We chose Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in adult teaching as the priority of our project because ICTs are playing an important role in the life of many people nowadays. Learning digital skills are required keys to society and economic development. As modern societies and economies are changing due to globalization and technological progress, a fundamental transformation of education and training (E&T) throughout Europe is required to achieve the knowledge and skills needed for growth, employment and active participation in society. "Digital Storytelling Tools for Adult Educators" ( DST)- exchange of good practice Erasmus+ Programme strategic partnership is organized by UG KLARA I ROSA (Serbia), The Akademie für Politische Bildung und demokratiefördernde Maßnahmen (Austria), VšĮ EDUKACINIAI PROJEKTAI (Lithuania), Associação Recreativa Cultural e Social de Silveirinhos (Portugal) and Libera Università Europea Terza età Campania (Italy). The primary goal of this project is to allow partner organizations to reinforce EU networks for teaching/learning ICT process increasing. The adult educators and staff will enhance the capacity to work at the transnational level, sharing and exchanging ideas, improving knowledge about practices and DST methods as an inclusive teaching technique. The project partners are all actors involved in the adult education field. The partners come from Serbia, Austria, Lithuania, Portugal and Italy and most of them have already gained experience in the Program Erasmus +. Starting from experiences and good practices owned by the partner institutions on Digital Storytelling method implementation our international consortium will improve adult educators' competencies in using digital storytelling tools in order to create in their classrooms the multimedia projects. "Digital Storytelling Tools for Adult Educators" partnership focuses on the use and adaptation of different digital tools in the ICT teaching /learning adult process. Educators will be able to use in the educational system digital storytelling at all levels to help students develop writing, presentation, organization, and problem-solving skills to reach an effective digital inclusion. Our project activities are planned to better prepare and deploy the education and training of professionals for equity, diversity and inclusion challenges in the learning environment using DST method as a motivation strategy to involve all adult people in the digital era. We planned three international project meetings in Italy, mid-term in Serbia a final in Austria, one short-term joint staff training in Portugal focused on digital storytelling method and digital tool skills adult acquiring to enrich educators curricula. The training activities are designed to motivate and encourage participants to learn and test DST method in their adult classrooms. The participants will be trained to teach low-qualified adults/seniors low - digital skilled adults included immigrants on autobiographical approach in digital education. The consortium will provide the following results: - Data sources included field notes and digital stories created by the adult students. - A virtual exhibition of digital stories made by training course participants. - Educator’s toolkit collecting and suggesting digital tools, best practices, improved exchanges during international meetings. - Promotional material design and distribution. During the project activities development, the additional educational experiences, workshops and some cultural related activities are planned in order to reach further impacts, not only digital capability and awareness. Some experts on adult education and DST method will join these mini courses and seminars. For dissemination activities and sustainability activities, a plan and task sharing are prepared, and every partner is given some responsibility for these phases of the project. The project will involve actively relevant stakeholders of local communities and associated partners in the world of adult digital education. These have already been identified at the application stage. They will be involved in local activities and will bring their experiences in storytelling method implementation. The partner organizations will develop and reinforce EU adult educators networks for using the DST method in the teaching/learning process helping to fill the digital divide across Europe.
By using the Internet and other forms of digital items, digital stories can be seen across boundaries to create new educational communities through a sense of shared meaning. Starting from experiences and good practices owned by the partner institutions about Digital Storytelling and used in their adult classrooms, the partnership provided the best digital storytelling tools in order to have a pre-assessment for the future joint training course event. One of the objectives was to support educators and learners to use digital technologies in creative, collaborative, and efficient ways by using and coming to different digital tools in an international learning context. The goal was international learning at different levels, comparing practices, and exchanging ideas. Our Partnership is made to support educators and learners to use digital technologies in creative, collaborative, and efficient ways by using and coming to different digital tools in an international learning context. We believed that this method can be developed, apart from digital competencies, creative and critical thinking, but also encourage the inclusion of different social groups in the process of digital literacy and becoming an equal citizen of Europe.
The project is designed to increase digital competencies in adults, but also to bring online digital tools closer to wider social groups in order to increase the digital literacy of individuals. The areas of activity of the organizations that make up the international consortium testify to the need to work on the development of digital competencies, especially in times of pandemic and online work and education. Learning digital skills are the required key to society and economic development. As modern societies and economies are changing due to globalization and technological progress, a fundamental transformation of education and training (E&T) throughout Europe is required to achieve the knowledge and skills needed for growth, employment, and active participation in society. This forms an important part of the Europe 2020 agenda and its educational goals. EU Commission has been focusing on how to improve ICT for rethinking learning, innovating education and training, and for acquiring new skills and competencies to generate growth, employment, and social inclusion. Storytelling is one of the techniques used in the promotion of digital competencies recently redefined by the European Commission in Dig Comp Edu guidelines.