Smart Adult Education is a strategic partnership project for innovation in adult education, lasting 24 months (October 2018-September 2020). The SMART Adult Education project aims to respond to some of the priorities of the Erasmus + program in adult education. An essential key to foster the social and work inclusion of low-skilled adults is to constantly strengthen and update the professional skills of educators, an essential requirement to facilitate the transmission of alphabetic, mathematical, digital and transversal skills of adults themselves. Professional skills require heterogeneous and innovative tools and methodologies that range from the possibility of developing personalized learning strategies, to the possibility of helping adults to evaluate the skills acquired during their lifetime, identifying any training needs in relation to life goals, co-planning with adults possible strategies to acquire and / or develop further skills and knowledges and redesign themselves. The direct target of the project are educators (teachers, trainers, social workers) involved in the permanent education of adults; the indirect target of the project are low-skilled adults. The project aims to provide educators with digital tools, Open Source teaching resources, innovative learning methodologies and set of digital assessment tools (e-assessment) that facilitate their task in involving the target of adults most at risk of social exclusion. The project develops three Intellectual Outputs: WEB S.A.E. App, the Guide to the use of the WEB S.A.E App and the Toolkit E- Assessment S.A.E. (containing evaluation and self-assessment tools). WEB S.A.E. App will be accessible from all personal digital devices and in particular from the smartphone. These digital tools allow educators to strengthen the effectiveness of their training activities, to create engaging and creative training proposals, to exchange knowledge and know-how with other educators at national and European level; to evaluate the basic and soft skills of the low-skilled adults, helping them to plan life paths that improve their levels of social and work inclusion. A systematic use of digital facilitates the task of educators making the educational and training action pleasant, motivating and easily accessible for adults, especially those who for reasons related to social extraction, age, gender, economic condition, to the history of life, to the geographical place of origin, have difficulty accessing to the classic paths of education and training. The institutions participating in SMART Adult Education are representative of 4 European countries: Italy, Spain, Romania, Greece. Coordinator of the project is Aretes a company that offers consulting services in the field of research, training, planning and communication for quality and social innovation. The partners are: • CPIA NA1, an autonomous institution of the MIUR that carries out the training offer for adults and young people • STUDIO ERRESSE, a cooperative company that deals with monitoring, evaluation, research, orientation and assessment of skills • CIBERVOLUNTARIOS, a non-profit organization that uses new technologies to increase levels of active citizenship • DO MUNDO LUME, a language school specialized in teaching modern foreign languages. • AESD (RO), an organization engaged in the creation of digital training activities for adults with various levels of difficulty; • DAFNI KEK (GR), an organization that carries out training activities in particular for learning digital skills, life skills and soft skills; • TEIWEST is a public institution that deals with technological education. The project includes the following multiplier events: 4 seminars to disseminate the Intellectual Outputs in each partner countries, 1 final conference on project outcomes in Italy (Modena). The project includes the following implementation phases: • PREPARATION (Aretes) • IMPLEMENTATION (Aretes). During this phase, 3 meetings are scheduled with the main stakeholders to gather suggestions on lifelong learning policies; 1 thematic in-depth seminar to be carried out with educators; 1 focus on the learning needs of adults to be realized with adults. • MONITORING AND EVALUATION (Studio Erresse and Aesd) • DISSEMINATION (Dafni Keke). In this phase, 1 thematic in-depth seminar is planned on the contents to be realized with the educators; 1 focus on the learning needs of adults to be realized with adults. • COMMUNICATION (Cibervoluntarios)
The S.A.E. Smart Adult Education project ((hereinafter SAE) is a strategic innovation partnership project implemented in the field of adult education, lasting 24 Months (December 2018-November 2020). SAE supported and fostered the qualification process of operators and teachers working with fragile adults by providing new tools, techniques and working methods based on digital opportunities. The project has been an important opportunity for educators, operators and teachers to enhance their digital skills in order to evaluate, plan and manage new and effective interventions aimed at bridging the relational and social gap imposed by the regulations. The project has developed three main Intellectual Outputs: 1. The SAE WEB App (https://www. smartadulteducation.eu/) is the result of an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing similar products developed by partners at the design stage. The partners have imagined a product that can be used on all digital devices, especially smartphones, a place for interaction between different types of users, containing innovative digital methodologies, a place for orientation towards lifelong learning choices. The Web App is characterized by the presence of 4 areas: The SAE Guide, the Digital Learning Toolkit, the Competence Assessment Toolkit, the Archive or Repository. 2. The SAE WebApp User Guide is the operational reference for using the Platform. The Multimedia Guide that the partners have produced, collects: how to use the WebApp in detail; how to design and apply the evaluation tools (E-Assessment/Results). It helps teachers, professional educators and volunteers, working in the field of adult learning and education, to make the best use of the operational tools available on the Smart Adult Education Platform. 3. The SAE E-Assessment Toolkit provides assessment and self-assessment tools that measure the skills possessed by fragile adults and any changes that may have occurred as a result of targeted learning pathways. The Toolkit offers four integrated working tools which are: SMARTY, a simulator for self-assessment of skills; the SAE Matrix, a matrix for interpreting the answers given by adults with Smarty; the Evaluator Register, a guide for accessing and processing Smarty data; the Reasoned Catalogue, a reasoned collection of experiences references and references. The teachers / educators / training operators directly involved in the project activities were about 500, while the adults with low skills and/or low qualifications about 230. SAE has involved 4 European countries (Italy, Spain, Romania, and Greece) and has promoted the digital approach within organizations engaged in adult education in these contexts, spreading the use of the digital tools produced. In total, around 250,000 people were reached directly or indirectly through social media, especially during the pandemic and the regulation of social distances, and through interpersonal meetings. Articles, blog posts, social media and attendance at Multiplier Events were crucial for the dissemination of the project’s results. This broad involvement has fostered the spread of a model and tools that can be easily replicated in different contexts from the social, economic, educational, etc. point of view. The active participation of the world of adult lifelong learning was encouraged during the project. Local Working Groups were set up in the 4 territories, where educators and teachers discussed the training needs in terms of digital tools and innovative learning methodologies. In addition, meetings and discussions were organised with experts from the academic world and training for the sharing and development of content. The SAE project has been innovative for all the subjects of the partnership and for the subjects involved, enhancing, developing and spreading a new way of conceiving digital as a daily work tool, making available new digital products, strengthening the methodological-professional skills of educators and teachers and, ultimately, bringing a contribution to the innovation of a mode of intervention - the digital one - more and more necessary to act effectively towards fragile adults.