60+VC – 60+
Virtual Culture
Erasmus +
17 months: 2016-2018
Coordinator: Zolty Parasol (Poland)
Partners: Association E-Seniors (France),
Associazione Innovamentis (Italy), Glafka (Czech Republic)
60+ Virtual Culture is a project aimed
at strategic partnership for the benefit of adult education created by four
partner organizations from Czech Republic, France, Poland and Italy each of
which has long lasting experience in helping people threatened with e-exclusion
and the exclusion from cultural life, in particular with senior citizens.
The fact that educational offer does not
follow rapidly changing needs of the ICT environment and newly developed tools
often results from poor competences of trainers and people working with the
elderly. The trainers being themselves aged 50+ and having outstanding skills
in the area of teaching their peers are at the same time facing difficulties
when it comes to technological novelties. On the other hand a large group of
people working for the benefit of seniors are young with great and dynamic
approach and knowledge in the field of ICT, who can immediately recognize new
applications, tools and devices. Not many people are aware of the enlarging
digital gap between generations. The youth and the seniors have a completely different
approach to virtual reality and the attempts to educate seniors with the tools
created to suit the young ones are both difficult and ineffective.
The key part of the project will be a training programme for senior
citizens regarding in particular:
-
Learning computer literacy and new
technologies to facilitate daily life of a modern citizen of Europe
-
Learning English as a tool to
communicate with peers all over Europe
-
Encouraging the habit to participate in
cultural life at the place of residence as well as around the globe using
newest tools and applications (e.g. virtual museum tours)
-
Exchanging cultural experience and
reporting the reception of particular artefacts, finding common interest etc.
The project will include groups of seniors from member states, each of
them with the same number of participants of similar profile. Trainers in the
program will work in pairs: one of them computer literacy teacher at the age of
60+ and the second, new technologies expert aged 18+ (preferably graduates without
previous work experience). The combination of their skills will enable better
access to learners who may otherwise be digitally excluded. The teaching
tandems will be given a unique chance to improve their most desired skills and
become ideal teachers for seniors (equipped with both technological expertise
and appropriate approach to older students needs). Seniors will work remotely
in pairs consisting of people from a partner group.
S t o w a r z y s z e n i
7 2 9 2
On the direct actions stage, the learners participate in cultural events
in their home cities. During subsequent virtual meetings they will be able to
report and review their cultural experience via skype, e-mail or more advanced
digital communication channels. The possibility to take part in cultural events
with other participants will be an impulse to break barriers such as fear of
going alone to an unknown place, high admission price (discounts for group
tickets), communication barriers (e.g. persons with age related hearing or
eyesight problems who will be supported by other group members), geographical
barriers (e.g. car polling to remote locations or virtual tours to foreign
museums). Sharing cultural experiences will enable English vocabulary
improvement and will provoke better understanding of new technologies, which
shall in long term perspective, lead to creation of content based on newest
applications such as video relations, video blogging, photo blogging etc.
One of the priorities
of the project will be combating barriers and stereotypes. It is common among
elderly to have strong ideas about others, often based on stereotypes or historical
grudges. Working together will help them notice similarities rather than differences
(e.g. common problems of old age) which may lead to relations based on dialogue
and mutual understanding.