The TAO project- Training Adults Online – is a project implemented in partnership between Poland, Germany and Great Britain as a response to the lack of adequately and fully trained educators, who would be competent to conduct online classes using online tools on a variety of subjects with elderly adults . The aim of the project is to train competent educators of elderly adults in the field of various teaching techniques using the latest ICT technologies and equip them with a tool for self-education. The specific objectives of the project are: -The development of a comprehensive training program for educators covering: teaching methodology for adults, the latest online adult learning tools with particular emphasis on the elderly, teaching foreign languages and other skills and competences online. - The increased motivation and awareness of adults, mostly elderly, of the value and importance of the lifelong learning process - Widening the knowledge of older people about educational opportunities -The development of essential basic skills of the elderly at a high level in the perspective of lifelong learning. Intellectual outputs to be developed in the project are: - The Training Program for educators of adults and the elderly covering such issues as: 1. Methodology of teaching people of the advanced age, modern online learning tools for teaching adults, especially older people, as well as teaching online of foreign languages and other skills and competences to elderly adults. 2. A comprehensive Guide for Educators including the sections on: The methodology of training elderly adults, the digital and organizational skills of educators and learners essential in the effective use of tools for conducting various types of online training, dedicated online learning tools suitable for training various skills and competences of the elderly ( including foreign languages ) and opportunities for combining an course with elements of interaction between group participants. 3. An application for mobile devices ( in three language versions ) dedicated to educators of elderly adults . It will include a Guide for educators, a Toolbox with practical techniques and resources on online lesson management, virtual classroom management and examples of training various competences . The fourth result of the project is a video that promotes results and shows how they can be used. There will also be three short -time staff trainings provided in the project, following which the process of implementation of testing, evaluating and training further is going to take place. The multipliers events will be webinars (one in each partner country) and trainings for educators beyond partner institutions that will take place in each partner country. It is assumed that educators who are directly involved in this project, whether in the form of partnership training or dissemination training, will be fully trained and trained to work with adults, especially older people, who require a slightly different educational approach. The digital tool – the Application- will provide handy, ready to use support regardless of time and location. On the one hand it will help to improve their digital skills and on the other, make them apply online learning tools more often in their daily educational work with elderly adults. The additional assumption is that the attractiveness of the training offered to older people will increase and that they will be more likely to use it in later years of their lives. The open availability and universal nature of intellectual outputs, manifested in multilingualism (English, German and Polish) and the fact that they will be used by educators of different skills and competences will make them universally accessible. Online availability will make the program and other products available to educators and educational institutions outside the consortium.
Training Adults Online (TAO) project, implemented with the participation of partners from Germany, Great Britain and Poland, was an answer to the following questions for an insufficient number of adequately and comprehensively trained educators who are competent to teach a variety of subjects for adults, especially the elderly, using modern online tools for this purpose. In relation to an adequate number of well-trained educators can result in an increase in the participation of adults and older people in the learning process, the main objective of the project is to train competent educators of elderly adults in the field of various teaching techniques using the latest ICT technologies and equip them with a tool for self-education.The main objective of the project was achieved through the following specific objectives: - Development of a Training Programme for adult and older educators (IO 1) including: methodology of adult learning, modern tools for online teaching of adults (with particular focus on older people), online teaching of foreign languages and other skills. The main objective of the project was achieved through the following specific objectives: - Development of a Training Programme for adult and older educators (IO 1) including: methodology of adult education, modern tools for online teaching of adults (with particular focus on older people), online teaching of foreign languages and other skills. - Development of a comprehensive Self-education Guide for adult and older educators (IO 2) on teaching and working with adults, especially in older age, using traditionally available online learning channels (youtube, chat rooms, video, social media) and new generation educational tools (e.g. virtual classroom). The Guide, available in three language versions: English, German and Polish, includes sections concerning: the specificity of educational work with older people in general; necessary digital and organisational skills of educators and listeners in the process of making effective use of tools for various forms of online training; specific tools for online learning on a variety of topics; and possibilities to combine online forms of language learning with elements of interaction between participants in a group and to find the optimal online tools for teaching specific language skills to older people. - Development of the TAO application for tablets and smartphones (IO 3) in 3 language versions including: essential information from the Guide for Educators, Toolbox of practical tools, techniques and resources for online teaching and virtual classroom management, practical tips for teaching people 50+. It can be used both online and offline. - Increase of motivation and awareness of adults, mainly the elderly, about the essence and important role of the lifelong learning process. - Increasing the knowledge of older people about the opportunities available to them in the training market. - Developing essential basic competences for older people at a high level in a lifelong learning perspective. Within the TAO project 4 partner meetings were held, three of which were combined with trainings (each 3 days) for educators from partner institutions, who then trained other educators working in their organizations. After the trainings, each time the so-called Training Pack was created, which later, after evaluation, was included in the Guide for Educators (IO2). As part of dissemination activities, according to the application, trainings for external educators took place in all partner countries. They were attended by a total of about 100 educators. Webinars were still planned, but these were not funded at the stage of application evaluation. Educators who participated directly in this project, whether in partnership or training courses as part of their dissemination activities, have been comprehensively trained and prepared for educational work with adults, especially older people, who require a slightly different approach. They also received theoretical support and practical tools to work with these people, which they can use at any time and place, including offline. This has improved their digital competences on the one hand and motivated them to use more tools for online learning for older people in their daily learning activities in order to make them more attractive. In addition, the attractiveness of forms of training offered to older people has already increased within the institutions, which makes them more willing to use them in later years of life. The free and universal character of the products, manifesting itself in multilingualism (English German, Polish), general accessibility (they can be downloaded free of charge from the project website) and the fact that they can be used by educators teaching various skills and competences will make the learning process of older people more attractive and there will be more and more learners in later life in all partner countries.