal education, including education of seniors, from Poland, France, Czech Republic and Italy have worked together to improve and optimize educational offer for elderly concerning their digital competences within the context of culture accessibility.

The process of optimization has been developed in two stages. First, each organization appointed one teaching tandem (young ICT educator and one experienced senior (50+) educator) who took part in 3 Joint Staff Trainings, during which based on exchanged practices and knowledge, an educational model for local senior centers or libraries had been developed. Therefore, an innovative offer of ICT courses for seniors aiming at encouraging older people to participate in culture resources and cultural events using new technologies (e.g. accessing e-books, audio-books, visiting virtual museums, buying tickets online, creating and uploading content etc. ) was created. Simultaneously so created teaching program was implemented, tested and adjusted during two cycles of ICT workshops for seniors in each country. The teaching tandems provided during the project a total of 198 hours of workshops for 105 seniors in four countries. Additionally, from among the participants of workshops 8 Digital Ambassadors were selected – people at the age of 60+ whose leadership and digital competences enabled us to include them into dissemination process and in some cases into the process of supporting the trainers in the teaching processes both during and after the termination of project activities.

Results:

Lesson plans of ICT Workshops for Older Adults:

online newspapers,
books on-line (e-book and audiobook),
music and films online,
going out- cultural event,
monuments of the world- visiting historical places abroad.

Tips for trainers. How to approach seniors during ICT trainings.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under Erasmus+ Programme.

Source: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2016-1-PL01-KA204-026593

Access date: 14.10.2021

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