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 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. But this idea seems to became 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. Some specialists are already talking about Digital Intelligence, which would be the "set of social, emotional and cognitive skills that allow individuals to face challenges and adapt to the demands of digital life." Thus, Digital Intelligence is divided into 3 levels: digital citizenship, digital creativity and digital entrepreneurship. Our project seeks to deepen into the first of the levels, considered as the key trigger or starting point that supports the other two. As the Coalition for Digital Skills and Job Coalition recently pointed out, one of the most pressing priorities that stands out at the EU level is the need to develop Digital Competencies for all, that is "to develop the digital skills to ensure that all citizens are active in our digital society. " The development of these competences will also help to combat digital exclusion, which is emerging as a widespread and growing phenomenon in the European Union. 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. The European Digital Citizens' Competition Framework (2016) added that older people, less educated young people, and low-income and migrant families are often the most troublesome. But in addition, 32% of the EU workforce lacks sufficient digital skills, and 13% believe that it has none. Across the EU, 42% of citizens without IT skills are inactive in the labour market. The project aims to contribute to the provision of competences of digital citizenship in adults, understood as “The ability to use digital technology and media in safe, responsible and effective ways”. For doing it we will go through the design and development of 2 main products: - Design of a training itinerary for adults in digital citizenship. Reference will be made to the DIGCOM and the competency breakdown that it proposes to create a training itinerary that allows students to progress through the 3 levels (from basic to advanced). This training itinerary will offer a clear relationship between competencies-training actions-levels, so that it can be used and/or adapted by any entity interested in designing their own training actions for the training of digital citizens. - Development of a training course aimed at adults who want to improve their skills to exercise active and effective digital citizenship. To do this, we will work on the key areas of the DIGCOM competency framework designed by the European Commission, creating a training itinerary that includes the 21 competences indicated by this framework, allowing the development of a complete course that, designed in 3 levels, will provide citizens from basic to advanced skills. The use of this framework as a reference will facilitate the evaluation and subsequent accreditation of these competences in any European country, to the extent that the implementation of this structure generalizes in the different member states. DQ SKILLS project will reach relevant results for the adult learnres, such as: - Awareness raising among the adult audience on the current meaning of Citizenship and Digital Citizenship. - Empowerment of adult population to actively participate in the Digital Society. - Reduction of the digital divide and improvement of digital inclusion levels for disadvantaged adults.
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 influence our position in the world, in our role as citizens. As the Coalition for Digital Skills and Job Coalition recently pointed out, one of the most pressing priorities that stands out at the EU level is the need to develop Digital Competencies for all, that is "to develop the digital skills to ensure that all citizens are active in our digital society." The project aims to contribute to the provision of competences of digital citizenship in adults, understood as “The ability to use digital technology and media in safe, responsible and effective ways”. But also to contribute to: - Increasing awareness among the adult audience on the current meaning of Citizenship and Digital Citizenship. - Empowering adult population to actively participate in the Digital Society. - Reducing the digital divide and improvement of digital inclusion levels for adults. Active participation of the target groups (adults and their trainers) in various phases and activities allowed the development of the two main products. In total, 42 professionals working in adult education, and 84 adult people participated in the design, validation and testing of the project's products, being 50 the number of participants in the national events organized by all partners. This participation was a key factor to test and adopt improvements to the final products, which include: - A training itinerary that, based on the European DIGCOMP framework, allows any interested entity or professional to design their own actions for the training of digital citizens. - A training course in Digital Competencies for Active Citizenship addressed to adults who want to improve their skills to exercise an active and effective digital citizenship. The training was designed taking into account the areas included in the DIGCOMP: Information and data literacy; Communication and collaboration; Digital content creation; Safety; and Problem solving. Likewise, the 21 competences defined by this reference framework are included. Some of the main achievements of this product are its pedagogical approach and its technical development. The approach of the DQ Skills course includes: - The use of a Moodle platform, configured to respond both in access via PC, as well as via mobile or tablet. - The generation of content in SCORM format (using Adobe Captivate) for the basic level, since it facilitates its viewing, as it is reproduced automatically, with very basic technical knowledge needs by the user. - The development of content for the intermediate and advanced levels based on assigments/challenges approach, in order to motivate the students with the highest level of knowledge. - The mainly practical approach of the content, introduced with clear link and relation to the areas of leisure, social life, business transactions, learning, employment, citizenship, and well-being. This is an essential aspect both from the point of view of the andragogic approach of the course, and with respect to the ultimate goal of training, that is, to provide digital skills for active citizenship. Finally, we outline the fact that the products are available through the project website (www.dq-skills.eu) in 5 languages (English, Spanish, Greek, Romanian and Polish) which facilitates its use by users, and an easy update of content (key aspect taking into account the content topics).