Adult people in Europe is ranking not as well as necessary on the three of them. For example, in Europe, one in five 15 year-olds and one in five 16-65 year-olds have poor reading skills; and around 55 million adults between 15 and 65 years of age have literacy difficulties (ELINET, 2015). If we focus on numeracy, the OECD PIAAC Adult Skills Survey (2013) found 24% of the EU population at or below level 1 in numeracy on the five point scale (representing the basic level). Data are not better if we focus on digital skills. According to data from the Digital Scoreboard, 80 million of Europeans have never used the internet, and the latest data published by the European Commission on the Index of Economy and Digital Society (2017) a 44% of Europeans do not have basic digital skills. Driving innovation in the development of teaching for adults, adjusting the teaching-learning process to changes in society, primarily through the use of active methodologies and cooperatives, diversified assessment instruments and integration of Technologies of Information and Communication leads us to propose this project, which will design and develop a webapp focused to: • Enhance creativity, selecting statements, presenting current problems in different contexts, and to develop in students the ability to create new problems, asking questions and sharing relevant ideas. • Improve the perception of students towards learning mathematics, improving their literacy skills and promote their digital competences, increasing its interest, motivation, flexibility and perseverance and correcting negative attitudes traditionally linked to the area/ssubjects, such as lack of confidence, low self-esteem or anxiety • Prepare students for lifelong and autonomous learning, developing critical thinking and promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship • Promote the professional development of teachers in basic competencies, providing them with a new tool for adult learning in informal contexts APP4SKILLS proposes the development of a web application to train basic skills on disadvantaged adults. The idea is to go beyond the former 8 key competences to focus on the 3 ones the EC is outlining (on February 2017 the EC opened a public consultation on the topic due to the need to review the approach to current Basic Skills requiered on XXst Century). Those are: literacy, numeracy and digital skills. APP4SKILLS offers, on the basis of 3 main areas related to daily life (gardening and environment protection, DIY and handcraft, and cooking) a set of activities that (individually or in groups) will contribute to develop these skills on adult learners. The gamified app will count on: - 60 files with activities (20 per area) - Social media links where students will share and rate others activities results - A ranking of best performers - A section where users contribute with new activities and ideas (networking area) App4Skills emphasizes the use of active, participative and cooperative methodologies, promoting meaningful learning and constructive student activity. This methodology develops the capacity of observation, reflection, organization, participation, creativity and autonomy of adult learners, increasing their motivation to learn.
In a European context, in which it is increasingly clear that the so-called 21st Century Competencies are essential to understand and peform in the world today, we find groups that for various reasons do not participate in activities aimed at developing these competences. Since 2017, the European Commission (after public consultation) highlighted the key importance of 3 competences: mathematical competences, literacy and digital competencies. Some key data allowed profiling the main target group of the project: adults. For example, about 55 million adults between 15 and 65 have difficulties with reading-writing in their own language; 24% of the EU population have a level 1 or below in maths (on the five-point scale); and 44% of Europeans have no basic digital skills. On the other hand, the technological innovation that has broken into the last decades implied structural changes that decisively influenced virtually all areas of our lives. Technology changed the way we relate with others, our habits and lifestyles, our way of understanding and enjoying leisure time and also our way of learning and teaching. Thus, the App4skills project focused on the development of a web application that allows, in a playful-educational context, to improve the basic skills of European adults in mathematics, literacy and digital skills. The project focused its activities towards the fulfillment of the following objectives: - Improve creativity and develop in students the ability to create new problems / activities, ask questions and share relevant ideas. - Improve students' perception of learning mathematics, improve their literacy skills and promote their digital skills, increasing their interest, motivation, flexibility and perseverance, and correcting negative attitudes traditionally linked to lack of trust, low self-esteem or the anxiety that can be generated by formal learning settings. - Prepare students for continuous and autonomous learning, developing critical thinking and promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship. - Promote the professional development of adult trainers in basic skills, providing them with a new tool for use in informal and non-formal contexts. The project implementation counted on specialists from five countries (Spain, Finland, Poland, Italy and Turkey), members of the partners' work teams, but also from other local, national and European entities linked to them. Professional networks were activated and dinamysed to obtain valuable feedback for the project. In addition, the project counted on the direct participation of 391 people in the phases of testing of the prototype and in the presentations made in the different multiplier events. All of them representatives of the project's target groups: adults and their trainers. The web application was developed in several phases, which we could summarize in 3: design and development of the prototype, testing with real users, adaptation and inclusion of improvements for the development of the final version. It is worth noting the wide participation of users in the testing phase (159 people, of which 123 were adults and 36 trainers), and the positive feedback received. As an example, we can highlight that 91.82% of the participants considered that the webapp meets their expectations and 91% believed that its design is attractive. In addition to the direct positive impact on these users, the project continuously carried out networking and dissemination actions with the objective of gathering the interest and collaboration of other entities for the use of the webapp, once the project is finished. In this sense, some interesting connections have already been made, and the data recorded in the web application show that the number of activities has increased from 300 published by the partners to 342, which is a sign of their use by third parties.