Despite many years of specific programmes addressed to different sub-sets of the low-skilled adult target group there are still almost 70 million adults in Europe with only lower secondary level qualifications, approximately 20 million of whom have not even achieved this grade. Teaching basic literacy skills to low skilled adults is probably one of the most difficult educational assignments in the field of adult education. Addressing the needs of the long-term unemployed; migrants; refugees; asylum seekers; and indigenous ethnic minorities like Roma demands considerable skill and dedication and often adult educators working with these most marginalised groups tend to be the least well trained and least well resourced. Basic literacy once meant the ability to read and write simple paper-based texts. However, in an increasingly visual, culture and digitised world, many important day-to-day social, health, work and financial literacy practices are now digital. Therefore, our digitised and multi-literate world requires multi-modal literacy skills on smartphones and mobile devices. Literacy, digital skills and digital literacy are increasingly essential, especially for the most marginalised, hard-to-reach, low-qualified and low skilled members of society across the EU. These target groups can be found in adult education classrooms across Europe and typically include refugees, migrants, school drop outs, those with no or interrupted formal education (frequently women) and the long-term unemployed. The amount of ‘digital capital’ an adult holds can often determine how effectively they integrate and participate in social and civic life and wider society, obtain employment and achieve personal goals for the benefit of themselves, their families, their local community and society in general. Citizens in our changing world need to be highly-skilled in digital practices if they are to engage with and access key services and thrive. DiLitE will support and facilitate the up-skilling of practitioners at all levels (volunteers, mentors, classroom assistants, teachers) through research into, and comparison of the teaching of basic digital skil literacy practices across European (EU) settings as an integral part of basic literacy practice with native and non-native speakers of the main language(s) as well as migrant populations who are developing language and literacy skills in the host country’s language. Research and comparison will lead to the development and provision of both short-term outputs (i.e. by the project’s completion) as well as longer term and sustainable results (i.e. post project completion) for the countries involved as well as for basic literacy practitioners across the EU: Project outputs & results will comprise the following: IO1: Methodology Framework: presented as an eBook will include a literature review, analysis and evaluation of existing learning environments promoting digital literacy, profile of target groups' learning and training needs, establish the learning outcomes and value propositions of IO2 and IO3 and frame the structure of both IO2 and IO3 IO2: DiLitE Curriculum for Adult Educators: A flexible curriculum adaptable to different countries and contexts, which outlines what constitutes principled practice in the teaching of a broad range of literacies within the context of basic literacy, reflecting innovative approaches to learner-centred and participatory methodology and pedagogical approaches in the internet age. DiLitE training will engage 14 practitioner in each partner country. IO3: Practice Toolkit: A set of innovative, modern and customizable resources and tools which will enable practitioners to develop their own teaching materials to build the digital capital of marginalised learners. The toolkit will be both online and printed and will be translated in all partner languages. IO4: Online Platform: The new digital literacy resources, including the training curriculum and practice toolkit, will be available for all those involved in the provision of adult literacy learning within an attractive, accessible, multimedia and interactive platform. The consortium consists of 6 partner organisations from six EU member states (UK, IE, GR, ES, PT and CY) and between them cover a wide range of expertise and experience related to the scope and aims of DiLitE and have a pan-European outreach in their activities. These partners represent a range of geographical, social and educational backgrounds which will help to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
We wanted to provide high quality resources that would be accessible and adaptable to different contexts across Europe, and which would provide training for practitioners in the area of digital literacy teaching, and which would also provide examples of resources that could be used directly with the target group of learners.
We were aware of a lack of available teaching and training resources for both teachers and learners in the area of digital literacies, along with a general lack of attention paid the increasing use of digital forms of reading and writing in all aspects of social and work life. Much literacy teaching seemed to be still anchored in pen and paper based literacy, even though these literacies were far less significant than digital literacies in terms of access to work and participation in society. Particularly for low-educated adults across our partner countries, and including refugees and asylum-seekers, access to learning about digital literacies was problematic, especially as few practitioners had been trained in this area.