Great activities and even greater materials within the LINK project
Over the past two years, partners from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Poland have joined forces to work together to support seniors eager to develop their skills and expand their knowledge, as well as educators who want to improve their craft and to support and share their knowledge with others. All this is in the framework of the Linking Seniors to Digital Media Literacy, Democracy and Diversity project.
The project focused on seniors' role in the democratic process, including their role as Europeans and promoting their digital and social inclusion, as well as building seniors' awareness of the democratic process and how media content affects democracy. The partners sought to help seniors develop critical thinking skills, safe use of media and social networks, promote the values of the European Union and show its beauty and cultural and social diversity.
Seniors participated in international study visits and training where they had the opportunity to experience first-hand what the European Union and its diversity offer. In such transnational activities, they participated in meetings with important personalities and with other seniors from the partner countries, during which they not only benefited from non-formal education but also exchanged experiences and had the opportunity to make new friends and experience the beauty in other countries and the people who come from them. The partner organisations also trained each other, ensuring their staff's development of competencies and exchanging experiences.
Something for educators!
The project also included educators who would like to implement such activities in their organisations or elsewhere to run workshops and meetings for seniors to support their knowledge competencies and ensure their social and digital inclusion. Several materials published in free access have been developed and can be found at link-project.eu/ under 'outputs'.
The first downloadable material is the Programme Presentation, which provides crucial information about the project's objectives, explains why it is needed, presents a theory of change based on the programme developed and lists all the documents.
The second material, Key Concepts, provides detailed information on critical issues for the project, such as the ageing population in Europe, digital literacy among the senior population, the impact of disinformation and misinformation in democratic processes and many others.
Next in line is the Observatory of Good Practices, a collection of activities conducted by other organisations originating from the partner countries that were of interest to the LINK project.
The fourth document is the Transversal Guidelines for Facilitators, where you can find essential information that every educator should be familiar with. The Guidelines include information on lifelong learning, the role of facilitator, teaching seniors and many others.
The Programme of Activities, another document, is a collection of activities covering the issues the project addresses and the programme as a whole. You can find activities related to developing digital media literacy and social inclusion, increasing knowledge of online safety, learning how the EU works and operates, promoting diversity, showing how to recognise hate speech, and more. All exercises are scheduled to take 24 clock hours and 15 minutes to complete.
The last document that can be considered additional and supportive is the Programme Impact Measurement, which consists of two survey forms - one to be carried out before the programme starts and the other after it ends - that will help check the programme's effectiveness.
In addition, a series of podcasts containing key information can be found under the same tab on the website, each covering a different topic. The topics of the podcasts are as follows:
- The Introduction of the LINK Project;
- Ageing Population in Europe;
- Active Ageing, Political Participation and Democracy;
- Digital Literacy among Senior Population;
- Media Literacy, Disinformation and Misinformation;
- The Impact of Disinformation and Misinformation in the Democratic Processes;
- The European Union;
- Promoting European identity, citizenship and values
We encourage you to use the prepared materials, listen to the podcast, and thus educate and learn!
Note: the materials developed are available in English.
If you want to expand your knowledge of digital literacy, informed democratic participation, and helping older people, follow us on www.link-project.eu and https://www.facebook.com/LINK.PROJECT.EU!
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
