The "GSmart" project deals with adult education. It supports the field-specific priority - as the main one - of adult education, which is extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel who support adult learners, as well as the horizontal priority of social inclusion and the sectoral priority of promoting Erasmus+ among all citizens and generations by offering activities of education and exchanges of experiences to seniors - as the additional ones. The project will be carried by the hybrid of Prince2 and Agile PM. It will comprise participating organizations from Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Turkey. The project context is focused on the cross-generational gap that the contemporary Network Societies have to deal with. Nowadays, due to profound technological and demographic changes, people of various generations have to collaborate. However, cross-generational collaboration and understanding is a complex issue due to the divergent life purposes of people of different ages. Everyday life and professional activities in the contemporary world demand to overcome challenges and bridge the gaps between generations. Hence, the longer-term project objective and its benefit for the project targeted groups is to present a solution to fit the issue of cross-generational collaboration. Upon the implementation of the project outcomes, a solid common ground - a new culture - for cross-generational collaboration will be established. The holistic and coherent system of innovative education will sustain as the main result of the project. We will deliver a course comprising 50 hours of training - teaching and learning on cross-generational collaboration through social competences. There will be a possibility to develop the system further. Digital technology and innovative pedagogy solutions will be used to support the change. It will be achieved in four ways: (1) In IO1, research on cross-generational collaboration issues will be conducted. It is the necessary analysis of data and information that is fundamental to develop the model in IO2 - for the present and future needs. The report will be directed to the project targeted groups - to prepare them to embrace the problems of cross-generational collaboration in the Digital Age, and - as a result - to educate on it. The problems connected with the issue in question will be explained. The project organizations will enable the shift from a problematic situation caused by cross-generational collaboration into the situation with clearly defined and described solutions. (2) IO2 will go towards the design and development of the innovative educational model. The "CGC Model" (model for cross-generational collaboration) constitutes the methodological framework for the implementation of a training program on cross-generational collaboration through social competences and a transmedia-blend approach. Thanks to the innovative model, the project will extend and develop the competences of the project targeted groups - educators and other personnel who support adult learners - on how to educate the members of the Network Society in the scope of cross-generational collaboration. The transmedia-blend innovative approach is supposed to motivate the targeted groups to learn new methods of active teaching. The tool - the "CGC Model" - will comprise innovative pedagogical solutions and digital technologies: 10 Hybrid activities, 5 Workshops by activating methods - the training sessions in the face-to-face mode, and Social Learning. We will produce a course comprising 50 hours of training - teaching and learning on cross-generational collaboration through social competences. It will be a tool for the project targeted groups to work on a cross-generational collaboration with different age groups - according to their needs and expectations. (3) In IO3, we will deliver an Online Manual with the know-how to teach and learn on cross-generational collaboration with the "CGC Model" (from IO2). It will be a multimedia and interactive course presenting the innovative model for cross-generational collaboration through social competences. It will include 30 hours of training and the know-how of putting the educational model into use – for the sake of the project targeted groups. By the MOOC platform, i.e., Massive Open Online Course, the transnational society of the project targeted groups will obtain the knowledge of how to educate on cross-generational collaboration. The course will bring on an added value at EU level, as it will be connected with the lack of social competencies related to the cross-generational collaboration - identified at the transnational level. (4) Two Transnational Training Sessions will be organized. They aim at the knowledge sharing about the IO2 to 20 participants, who come from the project targeted groups. Thanks to it - in the Online Manual (IO3) - it will be possible to present the adjusted project outcomes to the targeted groups.
In IO1, IO2, and IO3, the holistic and coherent system of innovative education has been achieved as the project's main result. We have delivered a practical manual regarding teaching and learning on cross-generational collaboration through social competences. The manual has been created in the MOOC form - https://www.generationsmart.eu/eu/project/practice/manual It is dedicated to the project's target group, i.e., educators who teach adult learners. In the form of a self-study guide, the GSmart Project Partners present the course on how to teach about cultivating a new culture for cross-generational collaboration. It is flexible - it gives the possibility to develop the system further. Digital technology and innovative pedagogy solutions have been used to support the change. The above course follows such priorities: - Extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel who support adult learners. It is the project's main target group. - Fostering through innovative and integrated approaches ownership of shared values, equality, diversity, and non-discrimination - social inclusion. - Promoting Erasmus+ among all citizens and generations by offering educational activities and experiences to seniors.
GSmart project Partners applied for this project to focus its actions on the cross-generational gap the contemporary Network Societies have to deal with. By cross-generational collaboration, we understand the ability of different-age people to partner in two domains: every life and working life (no industry specified). We proved that it is a paramount issue in contemporary societies. Due to profound technological and demographic changes, people of various generations must collaborate. However, cross-generational collaboration and its understanding is a complex issue due to the divergent life purposes of people of different ages. Everyday life and professional activities in the contemporary world demand overcoming challenges and bridging the gaps between generations. Therefore, the needs we have addressed, the longer-term project objective, and its benefit for the project targeted groups is to present a solution to fit the issue of cross-generational collaboration. A solid common ground - a new culture - for cross-generational education collaboration has been established upon implementing the project outcomes. It embraces two domains, everyday life and working life, and includes third-age universities.