Senior Courses UP!

The starting point for our project implementation was digital exclusion, particularly affecting the elderly. Internet tools, though increasingly complex, are becoming more necessary in today's wor...

The main goal of our completed project was to counter digital exclusion among older adults and individuals with fewer opportunities. To achieve this goal, we developed a mobile application, supported by a web application, which served as the primary focus of our efforts and the culmination of our project as a whole. This application was designed to assist in organizing training sessions for seniors on using mobile devices and subsequently enable them to independently deepen these skills. Our idea stemmed from the observation that the primary cause of elderly exclusion often lies not in a lack of access to technological or financial resources, but simply in the lack of proficiency in utilizing them effectively. While the project idea emerged during the pandemic, its primary motive remained relevant - many aspects of social life had shifted online, further underscoring the urgency of addressing digital exclusion. Therefore, we believed our project could be particularly impactful for older individuals.

As part of our project, we conducted three international project meetings: (1) The kick-off meeting took place in Katowice; (2) The mid-term evaluation meeting was held in Bucharest at the end of 2022; (3) The final meeting was held in Barcelos at the end of 2023. The most significant achievement of our project was, naturally, the application - available both as a web version and a mobile app downloadable from the Play Store, which constituted the main outcome of our project. The application was developed in collaboration with seniors to support digital literacy education among older adults. Additionally, within the project, we organized a training course held in Cieszyn, Poland, in the first quarter of 2023. It was aimed at educators, teachers, and volunteers working in the field of adult digital education. Another component of our project was dissemination meetings held in all partner countries. While primarily conducted in person (with initially planned online transmission due to the pandemic), the Romanian and Polish groups also opted for additional online meetings. During these gatherings, we presented our tool and discussed the issue of digital exclusion among older adults.

Our project's primary outcome was the development of a web and mobile application, made available via the Play Store. This achievement resulted from collaboration between our organizations and senior representatives in our respective countries. The application aims to support digital literacy education for seniors and was designed to be simple, accessible, and tailored to the needs of individuals lacking internet tool proficiency.