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GRUNDTVIG 2008

[G&G Enhancement]
Grundtvig Partnerships
nr. 2008-1-IT2-GRU06-01559 1

Partnership objectives

The general objective of the partnership is to contrast digital divide and to develop inter generational dialogue through a friendly and simple approach in teaching internet browsing to elderly people. The specific objectives are the following:

disseminate a good practice related to digital literacy for elderly people, named “G&G Grandparents and Grandsons”;
localise it in new EU countries thanks to the translation of the teaching materials available into new languages, for their use in new local G&G initiatives;
support the development of specifications for new resources and training units to be integrated into the G&G catalogue.

The partnership will adopt the following approach to reach its objectives:

during the kick-off meeting organised in Italy by the coordinator the illustration of G&G methodology will take place. The meeting will offer the opportunity to present to the partners the approach, the materials and the achievements of the G&G initiative as well as the possibility to discuss face to face further steps of co-operation;
then the partners will translate the available materials in their own language, if necessary develop new units and then organize similar mobility activities in their countries, involving the local stakeholders in “consensus” seminars held locally to illustrate the approach and the materials translated in local language. The partnership coordinator will participate to this meetings to testimony the results gained in previous experiences as a further tool to promote the initiative in the partner countries. The other partners of the network will attend as well these meetings to gain and exchange experience about the ways adopted to involve and the reactions and impressions of local stakeholder to the initiative.
eventually, the experience made during the mobility activities will be summarised during the last meeting held in Italy, where the partners will discuss and define specifications for the enhancement and evolution of the G&G initiative, thus making the most out of the experiences made in the field.

Partnership composition and duties

[ITALY] ENAIP FVG
[FRANCE] ACTIF CNT
[GERMANY] ILEU / Universität Ulm e.V.
[SWEDEN] EB-One

The tasks between participating institutions will be distributed as follows:

ensure the general management of the project and the appropriate implementation of the mobility activities;
make available and animate the virtual community and ensure an appropriate communication flow during the whole life span of the project;
organize the kick-off mobility activity by its premises during which the G&G experience will be presented and the training materials in English language distributed and illustrated to partners;
organize the closing meeting during which the partners will define and approve the specifications for new products and or adaptation of the existing materials;
participate to the mobility activities organized by the partnership;
maintain the G&G website.

Each PARTNER will be actively involved in the partnership activities, since each organization will:

assist the coordinator in the general management of the project and provide all information requested for the evaluation and monitoring of the project;
take part in the mobility activities organized by the coordinator and the partners;
translate the G&G website and NLMS menu items in local language;
translate all the web pages and training units of the G&G website;
translate, and adapt to the local context if necessary, the G&G grandparents and grandsons manuals;
organize the mobility activities foreseen in their country (consensus seminar);
appoint at least one member for the virtual community of practice;
participate in the process of design and development of new specifications for the future G&G teaching materials.

This partnership is a continuation of a former project, ended in June 2008:

eLearning 2007

[Grandparents & Grandchildren]

eLearning 2006 programme
contract n. 2006-4529/001 – 001 ELE ELEB11

Project description

The project, supported by local authorities, associations and public and private organizations, is addressed to people aged over 55. It is intended, through the involvement of students of VET or upper secondary schools in the role of volunteer “digital facilitators”, to teach internet browsing and e-mail use to the elders, fostering thus their active digital citizenship role.

The main goal is to exploit and transfer at European level a low cost methodology of intergenerational involvement aimed to increase adult digital literacy promotion.

What we are working for

Adult digital literacy improvement to promote and facilitate active citizenship: we intend to foster a process of local stakeholders involvement in low cost training activities aimed to develop the adult’s digital literacy levels thus allowing over 55 people to gain full citizenship in the digital society.

Activation of a training environment able to encourage inter-generational dialogue: the involvement of secondary upper school, VET and university students in the role of volunteer “digital educators” make of this ICT learning approach a tool to foster the encounter and crossing between generations. It will also allow inter-generational training strategies analysis and development.

Linguistic diversity and specific contents to address cultural issues: the project respects Europe’s linguistic diversity, producing results in several languages and appropriately addresses cultural issues and specific didactical contents taking in account the characteristics of the elders and of the Internet services vailable in each country. The exploitation of the results will be further increased by the start-up of a virtual community, among experts and local coordinators, to share experiences through a cooperative learning approach.

Modular approach to guarrantee high rate of transferability: it will be ensured mainly by the modularability of the training units and the possible application in every European country with very little adaptation (the latter concerning the contents of the on-line services provided locally).

Low cost & local stakeholders to allow high level of sustainability: guaranteed by the low level of investments required to launch the initiative and to the easy adaptation of the products to new contexts, places and periods of time (all materials must be in the local languages). We want to identify the actors concerned and inform them of ways and means of using e-learning for promoting digital literacy and thereby contribute to strengthening social cohesion and personal development.

Direct beneficiaries

the elderly (over 55) which will be routed towards an active citizenship pathway thanks to the digital literacy they will achieve.

VET, secondary upper school and university students, who will improve their skills and knowledge in using Internet, acquire teaching skills in a one-to-one support environment and will better understand the needs, thoughts and capabilities of the generation of their grandparents.

Intermediate beneficiaries

upper secondary school, third age universities and VET training centres staff;

NGOs and other organizations active in the field of elderly care and active citizenship promotion;

policy makers at regional, local and national level, who will acquire a method to promote and organize, with a very low level of investment required, opportunities of cross-generation interaction and adult population digital literacy improvement with a significant social impact; policy makers at regional, local and national level, who will acquire a method to promote and organize, with a very low level of investment required, opportunities of cross-generation interaction and adult population digital literacy improvement with a significant social impact;

private companies which will establish new forms of cooperation with the local communities and find an opportunity to promote their products and services available on-line;

public organizations and other interested institutions that thanks to the web environment will have the opportunity to access the multilingual materials developed for dissemination purposes and to organize similar experiences in their local contexts (they will be only asked to give feed-back of their actions and to share the materials that might be developed).