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Traditionally, basic adult education has had a particular concern with the skills of literacy and numeracy, seeing these as essential for entry to the world of work. Adult education teachers may therefore be reluctant to adopt ICT, unsure of the part it should play, and worried about the time it takes away from the development of those basic skills. As we enter the 21st century, however, ICT has already become a necessary and important component of adult education. Formal and non-formal education are being delivered at a distance via technology – particularly the Internet – with the promise that learning can take place at any time and in any place.

Adults in the United States with low literacy – and in other OECD countries and many developing countries – are heterogeneous demographically. Such individuals, like most adults, may have complex family, work, and social circumstances that cannot easily be put aside to permit education to take place. These factors add additional complexity to issues of instruction methods, learning strategies, and programme planning and management.

In this article we suggest that the digital divide among adults within and across many nations is likely to persist for some years, the adults concerned being probably more resistant to change than children and youth, who will be growing up within societies ever more permeated by new technologies. Furthermore, up to the present the vast majority of ICT investment in education worldwide has gone into children’s schools and higher education, without regard for the educational needs of disadvantaged adults. There are extraordinary opportunities for ICT to bring about significant change for adult populations with low literacy, especially since adult education is less hampered by rigid education systems, required curricula, and constraints on individual motivation.

We know that only a small percentage of those who could benefit actually enter adult education programmes. Improving the ways technology is utilised as a learning tool can make adult education more engaging and effective. Already ICT is providing additional opportunities to learn in less structured environments, such as independently at home or at libraries. ICT-based education seems to be ideal for giving additional educational opportunities to at-risk and disadvantaged adult learners. Most of the examples in this article are drawn from the United States, where the focus on new ICT for adults is relatively advanced.

https://www.oecd.org/site/schoolingfortomorrowknowledgebase/themes/ict/basicskillsinadulteducationandthedigitaldivide.htm?fbclid=IwAR0QJSsEJ5NanpDL3X_AlQA1zVFjXT_qp0gjNEtx52X1THCTQMbUzFO9veE

From European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2019. Digital Education at School in Europe. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Download:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/sites/eurydice/files/en_digital_education_n.pdf

Please download the full report – it is important for all education-levels in Europe. Here some ideas from the first chapter:

This report addresses digital education in Europe at primary and general (lower and upper) secondary levels for the school year 2018/19 in all 28 EU Member States, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Turkey, covering 43 education systems in total.

Digital competence in school curricula

• There is a consistent approach to defining digital competence as a key competence across Europe. Nearly half of the European education systems refer to the European key competence definitions for digital competence: 11 education systems use exclusively their own national definition of digital competence (1); eight other countries (Estonia, France, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta, Austria, Albania and Serbia) use both the European definition and a national one (see Figure 1.1). In general, these definitions originate in curriculum or top-level strategy documents related to digital competence.
• The development of digital competence is included in the vast majority of countries at all three education levels. However, unlike other traditional school subjects, it is not only addressed as a topic in its own right, but also as a transversal key competence. In primary education, in eight education systems (French and German-speaking Communities of Belgium, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey), digital competence is not explicitly addressed in the national curriculum in the reference year (2018/19), while in secondary education, this is only the case in two systems – the French and German-speaking Communities of Belgium. However, the French Community of Belgium, Croatia and Latvia are currently reforming the curriculum to introduce digital competences or are in the process of implementing ongoing curriculum changes as from primary education (see Figure 1.2).
• In primary education, more than half of the European education systems include digital competence as a cross-curricular theme. It is addressed as a compulsory separate subject in 11 countries (2) and integrated into other compulsory subjects in ten countries (3). A quarter of the education systems combine two approaches (4), while in Czechia and Liechtenstein all three exist at the same time.
• In lower secondary education the number of countries teaching digital competences as a compulsory separate subject increase to over half of the education systems. In upper secondary, the number of countries teaching digital competences as a cross-curricular topic decreases slightly in relation to lower secondary and fewer countries offer compulsory separate subjects for all students in this area. It must be borne in mind though that in upper secondary education, students can usually choose more optional subjects, and these can include subjects related to digital competence.
• Iceland, Greece and North Macedonia have the highest number of recommended hours for information and communication technologies (ICT) as a compulsory separate subject in primary education (around 150 hours). Lithuania and Cyprus allocate the highest number of hours during lower secondary education, although they do not have any recommended instruction time for primary education. Within the scope of compulsory education, Romania has the highest number of hours related to digital competence as a compulsory separate subject in upper secondary education (see Figure 1.3).
• Half of the European education systems are currently reforming the curriculum related to digital competence (see Figure 1.4). The revisions aim either at introducing digital competence into the curriculum where it had not previously been addressed or making the subject area more prominent. Some reforms are also about changing the curriculum approach, updating content or strengthening particular areas such as coding, computational thinking or safety.

The digital@dults.eu project continues the implementation of its activities respecting timetable and deadlines set by the workplan; all the project partners are currently actively working on the translation and subsequently the fine-tuning of the “Manual containing comparative studies in Europe on methods of approach and teaching in the use of ICT for disadvantaged adults”, and preparing themselves to participate in the 4 transnational project meeting.

This manual constitutes one of the most important results of the digital@duts.eu project because it collects all the research work carried out in the previous months from the beginning of the project.

The German partner VHS SOB oversaw the selection and drafting of case studies of good practice across Europe on teaching methods for adults in ICT and methods of inclusion of disadvantaged adults. The manual will soon be uploaded on our website and will be accessible to anyone who wants to use it as a resource to expand their knowledge in this field.

In early April all the partnership should have met in Norway hosted by the partner TERRAMPACIS, but due to the current global health emergency situation it was decided by mutual agreement, to relocate the meeting on an online platform, giving still the consortium the opportunity to continue to work, meet even if virtually, to discuss the next steps in the implementation of the project activities.

IT

Marzo 2020 Aggiornamenti sul progetto: Il manuale e il 4° Meeting transnazionale

Il progetto digital@dults.eu prosegue nell’implementazione delle sue attività rispettando i tempi e le scadenze previste dal workplan; tutti i partner di progetto al momento stanno lavorando attivamente per la traduzione e successivamente la finalizzazione del “Manuale contenente studi comparativi in Europa sui metodi di approccio e insegnamento nell’uso delle TIC per adulti svantaggiati” e si preparano a partecipare al 4 meeting transnazionale di progetto.

Questo manuale costituisce uno dei risultati più importanti del progetto digital@duts.eu perché raccoglie tutto il lavoro di ricerca svolto nei precedenti mesi dall’inizio del progetto.

Il partner tedesco VHS SOB ha curato la selezione e la redazione dei casi studio di buone pratiche in tutta Europa sui metodi di insegnamento delle TIC rivolti agli adulti e i metodi di inclusione degli adulti svantaggiati. Presto il manuale verrà caricato sul nostro sito web e sarà accessibile a tutti coloro che vorranno utilizzarlo come risorsa per ampliare le conoscenze in questo campo.

I primi di Aprile tutti la partnership si sarebbe dovuta incontrare in Norvegia ospitati dal partner TERRAMPACIS, ma a cause dell’attuale situazione di emergenza sanitaria globale è stato deciso di comune accordo di sportare il meeting su una piattaforma online, dando la possibilità al consorzio di continuare a lavorare, incontrarsi anche se virtualmente e discutere dei prossimi passi nell’implementazione delle attività del progetto.

We are facing certain times all over the world that have proven to all of us how important digital skills are in the modern world. Ljudska univerza Rogaška Slatina and its learners have been facing quite a lot of challenges in this area during the last two months. The main challenge the education organizers at the organization are facing is a different level of digital skills of their learners, which raises the question how to make learning opportunities equal for all, for those with lower and those with higher digital skills. Therefore, a lot of differentiation in education organization has been made and the lecturers are using various digital and other tools for involving as many learners as possible into educational sessions. The lecturers are using different online applications to carry out online group sessions and online classrooms for creating lessons and quizzes for the preparation for the final exam in the formal vocational programmes. At the moment, Univerza has also started offering online language courses. But the main challenge was keeping in touch with the members of the University for Third Age due to low levels of digital skills of senior participants. The problem is even bigger since their children and grandchildren cannot visit them to help them with setting up online tools and devices. Therefore, the contact is being kept with the help of ordinary phone messages and through exercise sent by regular mail, which enables equal treatment of all senior participants. So, everybody is doing their share to try to keep contact and to continue with the educational offer at our organization to learners of all ages.

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