About Project

About COLL-OYA

Coll-Oya is an international project funded by the “Erasmus+ KA220 Cooperation Partnerships in Adult Education” program. Coll-Oya is the acronym for “Older Adults Learning English and Digital Literacy in Collaboration with Young Adults”.

The project encourages the active participation of older adults in the digital world and supports their social inclusion by teaching them English with content-based instruction methodology (based on practical examples of international situations while using digital technologies, like sending a document, finding ways, ordering a meal, online shopping, booking a flight/train ticket, etc.). The knowledge they gain is believed to help them in daily life experiences.

One of the original aspects of this project is that it brings two generations together. While one generation, young adults, is digital natives who actively use the digital facilities and are familiar with the language of the digital world with a good command of English as well, the second generation, older adults, is composed of older adults who are still active in life, have limited knowledge of the language and digital skills and thus experience difficulties in catching up with the innovations of the new digitalized world.

Objectives

To enhance digital social inclusion of older adults through the collaborative instruction of English and digital literacy.
To improve and to expand the offer of learning opportunities adapted to the needs of older people to improve their English language skills through collaborative practices with young adults.
To develop digital literacy (touching upon emerging information technology vocabulary in order to help bridge the digital divide) amongst older adults for better digital inclusion through collaborative practices with young adults.
To expand and to develop the skills of trainers that support older people, especially to motivate them to participate in foreign language learning and digital literacy with a secondary aim to help to bridge the digital divide.
To help young adults who are independent-level English users to become familiar with the experiences in teaching English and digital literacy to older adults.

Target Group

– Teachers/staff who teach foreign languages and/or digital skills to older adults.

– Older adults (56 years and older) with low English proficiency and also with an interest in learning languages through collaboration with young adults

– Older adults who have little or no knowledge of ICT and need to extend their technological knowledge and digital literacy.

Main Activities

An interactive PDF textbook adapted to the learning needs and characteristics of older adults for learning English will be developed and complemented with the use of an Online Learning Management System teaching digital literacy as well.

The project products will be as follows:

  • Online Learning Management System
  • English textbook for Older Adults
  • 3 Collaborative Learning Practices / Training Material
  • Manual for Trainers
  • Teaching Trainers
  • Pocket Handbook for Older Adults

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