60+VirtualCulture was an international initiative in which 4 partner organizations of similar background in informal education, including education of seniors, from Wroclaw, Poland (ŻÓŁTY PARASOL), Paris, France (ESENIORS) , Prague, Czech Republic (GLAFKA) and Reggio di Calabria, Italy (INOVAMENTIS) have worked together to improve and optimize educational offer for erderly conserning their digital competences within the context of culture accessibility. The process of optimization has been developed in two stages. First, each organization appointed one teaching tandem (young ICT educator and one experienced senior (50+) educator) who took part in 3 Joint Staff Trainings , during which based on exchanged practices and knowledge, an educational model for local senior centers or libraries had been developed. Therefore, an innovative offer of ICT courses for seniors aiming at encouraging older people to participate in culture resources and cultural events using new technologies (e.g. accessing e-biooks, audio-books, visiting virtual museums, buying tickets online, creating and uploading content etc. ) was created. Simultanously so created teaching program was implemented, tested and adjusted during two cycles of ICT workshops for seniors in each country. The teaching tandems provided during the project a total of 198 hours of workshops for 105 seniors in four countries. Additionally, from among the participants of workshops 8 Digital Ambasadors were selected – people at the age of 60+ whose leadership and digital competences enabled us to include them into dissemination process and in some cases into the process of supporting the trainers in the teaching processes (they are now assisting he educators in further ICT courses for seniors) both during and after the termination of project activities. Digital Ambasadors, together with trainers and coordinators took part in Transnational Project meeting organized for the final part of the project in Wroclaw, Poland. The meeting was an occasion to invite wider audience to discuss the quality of ICT courses offered for seniors in local communities. It is worth saying that over 20 organizations from 4 sectors (science-business-NGO-authorities) were informally involved in the project.Excellent feedback from the participants of local works hops (100% “excellent” and “very good” responses for the question of quality and relevance of provided workshops) as well as local communities (project blog run by Digital Ambasador form Poland noted over 8 thousand visits) resulted in the decision of educators in Wroclaw to prepare and provide additional workshops for 22 persons teaching seniors ICT (including teaching staff from Public Library in Wrocław and Wroclaw’s Senior Centre). Moreover, due to dissemination processes the coordinating organization has received a declaration from local authorities (Municipality of Wroclaw) to provide financial means for further educational trainings for other people working as trainers in ICT courses for senior citizens in Wroclaw. Also, partner organizations from France and Czech republic declare that they are and will include teaching program created during the project into their everyday business , the organization from Italy is now with a great assistance of their Digital Ambassadors, creating senior community to which they would like to address the results of the project in the future. Taking into account unswerving interest of seniors who are willing to participate in further ICT courses and the involvement of several entities and institutions in the idea of improving educational offer for the elderly enables us to believe that the effects of 60+VirtualCulture will be long lasting and that they will reach much more beneficiaries in the future. Coordinating and participating organizations have agreed that they are ready for new challenges and are willing to continue their partnership by applying in Erasmus+ next year.

The project reacts directly to the new security situation that emerged in Europe and other parts of the world due to a rapid spread of COVID-19 disease. As a necessary tool to fight its further uncontrolled spreading, severe limitations of free movement and contact of people have been set in most countries affected. As for March 2019, no medicine has been invented and put to regular use yet. Meanwhile, the disease has spread among all European countries and led to a closing of all education institutions in these countries for a regular use. One of the main implications of this development is a severe limitation of education processes, where regular courses and lessons had to be stopped for an indefinite period due to the fact that a teacher and students cannot meet each other and continue in the educational process. Some of the procedures can however be transformed to an online or distance learning mode, which enables the learning process to continue. Among the courses and lessons currently hit severely with a health crisis, language courses possess a special position. These courses are limited not only by the lack of direct contact with the teacher, but also with the lack of options to practice and train their language skills, get instant feedback in direct communication (dialogue, group conversation, etc.). So, the sole transfer of knowledge the students are expected to gather is not sufficient in these courses. The goal of the project is to develop a conceptual framework for transformation of various types of courses into sufficient online/distance form. The concept is based on two premises:●teacher will be developing distant support materials continuously during the standard run of courses●students will use these tools to enhance their involvement in the course, repeat and deepen their knowledge and also to get familiar with distance educational tools their teacher is using●in case of unpredictable absence of a student, distance/online learning tools can be used at least partially to get in touch with content of the lessons the student has missed●in case of unpredictable absence of the teacher, students will be given links to online/distant supportive materials to keep the tempo of lessons (if they decide to use it; otherwise they can obviously ask for a standard lesson with another teacher or to combine both)●in an extraordinary situation when the standard teaching/learning process is impossible to maintain, distance/online tools will be used by both teacher and students to keep up with the original schedule and get ready to achieve original goals of the course.Within the project led by a consortium 6 partners from Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and Bulgaria, six intellectual outputs will be prepared:●A comprehensive roadmap of types of language courses and its transfer needs to online/distant form●Teacher guide to available tools and methods of transfer●Step-by-step guide for transferring courses●Self-assessment and assessment distant tools for students, teachers and facilitators●Platform for distance/online education●Course Guide for TeachersThe project is thus not simply a guide to use an online tool or to transfer a course with an online tool. Rather, it offers a matrix to find out the best possible combination of tools from a variety available for a particular course, enabling the teachers and facilitators to overcome the time burden and react●quickly enough to not miss the students and time●effectively, so with the selected combination of online/distance tools, the class can keep up with the original schedule●with selecting relevant tools and methods that fit both teacher and students of a particular course For times of standard language learning courses, the methodology will equip teachers and students with scenarios to develop distant and online support materials for language learning, which widens options to overcome absences or delays and be prepared for unexpected complications in the learning schedule.

The goal of the project “Effective guidance for successful integration of foreign communities through language acquisition” (WHATtoDOif) is to help newly-arrived foreigners, migrants and refugees to get oriented in the host-country economic, education, social and other systems, thus preventing their social exclusion or heavy dependency on their ethnic community. In order to address this goal the project stipulates to deliver the following intellectual outputs:IO1: Migrants Info & Glossary Compass – based on research made at the first months of the project with members of foreign communities in partner countries. It will take a look at main life areas of foreigners (e.g. job market, schooling/education, visa, children care, health care, housing and realities, etc.). The Compass will contain results of this research, short description of each dimension and basic problematic situations that have been identified from research within each dimension, experienced by foreigners living in partner countries.IO2: Solutions map – on the basis of the identified most common problematic situations, basic “What To Do If” scenarios/appropriate solutions to each troublesome situation in each country will be defined. The collection of appropriate solutions will accompany the Compass and will be published online linking each problem to a relevant solution.IO3: WHATtoDOif Language Package – Each “appropriate solution” will be accompanied with a language learning unit containing basic phrases and terminology related to the issue. Each learning unit will be related around one issue defined in Output 1.IO4: WHATtoDOif Video tutorials – Video materials describing the Solutions map. Each video will be prepared in all partner languages as well as in all languages of selected migrant communities. These videos will be filmed in partner languages as well as in languages of selected migrant groups. The videos will accompany Output 2 (for some foreigners, it could be easier to listen to the instructions rather than to study the text, because of their weak literacy skills) and can also be used as part of IO3.IO5: WHATtoDOif Web Repository and Mobile application – This application connected to the web page of the project will contain all outcomes from IO1, IO2, IO3 and IO4 in an easy-to-use structure, where each troublesome issue (IO1) will be linked to appropriate solution (IO2), related learning unit (IO3) and video tutorial in a related language (IO4). The application will also be available on mobile phones, so the users will be able to work with it on a daily basis and use it at the moment they need to find a proper phrase or term.As a result of the project migrants will improve their knowledge on the thematic areas selected by the consortium regarding the local system in partners’ countries. In addition, migrants will be provided with useful glossary and video tutorials that will support their communication and interaction with local employees when explaining their needs, and therefore the project will have an impact on their language skills in the local language. Last but not least, migrants will be more confident on how to find solutions for specific problems they might face while trying to organise their life in a new country.The WHATtoDOif outcomes will also support language educators working with migrants by equipping them with new attractive methodologies and products. The existing language materials are often not adapted for migrants, the content is too complicated, grammar-oriented and does not provide motivation for learning. In this project, the materials will be directly related to problems migrants face in their interaction with local public authorities, and private institutions as well.The products that will be created by the project will be of valuable support for all those organisations working for/with migrants (NGOs, volunteers, migrants’ associations, etc.) as they will be equipped with a guide with useful information on how the local system is functioning in important areas for a migrant’s life. They will be able to use the guide to provide guidance to migrants and suggest it to them for download on their mobile phones as an application. All organisations delivering language lessons will be provided with a set of tools for language teaching purposes.Countries beyond the partnership will also benefit from the results because of the multilingual character of the outputs and the need of such resources due to similar challenges Europe-wide. WHATtoDOif is poised to have a long-lasting and far-reaching impact as a project bringing together different institutions, which actively contribute to migrant’s integration into the European society. Their close cooperation and partnership, as well as involvement of new stakeholders at national and European level, will result in creation of Europe-wide network of education providers sharing knowledge and best practices in intercultural research and integration training.

“Our heritage: where the past meets the future.” The slogan of European Year of Cultural Heritage, combined with our community needs and our experiences, was the inspiring trigger for this project and led us to the idea of Bonding Generations and Cultures through Traditional Sport and Games. “Game On! Bonding Generations and Cultures” was a two-year Strategic Partnership for Exchange of Practices in Adult Education, and involved public and private organizations, from Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland and Spain. The project was based on 4 premises: - Population ageing is one of the greatest social and economic challenges facing the EU and “Active Ageing” has become a policy priority within the European Union. Projections foresee a growing number and share of elderly persons (aged 65 years and over) Eurostat’s annual demography data collection shows there were 510.3 million people living in the EU-28 as of 1 January 2016, of whom almost 98 million were aged 65 years and over. - One of the headline targets of the EU 2020 Strategy for Education and Training is that at least 15% of adults should participate in lifelong learning. The challenge is to provide learning opportunities adults, throughout their life, especially disadvantaged groups, including senior citizens. - 2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage with the aim to encourage more people to discover and engage with Europe's cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. - Intergenerational dialogue refers to the way that people of all ages can learn together and from each other, and is an important part of Lifelong Learning, where the generations work together to gain skills, values and knowledge. Through the exchange of methodological approaches between the involved partners, we created a European Intergenerational and Intercultural learning opportunity, engaging senior citizens in active ageing and promotion of Europe’s cultural heritage, focusing on Traditional Sports and Games, tackling several challenges and needs from our communities. The project was framed within a long-term perspective and planned with a view to achieve a multiplying effect and sustainable impact, and it had a good geographical balance, involving 5 countries from South, Central and Eastern Europe, which contributed to ensure a real European outreach of the project.

This Project results from our need as teachers of adult language learners to satisfy the needs of a mixed-ability language class, helping students improve their achievement, thus reducing disparities in learning outcomes. Our Team embodies the aim that permeates the Project, that is, diversity, because we are a diverse group (language schools, teacher training centres, and NGOs) which, at the same time, share the same necessities and a common goal: to help adult students develop their competence in foreign languages as a way to open doors to employment, training and mobility opportunities in a globalised and especially ever competitive world. We want to work with diversity in a way that can serve any educator (and any student) anywhere in any context. How are we doing this? by standardizing student learning models, methodology approaches, and evaluation criteria. These learning models will be approached from an analytical perspective analyzing aspects like learning styles, learning paces and personality traits, but also from a holistic perspective taking into account aspects like age, socio-cultural and educational background and how their reality as a whole can affect their learning process. We want to create a kind of standard and, at the same time, flexible approach from which we can personalize student profiles attending to their individual needs, making them conscious of what type of learner they are. The activities of the Project have been organised into two different stages: 1. Analysis and Training - Good practice exchange workshop, not only examples of good practice to attend diversity in the classroom, but also of any other aspect regarding the organisation and management of centres, considering the hetereogeneity of our association. - A training activity that will provide the theoretical framework from which we can standardize learning models, tools for their identification and those of self-assessment and materials to be implemented in the classroom. - Elaboration and asessment of those tools and materials that will be used in class during the implementation stage. 2. Implementation, Assessment and Dissemination: - Case studies as a didactic technique: teachers will select a practice group and a control group, which will serve as a comparison group when results are assessed. Those results will also be included in a comparative research study. - Progress analysis and methodology comparison: with the objective to learn how the work is adapted to the different realities and situations experienced in the different establishments. - Assessment of results, which must be in line with the indicators of achievement applied to objectives and results of the project as a whole. - Dissemination activities: a Manual for teachers, a comparative study research, and the creation of a website and mobile app containing information about the project, its objectives and results and from the Manual can be downloaded. The methodology applied is characterized by a respect towards diversity, and values the aspects and experience of such an heterogeneous team as ours and the enrichment that it brings to the Project. In that sense, we also include the case study method to analyze diversity which, by nature, can present different variables and is subjected to change depending on the context it is found in. The results, benefits and the impact expected is looked at from two different perspectives: Teachers being the target group: - Gain expertise to identify a wide range of profiles of adult language learners and develop skills to design effective pedagogical activities and methodology approaches responding to the diverse needs of students. - Develop inter-disciplinary language training skills for all adult learning context and to encourage learners' critical thinking and self-assessment. -Develop transferable and generalizable pedagogical models that can be applied at transnational level. Students, being the beneficiaries of our work: - Experience the improvement of linguistic and communicative competence of students in a foreign language, according to the level they are in, and learn how to take responsibility of their own learning process, favouring independence, and also how they learn best based on an awareness of their abilities, strengths and weakenesses, thus fostering self-confidence.