I have been working in adult education since the start of 2000, first through different international projects and then at several adult education schools in Sweden.  Currently I teach adults Swedish as a Second Language and am responsible for international projects in my school, Sundbyberg’s adult education, Sweden. I have quite a unique education myself. I am qualified as an adult teacher in languages and pedagogy. I also have a Master’s degree in International and Comparative Education.

I started to use EPALE a while ago as a way of getting ideas for teaching. Three years ago, I started to use EPALE to look for partners for ERASMUS projects. I have written, and continue to write, articles for EPALE and comment on articles that I read. EPALE provides useful information and insights for my work. It is very interesting to read about how adult educators in Europe work. I have applied some of the ideas to my work too.
I am an author of several articles on EPALE. I also encourage my colleagues to use EPALE and to write articles in order to share their experience. We have used EPALE for presenting our experience of our ERASMUS projects. Finally, I have become an EPALE ambassador in Sweden.

Eager to look back by going forward

We were lucky in our school, Sundbyberg’s Adult Education in Sweden. We had finished our “digital revolution” at the school just before the COVID-19 outbreak. After the participation in the KA 1 ERASMUS project, our leadership decided to throw away our old computers and to equip the school with Chrome Books that students could use at school. Furthermore, we were already on our way to establishing a flexible teaching module at our school. Last year we started to teach according to the new teaching model - Open Class.

Everything new is just the forgotten old.

The model is based on Freinet’s pedagogy and adapted for adult learning by our ERASMUS partner school in Antwerp, Belgium. The model is a mix of classroom and home studies. We developed tasks and placed them on our learning platform, “Its Learning”. This meant that at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak we only had to make minimal changes.
The fact that we already had Chrome Books and a lot of material on the learning platform gave us the chance to adapt to the changes quickly. We lent Chrome Books to our students who didn’t have computers at home. It took time and patience to explain to the students how to access the digital classrooms because many of them have never been taught how to use computers. However, once the students got used to it, the teaching ran like normal with the only difference being that my office became my kitchen and the living room.  Today one of our students told me that she is very satisfied with her studies and would like to continue to study in this blended way even when the schools reopen.

My colleagues have noticed that students have also become even closer. The experience is mostly positive but can sometimes be inconvenient.
There have been and still are various pitfalls with teaching online. One example is the prevalence of internet connections cutting out in the middle of the lecture and the difficulties some students have in keeping up with their studies whilst being separated from their colleagues. Even we as teachers have noticed that things are missing; our regular digital meetings without coffee breaks and bumping into each other in the school corridors, which were often moments for coming up with new ideas.

This experience will bring about a lot of changes to adult learning.

Even before the outbreak it was obvious that the classroom system, even if it does provide possibilities for socialising, was becoming old as a teaching model. When changes are the most stable thing in life, adult education cannot live by old principles borrowed from the primary school model. Adult education must find its own way, where students are co-creators of their own learning. COVID-19 offers new possibilities that we have not seen before. The new way to teach adults is becoming a reality right now. I do not think that we will return to “business as usual” after the COVID-19 crisis.