"The extension of life span and improvement of its quality together with the decreasing fertility rate of European citizens make it necessary to extend the activity of elderly people. It does not only concern professional activity, but also active participation in social and cultural life. By 2030, almost half of Europe's population will be over 50. In order to prevent the negative effects of the social structure changing, various programs for active aging have already been implemented. Continuous education, including language education, is one of the elements that help stay fit throughout life.Lifelong learning is a challenge not only for learners but also for trainers of older age groups. The research-based on this project shows that people over the age of 50 require a different approach and curricula than younger adults.Within the framework of the project implemented in the partnership between Poland, Romania, and Estonia, we supported teachers who work with people over 50 on a daily basis.As part of international cooperation - during six international meetings and between them - we prepared ""The Set of Tips and Guidelines for Teaching English in 50+ groups"" - a collection of tips and tricks on how to conduct English classes for senior citizens so as to make learning effective and enjoyable. The tips are enriched with the results of comparative and survey studies regarding, among others the standard of living of senior citizens, access to education and related barriers, as well as English language teaching programs in each of the partner countries. In all partner organizations, project participants had the opportunity to participate in English demonstration classes with senior citizens. They also took part in workshops and activities aimed at improving the learning skills of older people. The training was conducted for 15 English teachers from partner institutions. It concerned the implementation and piloting of ""The Set of Tips and Guidelines"" and also showed the benefits of using the guidelines in everyday work with senior citizens. The participants could observe the classes prepared on the basis of the tool described above.Due to their general nature, the tips can be used to learn other languages in senior groups. They can also be used as a framework for the general education of elderly people.By exchanging good practices and experience, we increased the knowledge and competence of English language teachers of 50+ people in preparing programs and conducting classes for this age group. As a result of our two-year cooperation, we created a practical tool that is free of charge and available to those interested in the issue:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nflH7XRdwwQCek2058HFHg0U3ufZLZ23/view"

In continuous education there are GAPS when it comes to teaching or learning foreign languages. As the target in the EU is more on widely used languages, there is a gap between those and the teaching of the target LWUL (Romanian, Hungarian, Estonian, Polish, Czech and Italian), for example: less teaching resources; outdated or lack of specialised books; limited possibilities for teachers to attend lifelong learning programs in order to improve their teaching. The partnership wished to pursue 3 OBJECTIVES in order to meet the mentioned needs: 1. To increase the knowledge about 3 different types of ICT based methods within the partnership during the lifetime of the project;2. To empower the partner language schools and teachers to be able to adapt and integrate the transferred ICT based methods for teaching the target LWUL as a foreign language;3. To improve the knowledge of min. 120 language teachers from outside the partnership by the creation and dissemination of a Handbook containing at least 90 LWUL teaching exercises; The ICT4LWUL project’s direct TARGET GROUP were educators and institutions involved in continuous language education, namely Romanian, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Czech language providers. During training events mobilities were organised involving 30 teachers of the partner institutions, while dissemination and exploitation activities reached more then 30000 people. Learners were not direct target groups within the project, however 127 people learned the 6 target languages during pilot study courses. The ACTIVITIES of the project lasted 2 years (2017-2019) during which the 6 partner institutions implemented 6 work packages: 1. Project management and quality assurance; 2. Implementing teacher training sessions; 3. Adapt and integrate the ITC methods; 4. Implement pilot study activities; 5. Design and development of Handbook; 6. Dissemination and exploitation.Besides the milestones foreseen at each work package, a main RESULT was developed: the Handbook. The Handbook was designed especially for language teachers and representatives of language schools. It is multilingual, being available in 7 different languages and it was meant to offer a support (ex. exercises, resources, instruments) for teachers of 6 different less widely used languages: Romanian, Hungarian, Estonian, Italian, Polish and Czech as a foreign language. The Handbook contains 3 main chapters: 1. an introduction section with information about the project, authors and contributors who developed the Handbook and a legend; 2. a general description about 16 different technology-based methods targeted by the current project (e-learning methods; social media & web platforms; mobile and smartphone apps);3. exercises and examples for teaching the target less widely used languages as a foreign language at A1-B1 levels, together with a guide on how similar exercises can be developed by teachers/other institutions;The Handbook is freely available for download by accessing: https://www.blsh.ro/sdm_downloads/download-the-ict4lwul-handbook/ The project had an IMPACT on language learners, education institutions and of course teachers. The most important long time benefits of the project include: increased quality of LWUL education; more strategic and integrated use of ICT in language education;increased motivation for LWUL learning; more importance given to teaching and learning LWUL, especially those targeted by the project (Romanian, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Czech); raised awareness about the importance of the development of human resources.

<< Background >>In the context of the current pandemic situation of COVID-19 all educational establishments (general, VET and continuing) have implemented an online teaching set-up. However,neither the schools nor the teachers have been fully prepared for carrying out high-quality and efficient online teaching processes.The MAIN TARGET GROUP of the DigiTise! Digital Toolkit for 50+ teachers projects addresses is VET teachers/trainers and teachers of general subjects working in VET and continuing education that belong to the 50+ age group and have recently had to change to online teaching. The main problem and and need that we have identified in the current circumstances of COVID-19 is the difficulty of many older (50+) educators and teachers to teach online and to deliver interesting and challenging lessons. In many cases this is due to very low level of digital literacy and lack training to improve their digital skills. During training events mobilities will be organised involving the teachers of the partner institutions with the capacity of multiplying and transfer the knowledge to other members of the target group and to create the intellectual outputs based on the knowledge learnt. The dissemination and exploitation activities will reach even more people throughout the lifetime and even after the end of the project.<< Objectives >>The partnership wishes to pursue 3 OBJECTIVES in order to meet the mentioned needs: 1). to transfer the know-how on 15 different types of digital tools within the partnership;2). to create and disseminate a Handbook containing the general description of core digital tools, at least 45 digital practice exercises for enhancing the quality of online teaching; 3). to create and disseminate 10 MOOC courses for the target group for developing 50+ teachers' basic and intermediate digital competencies and raise their digital competence level.<< Implementation >>The ACTIVITIES of the project will last for 2 years during which the 6 partner institutions will implement 5 work packages:1. Project management and quality assurance;2. Implementing teacher training sessions;3. Designing and developing the Handbook;4. Designing and developing the MOOC Courses;5. Dissemination and exploitation.<< Results >>Besides the direct results foreseen within each work package, the main RESULTS that the project develops are as follows: the Handbook and a series of 10 MOOC courses. The Handbook will contain 3 main chapters: a general outline of the digital toolkit for education, practical exercises, tasks, projects, quizzes, assignments using the digital toolkit as well as a guide on how the digital toolkit can be integrated into online courses. The MOOC courses will include a series of 10 short asynchronous courses with the aim of offering a graded approach to digital literacy development. The courses will include the following main sections:I. BASIC LEVEL COURSES: 2 short courses dealing with the development of the fundamental elements of digital literacyII. ELEMENTARY LEVEL COURSES: 4 short courses dealing with the development of elementary level elements of digital literacyIII. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL COURSES: 4 short courses dealing with the development of Intermediate level elements of digital literacyThe project will have an IMPACT on the main target group as well as other institutions and stakeholders from the VET and continuing education sector. The most important long termbenefits of the project include:- increased quality of education in the online space, by applying appealing and attractive online teaching tools- increased impact on learners and improved educational results by ensuring, that teachers are have gained higher level of digital competence and are more equipped with a digital toolkit for education;- more strategic, standardised and integrated use of digital tools in online education;- increased motivation for online learning, as learners will be able to attend more attractive, efficient and innovative online classes;- 50+ teacher will continue to be valuable members of didactic teams in the online space, not having to afraid for their job security

The partnership conducted this project because they fight with similar issues when it comes to their teaching staff: the teachers being newly hired are not well prepared within university studies, so the partner institutions fight quite often with long induction of their teaching staff; the fluctuation of personnel is high, so partners must continually invest in the development of their staff; teachers lack some knowledge, which are essential to provide qualitative services: especially using audiovisual methods in the classroom, soft skills and pedagogical skills. These are the main reasons, why our project is based on the following MAIN OBJECTIVES:- bring innovation in the linguistic education of adults by developing digital of skills of short term training event participants with at least 40%;- increase the soft skills of short term training participants with at least 30%;- increase pedagogical skills of short term training participants with at least 40%;- increase the quality and efficiency of language teaching at regional level by transferring the know-how gained at partnership level to 60 other teachers from outside the partnership;The main TARGET GROUP of our project are language teachers of partner institutions, but those from outside our institutions are also going to be targeted via dissemination activities. 12 teachers will take part in each of the 6 training events of the project. These teachers will share their best practices with 60 other teaching staff from outside our partnership via transfer of know-how local training events. 2 presentations undertaken by each partner will ensure, that the project reaches 60 teachers from inside the partnership as well.The project will have an immediate IMPACT on teachers and adult education institutions.Teachers involved in linguistic education will: be able to offer more innovative and efficient educational programs for their students; be able to use digital methods much safely; be able to use audiovisual methods as means of bringing innovation in the language classrooms; be able to motivate their students learning and bring a positive attitude; be able to offer content-based content within language classes; be able to offer flipped classrooms and to manage much better their classrooms; develop the soft skills which were considered the most important for them. The six partner institutions will innovate their education systems, will better respond to the current needs on the market, will be able to involve digital tools in teaching, will be much more competitive on the market. Moreover, the quality of their language services will increase considerably since they will have a much developed teacher team. By involving teachers in transfer of know-how local training events, we will be able to extend this impact for outside our partnership, since the involved teachers will go back in their institution with a much wider baggage of knowledge and competences.In order to achieve these results, partners are going to implement four ACTIVITY packages throughout the project: project management and implementation; implementing 6 training sessions, one in each partner institutions; implementing transfer of know-how local training events; dissemination and exploitation activities.The main topics of the training events will develop three types of skills/competences:- digital skills: educational apps and online resources to create audiovisual materials for the classroom; video pod-casting; digital safeness- soft skills: leadership skills for teachers; inter-and-intra personal communication; teamwork and problem-solving; social and emotional intelligence- pedagogical skills: CLIL methods for language teachers; flipped classroom; classroom management.