Followed on the success of the last year’s Project Lightning Talks session, we will have it again during our annual event on 5 October.

Each presenter will only have five minutes and will answer the same questions to get to the insight of their projects:

• what social impact it made,
• what you would change,
• what you would keep the same,
• what you learned.

Lightning talks will be followed by brief questions from the audience. The talks will not cover the typical project quantitative results and deliverables, so this is the chance for you to get acquainted with them, to be well prepared for the talks.

The projects to be presented are:

1. Simbioza between generations for e-literate Slovenia

Tjasa Sobocan, project manager at Simbioza Genesis, Slovenia

Nationwide actions of Simbioza started with an alarming fact that Slovenia was at the bottom of e-literacy among people aged over 65. We developed a nationwide project on raising e-literacy of seniors with the help of young volunteers, where Simbioza model is based on using locations with existing infrastructure and inviting all stakeholders to participate. In early 2014 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia published data showing that shares of daily computer and Internet users among older people are three and seven times higher.

Nationwide actions of e-literate Slovenia are happening annually since 2011 and include week-long intergenerational computer workshops across whole Slovenia, where young volunteers teach the elderly the basics of computer and internet. We promote the right to access Internet technologies to all citizens and we believe that digital society must be inclusive for all generations. Combining the energy of the youth with the experiences of the elder we prepare both target groups for a digital future.

2. Seniors@DigiWorlD

Katrin Schuberth, project manager at Digital Opportunities Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Chancen), Germany

Today Digital Media is essential for communication and participation in society. Although senior citizens could benefit from digital opportunities, they are the population group which is often not yet online. Therefore the project “Connect Seniors to the Digital World“, or in short Seniors@DigiWorld, which started in October 2016, aims to empower senior citizens to use tablet computers independently and profit from this usage in daily life.

As first contact persons, social workers, volunteers or staff of senior residences can support their clients to find their way to the digital world. The project will develop and test the training for those ‘multipliers’ , who work in libraries, digital competence centres as well as retirement homes.  It will be implemented in Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Germany starting January 2018. The background of this project is the experience of former projects implemented by the Digital Opportunities Foundation.

 

3. Teaching vulnerable groups about new methods of digital payment

Gitte Olsen, director at Telecentre-Danmark, Denmark

The new methods of digital payments are changing rapidly and constantly, and a large part of the population is very concerned and feel insecure about those changes, especially the elderly, women and (other) vulnerable groups. Telecentre-Danmark believes independent Information and tuition is needed, so through this project they offer training and awareness raising on new payment methods for vulnerable groups. They have arranged theme days, talks, mini conferences, Village Hall meetings for 300 participants and also produced a 30-minute TV programme with more than 1 mln views.

The project has been implemented in collaboration with Danske Bank Foundation, dk4 TV channel, NETS, The Danish Consumer Council, local banks and municipalitis

As a result, Telecentre-Danmark has played an important part in the community service and received a lot of national attention. We feel that it is important that we participate as frontrunners in current topics, in order to adapt to new digital changes and to show our commitment to the community.

4.  New learning spaces for 21^st Century Skills at the Digital Learning Lab

Gerhard Seiler, Education innovation strategist at 21^st Century Competence Center, Germany

The Digital Learning Lab shows exemplary new learning and teaching spaces for the future of education –in schools and furthermore in different contexts of digital inclusion. The project deals with the most important future-oriented questions regarding digitization:

• Technology, didactics, spatial design -How is the future (balance) of learning and pedagogical work?
• Cloud based education – visionary or reality? – How can digital networking succeed in education?
• Will we learn more effectively when the technical infrastructure and didactic
  framework conditions are optimal?

The concept of the digital learning lab is a competence-oriented: New learning means to strengthen communication and collaboration skills, creativity and critical thinking as a precondition for solving problems together and learning from each other –the key of individual digital literacy development. We realized the project in 2016 funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, want to share experiences and step on to transfer.

5. AUPEX – Digital empowerment in rural Extremadura

Antonio Román Casas, coordinator for European projects at AUPEX, Spain

AUPEX is the folk-high-school association of Extremadura (Spain), a non-profit organization that develops a variety of cultural and lifelong learning projects across the region, the Digital Literacy Programme is among them. The project started in 1999 and is funded by the regional Ministry of Education and Employment (through the Employment Service). Every year AUPEX submits an adapted proposal gathering innovative and cutting-edge training activities to be implemented over the next year.

The methodology is based on an active listening of the population requirements together with an updated content programme, which ensures their motivation and inspires a range of workshops and activities where participation and practical aspects are critical. The aim of the current project focuses on providing digital skills according to the EU Digital Competence Framework for Citizens.

E-Facilitators and project coordinators within the digital literacy programme collaborate and cooperate with local and regional stakeholders, fostering an effective cooperation network. The programme is implemented in 73 permanent ‘Digital Competence Centres’ (NCC for its acronym in Spanish), operating in more than 140 villages (with occasional activities). Since facilitators work in touch with citizens and identify their specific needs, the programme is a great opportunity for digital and social inclusion in rural areas. Since 1999, around 126,000 (12,6 % of the Extremadura population) users have taken part either in workshops, talks or individual sessions for ICT training.

6. Code Your Future

Sara Van Damme, project manager at Digipolis Gent, Belgium

Coding is a fun challenge, and it offers many advantages as well! It stimulates analytic thinking, cooperation and creativity – indispensable skills in today’s (digital) society. The ‘Code your Future’ project gave underprivileged children and youngsters the opportunity to develop these skills.  The project consisted of three sections:

1. Train-the-trainer sessions for people working with underprivileged children and youngsters. They learned how to use the Kodu programming tool and were given tips & tricks to teach coding skills to their pupils. See more at www.codertoolkit.be.
2. Children and youngsters attending holiday care services created their own games, coached by support workers who had completed the train-the-trainer programme.
3. The most impressive, original or exciting games were presented during the ‘Digitale Doebeurs’ (Digital Fair). Visitors to the fair could try out the games in full-fledged gaming arcades.

This project was realised in 2016 by Mediaraven, Fyxxilab, vzw Jong, Leebeekje, Habbekrats and Digipolis – Digitaal.Talent@Gent.

7. CodeMob – Teaching Coding and Mobile Devices in Telecentres 

Julie Moors, trainer/coordinator at Interface3, Belgium, and Danijel Borna Fiket, trainer at Telecentar, Croatia

The CodeMob project introduced two new training modules in telecentres: 1) coding and 2) the effective use of mobile devices. Project partners – Interface3 from Belgium, Telecentar from Croatia, ComNet from Hungary, and El Teb from Spain – have developed the training curricula and piloted them with e-facilitators (in form of training of trainers) and end-users who were mainly young, unemployed people. Our academic partner, the Technical University of Dortmund has been taking care of the quality of results. This project is a continuation of the telecentre movement’s long-standing efforts in supporting the teaching of digital skills and capacity building of e-facilitators.

In this lightning talk we address the wider telecentre community, particularly those who would like to include coding and mobile devices training in their offers. We will provide a brief overview of the curricula and how it can be deployed. Our purpose is to provide guidelines on how organisations outside the project consortium can use the courses and curricula developed within the project, as they will remain available online after the project’s end. We will also talk about tips and tricks from project partners’ experience on how to attract the target group (young jobseeking adults) and how to promote such courses among target learners.

 

Special presentation is based on the request of our members:

What is the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and how to get involved?

Pia Groenewolt, project officer at ALL DIGITAL, Belgium

The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition is part of the new EU Skills Agenda. The DSJC works on both quantitative aspects (pledges) and strategic aspects (national coalitions). The purpose of these actions is to bridge the digital skills gap and prepare for the digital transformation. The specific objectives of the coalition are outlined in the member’s charter which will be discussed in the presentation.

In this lightning talk we will review the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalitions and how you can get involved in various capacities. How does one become a member of the DSJC, who can be a member (no individuals)? What are pledges and who are invited to make pledges? How can you get involved with the National Coalitions, and what to do if you have no National Coalition in your country?