Εμφάνιση άρθρων βάσει ετικέτας: adult education

In a fast changing world, where digital technologies are becoming an important driver for the disruption of education, the need for capacity building of adult educators in digital skills become apparent. A large number of course providers now offer online trainings for educators, who want to upgrade their digital skills. However, this massive increase of online courses of different forms has made it hard for the potential learners to select the most appropriate course that will support them develop the competences they need and progress in their learning paths. In this context, SkillsMatch comes to support adult educators develop digital skills and support course providers to develop new e-learning courses covering the demand for skills.

The European Digital Learning Network – DLEARN – is a non-profit association aiming to embrace the challenges brought by the digital transformation in terms of digital skills mismatch and digital learning opportunities. The 47% of Europeans is not properly digitally skilled, yet in the near future, 90% of jobs will require some level of digital skills. We believe in the value of SHARING, CONNECTING, MULTIPLYING and ENHANCING the potential of our members, local territories, and people. 

As part of our activities, at DLEARN we undertake research, surveys, studies, and more, with the aim of continuously boosting European education and enhancing the awareness of European citizens towards the impact of digitalisation in their daily life.

Con le recenti disposizioni inerenti la chiusura di attività produttive, uffici, università e scuole, formazione a distanza - nota anche come apprendimento online, apprendimento digitale o e-learning - è divenuto passato un metodo comune per seguire corsi e rafforzare le competenze a ogni livello : le aziende la formazione per la formazione dei dipendenti, i professionisti per gli aggiornamenti, gli studenti di tutte le età per approfondire la disciplina scolastica, conseguire master o imparare le lingue.

Risulta evidente che crea di formazione nell'e-learning. Notiamo certamente di creare una conoscenza condivisa su temi specifici che interessano diverse competenze e quindi, quindi, un volano valido per il conseguimento di concreti obiettivi di innovazione sul piano organizzativo e sul piano tecnologico. Secondo uno studio di Technavio Research ("Mercato globale dell'apprendimento a distanza per tipologia e geografia") il mercato crescerà del 9% annuo nel periodo 2019-2023, aggiungendo un valore di 90 miliardi di dollari per fornitore tecnologico e fornitori di corsi grazie alle attività di apprendimento in rete e formazione a distanza di università e apprendimento pubblico e privato.

In quest'ottica, il monitoraggio dei risultati delle strutture di e-learning è divenuto un elemento indispensabile da cui partire per esaltare il concetto di apprendimento centrato sullo studente, ovvero l'idea che con l'e-learning la formazione sia incentrata sul discente , con l'aiuto di trasformarlo da semplice "fruitore" ad artefice (almeno in parte) del percorso di apprendimento; focalizzando l'attenzione su di esso.

Un'ottica di questo tipo intende aiutare i discenti a gestire i corsi in base alle proprie esigenze migliorando la qualità della formazione, nel rispetto dei diversi tempi di apprendimento. Tuttavia, in questi ultimi anni numerosi studi hanno evidenziato come la raccolta di dati e informazioni riguardanti la ricaduta ei benefici di tali attività hanno avuto su chi le ha frequentato non corrispondente alla costante espansione dei corsi di e-learning, avvenuta anche attraverso la diffusione di piattaforme MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses).

Per ovviare a tale mancanza, attraverso il progetto "ASTRE - Sistema automatico di tracciamento dell' e-learning", finanziato dalla Commissione Europea sul capitolo dedicato all'internazionalizzazione delle competenze; ERASMUS PLUS KA2: Cooperazione per l'innovazione e lo scambio di buone pratiche - Partenariati strategici per l'educazione degli adulti, ci si propone di realizzare un sistema di monitoraggio degli stessi, con l'aggiornamento del pubblico e migliorare la loro rilevanza e qualità.

I partner del progetto sono l'Università Politecnica di Valencia - Spagna, Università dell'Egeo Panepistimio Aigaiou - Grecia, Associazione europea dei coordinatori Erasmus - Cipro, l'Aintek Symvouloi Epicheiriseon Efarmoges Ypsilis Technologias Ekpaidefsi Anonymi Etaireia - Grecia, la Friedrich- Alexander- Universitaet Erlangen Nuernberg - Germania e Università Telematica Pegaso - Italia che si avvarrà della collaborazione dell'Associazione “NOI-Napoli Open Innovation”.

Per l'Italia il referente scientifico del progetto è il Prof. Costantino Formica - docente di Economia degli intermediari finanziari, Presidente del Presidio di Qualità, Delegato del Rettore per il Job Placement & Career, Presidente dell'Associazione NOI - affiancato dal Prof. Eugenio D'Angelo, docente di Economia e Gestione delle Imprese e dal dott. Rino Prota, esperto di formazione, in rappresentanza dell'Associazione NOI.

There is no doubt that the society of the future will be a learning society. Citizens are required to constantly update their competences, not only with regard to the world of work but in an encompassing approach to participate in contemporary societies. Moreover, modern societies face a rapid differentiation of educational pathways, opportunities and biographies. This increase in complexity from learners requires great effort into initiative taking, creativity, problem solving, risk assessment and decision taking, all of which requires learners to become stakeholders of their own learning process.

However, learner populations with a disadvantaged background or those remote from learning have great difficulties to take ownership of their learning, without being empowered. Empowerment is a term frequently found in formal and informal policy documents and expert discourses about adult education. But, although a great deal of rhetoric about learner empowerment, adult education practice too often remains caught in traditional instruction methods, fixed curricula and pre-defined learning outcomes. It's in particular low achievers who suffer from this situation, because they in the formal education system usually have made the experience that major parameters of their learning is out of their control, and thus never had the chance to develop a sense of ownership for their own learning.

PARTICIPATE is a new European project, which aims to promote participatory methods in adult education. It starts from the assumption that the impact on disadvantaged target groups can be greatly increased if education providers manage to adopt participatory approaches and methods, and this way support their learners to develop a sense of ownership of their learning and become lifelong learners. The specific objective of the PARTICIPATE project is to build a model for participatory design of learning outcomes.

The German Institute for Adult Education is organising a European conference in Bonn on 25 September 2018. The conference is titled "Course planning and course evaluation - two unjustly neglected key competences for teachers and trainers in adult education". It is organised in the framework of the project DEMAL.

The conference addresses two professional tasks of adult teachers which tend to attract less attention than the “actual teaching”. However, planning and evaluation of adult learning activities are of equal importance for the quality and the success of these activities. At the conference new European approaches to define and develop these two key competences will be presented and further development needs will be discussed. Besides a general introduction to the topic, three aspects will be explored in greater depth in parallel workshops:

• digital media as a tool for developing professional competences
• the role of competence standards and validation frameworks
• the potential of European training courses

The conference targets practitioners and researchers in the field of adult learning and education. No conference fees will be charged. Travel grants are available to a limited number of participants from Europe. If you are interested, please contact the organisers.

For more information

In the last decades we have seen a transformation of our reality, each day more and more influenced and linked to the digital world. No one doubts that we are experiencing a profound change that, supported by new technologies in a massive way, offers us great opportunities and challenges.

We could say that mobile devices and the internet have been the two key elements that - as the printing appearance caused, or later other mass media, such as radio or television - reaches absolutely all the spheres of our lives: communication, information, entertainment, commerce, the provision of education, health and government services, and the production systems themselves. These elements not only provide new tools, but also influence our position in the world, in our role as citizens.

Thus, although the concept of "digital citizen" was initially created to define those people who were active on the Internet and who used it to interact with their public administrations or collaborate with social and political entities, this idea become obsolete, and it is now clear that digital citizenship is no longer a matter of choice, but there is a digital space in which all citizens must be present.

One of the priorities of ET2020 is the professional development of staff working in the adult education sector, with a view to improve the quality and efficiency of adult learning. Following this priority in 2010 a framework for “Key Competences for Adult Learning Staff” has been launched, which defines the generic and specific competency profile for professional staff working in adult education.

Starting from the Education and Training 2020 strategy whose objective is the improvement of quality and efficiency in education and training among professional staffs, five organizations with valuable experience in the field of adult education from five different countries (Germany, Greece, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria), representing both private and public as also profit and non-profit sectors, have created a partnership to launch DEMAL project.

The “Designing, monitoring and evaluating adult learning classes – Supporting quality in adult learning” (acronym DEMAL) project is funded by the European Commission through the ERASMUS+ K2 Programme which enhances and promotes cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. DEMAL intends to implement two key competences which, according to the 2010 “Key Competences for Adult Learning Professionals” framework, should advance adult training staffs and improve quality in adult learning. These two competences are:

• be able to design the learning process
• be able to monitor and evaluate the learning process

This year, the EAEA Grundtvig Award will be given to a project successful in engaging new groups of learners.

One of the key challenges in adult education is often described as the “Matthew effect” – those who have will be given more and those who don’t will have less. This means that those who already have higher levels of education are more likely to participate in adult education. Partly this is due to the fact that they are more likely to be in the kinds of jobs where their employers offer training through their companies, but also because they more likely have positive experiences with learning and are therefore more likely to participate voluntarily.

The new 2 years Erasmus+ project Walk & Talk promotes non-formal learning of Europeans 65+, along with physical activities taking place outside the classroom. While the seniors are walking, they will learn about the interrelation between physical activity and active and healthy aging. They might learn a new language, discuss local culture and history, traditions, use apps etc. Senior learners can meet outside the centre of their home towns, in nature, or within their own surrounding or neighbourhood, which will be easier for the seniors living in big cities.