Background: The EuCoNet Project
The University of Alicante, through the Universidad Permanente
Programme, incorporated into the European NICT learning projects for
seniors in 2005.
Before the challenge of facilitating Internet access for most Europeans
stood a reality where a considerable number of European senior citizens
risked being left out of this technological development. Age was an
evident exclusion factor at the end of the past century.
EuCoNet (European Computer Network)
was born in 2005 with this specific objective. It was a project
sponsored by the European Community within the framework of the
Socrates-Grundtvig Programme and created to facilitate access to the
Internet, especially for older adults.
This project involved older adult students coming from the universities
of Ulm (Germany), Brno and Prague (Czech Republic), Glasgow
(Scotland/UK), Vicenza (Italy), Bratislava (Slovakia) and Alicante
(Spain), and had as its goal to contribute to the solution of this
problem.
The said EuCoNet project
served to undertake numerous research studies, as well as to develop
methodological analyses along with methodological and didactic
experiments, for the purpose of designing materials, tools, learning
systems and good practices, as well as courses specifically designed
for senior citizens who wished to learn to use the new technologies.
This has allowed seniors to exchange their basic knowledge regardless
of time- and space-related circumstances, and within the framework of
the new technologies. Multimedia systems, blended learning, virtual
classrooms and authorised learning projects have been the keys of
EuCoNet.
With this aim in mind, the different national groups included in the
project worked in close collaboration via Internet, using already
existing channels or creating new ones. The instructors for these
courses and good practice models were recruited among the most advanced
older adult students.
As one of the first steps, the Project organisation additionally
released a whole series of publications meant to encourage the senior
population to use the Internet. These informative campaigns were
developed with the help of all the available mass media, i.e.
newspapers, radio and television, seeking to ensure a wide
dissemination of the message.
In some countries, cybercafés as well as seniors’
associations served to spread this information even more widely. The
informative brochures and CD-ROMs specifically designed to cover the
needs of this population segment equally contributed to achieve this
aim.
The activities resulting from the Euconet Project
have largely increased in terms of both frequency and intensity during
the last few years. In this way, the sponsors of the project have
managed to reduce the fears and reservations which used to prevent the
European senior population from taking advantage of the multiple
applications of computers. Likewise, an effort was carried out to make
people with limited mobility aware of the great possibilities to
overcome their difficulties to move around and, therefore, to be up to
date in terms of training, education, and communication, and to avoid
the growing isolation suffered by aged and disabled people in modern
society.
In short, EuCoNet
has sought to connect senior citizens, both virtually and physically,
so that they can themselves have the capacity to communicate with one
another making use of the new technologies. And in a wider, more
international sense, the achievement of those goals through the EuCoNet
Project has served not only as a bridge between the different
generations but also as a connecting link between people from the
diverse European cultures.
A direct outcome of this project was the innovative initiative —
the EuCoNet Club— set in motion during the 2003-04 academic year
thanks to the efforts of a group of voluntary students of the
Universidad Permanente of the University of Alicante who formed part of
the EuCoNet international work and research group, the objective of
which was to help UPUA students to become familiar with computer use.
The practical results of the project have been highly valued by the European Union as an example of good practice in a report released in 2007.
The main objective was to help other students interested in approaching
the New Technologies and, above all, the project was oriented to all
students wishing to start working with computers as well as to those
who wanted to solve specific problems, and more importantly, to
overcome their fear of computers.
The EuCoNet Project(European Computer Network).
The EuCoNet Project Website (European Computer Network).
Acknowledgement of the EuCoNet Project as an example of good practice by the European Union.
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