The second phase of European Project Inclusive Senior Education through Virtual U3A (ISEV) kicks off today with the first course. The course will involve nearly 40 students at the Rome IIS Piaget-Diaz School with as many over-65s. From today to the end of the school year, 16 meetings will be held both through a virtual classroom thanks to an on-line platform and in traditional classes held at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale’s Phyrtual Innovation Gym and the school computer lab.
Today’s meeting at the Fab Lab will involve 15 students from Class 3PS attending a school-work programme and 15 over-65s from the Anteas Association.
Participants will learn about digital manufacturing tools and the main software that is used for 3D printers and laser cutters. After the three Fab Lab workshops, the seniors and students will move on to the school computer lab, where 10 lessons will be held on the potential of computers, the web and smartphones.
The objective of the 34-month project, implemented as part of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education Programme, is to make education available to elders by adapting activities to their needs: learning independently from their residence, health conditions, and social, family or financial conditions.
The “transformative” intergenerational learning model developed by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale during the course of Projects Grandparents on the Internet, The Knowledge Volunteers, The Italian Makers, Network of Knowledge Volunteers, is integrated into Project ISEV with the consolidated experiences of other European partners in the area of adult learning.
Some of the aspects of this model were addressed, yesterday, by the “Anziani e web" Tg2 Italia Report. Cecilia Stajano, Community Manager and School Innovation Coordinator for the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, and Maria Luisa, an eighty-year-old protagonist of Project Grandparents on the Internet were guests in the TV studio. Cecilia showed some of the works created by over-60s in the digital manufacturing lab at the Phyrtual Innovation Gym.
