The population of old people in the EU is constantly increasing. This is shown in the statistics:

The percentage of young people is falling, and the percentage of people 60+ is growing. It has to do with increasing life expectancy. Another factor is the decline in birthdays. Another factor is the lower number of children in the family. The age of women who become mothers for the first time also influences this situation.

It means that we should focus on the relationships between the generations.

There are two terms that are sometimes used interchangeably: intergenerational and multigenerational. Intergenerational means that members of different generations work together, share common goals, collaborate and influence each other. Multigenerational means common activities of a generation, but they may not influence one another, they do not interact (Villar F., 2007). Intergenerational learning takes place when people learn from each other. Knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. It happened in families. Nowadays scientists point out that more and more often unrelated people, from outside the immediate family, take part in intergenerational learning (Kaplan, 2002).

These factors decided that project “Virtual & Augmented Reality Toolkit to Engage Seniors Brain With InTerGenerational UndErstanding” (2020-1-ES01-KA204-082270) can be interesting for all - young people, seniors, social workers, trainers. During the project time the partners are going to create three Intelectual Outputs: Digital Guidelines for Adult Training in Inter-Generational Understanding (IGU) Using VAR, Virtual Reality and Augmented reality Case Sudies, An Empowering Guide to Exploiting AR/VR with Seniors. The partners invite to a few activities young people. Thanks to the intergenerational approach and the exchange of experiences and between seniors and student, seniors will have a reduction of the feeling of isolation and on exclusion as the will share with a younger generation the experiences lived in their past. It’s very important to promote intergenerational cooperation. The impact is expected not only on the organizations, but on students, seniors, teachers, trainers, social workers, organizations.

Authors: Renata Barańska, Ewa Grzesiak

References:

Kaplan Matthew S., International Programs in Schools: Considerations of Form and Function, 2002

Villar F., Intergenerational or multigenerational? A question of nuance, „Journal of Intergenerational Relationships” , 2007