The digiUP project (2015-2017) aims to improve the digital competence among disadvantage groups in Europe by implementing the SEA “interactive group” (heterogeneous grouping in the classroom) in ICT courses aimed to achieve the five areas of digital competence (information, communication, content-creation, safety and problem-solving).
Who will benefit from digiUP outcomes?It is addressed to the disadvantage group identified in the digital agenda report (aged 55-74, low educated, unemployed, retired and inactive people) focusing on migrant and Roma who are those suffering more educative and employment exclusion at this moment in Europe.
The project will also benefit adult educators and institutions providing them innovative and successful tools and contributing to improve and increase the high quality educative offer to adult people in ICT area. The project will offer to policy makers a concrete proposal and a methodology to achieve improvements in all of these areas.
How do we plan to do it?During the two years project we plan to develop a methodology on how to implement interactive groups in digital competence learning courses as well as an interactive guide addressed to adult’s educators and adult education providers about how to implement the methodology created.
The project will use the Critical Communicative Methodology, considered the best one to work with disadvantaged groups, having the best results in researches with impact at an international level. This methodology advocates for epistemological intersubjective dialogue and an egalitarian relationship involving the target group in the same social reality they want to change and construct through the interaction of people (Flecha, Gómez, Sánchez & Latorre, 2006).
Why is this project necessary?The Digital Inclusion and Skills report of the Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2014 states that “20% of the EU population has still never used the internet” and “almost half of the EU population (47%) can be considered as insufficiently digitally skilled, having either low or no digital skill”. According to the report, the disadvantage people formed by aged 55-74, low educated, unemployed, retired and inactive people are who have lower digital skills (64% are low digital skilled and 38% have no digital skills).
It’s necessary to address the digital competence learning in Europe specifically among disadvantage groups in order to avoid the social, educative and labour exclusion of most of them and also among the workforce in an economic crisis situation.