Bridging Generations: Digital Inclusion, Active Ageing and Community Learning

Overview

Chios, like many island and rural regions in Europe, is ageing quickly, and the people most affected by the shift to digital public services are often the ones with the least support for making that shift. This course is about the practical craft of running intergenerational digital-inclusion programmes: who to recruit as mentors, how to teach without turning every session into a software tutorial, and how to tell whether anything actually changed for participants beyond a single afternoon.

Across five days you design and pressure-test the parts of a programme that usually fail quietly: the mentor briefing that never mentions pace or patience, the safety talk that is really a pitch for one company's app, and the evaluation that only counts who showed up. You leave with a blueprint built for your own community, not a generic template.

Local demonstrations with community learners in Chios are not a standard, guaranteed part of the programme. Where a demonstration, observation or co-design session with local participants is possible, it is arranged only when it is appropriate, ethical and agreed with everyone involved well in advance. The course teaches transferable methods that you take home and adapt, not a fixed local site visit.

Who it works best for

Adult educators, teachers and community-learning staff who already run some kind of group activity with older or digitally excluded participants, and want a more deliberate method for the mentoring, pacing and evaluation side of it rather than more general digital-skills content.

Learning outcomes

• Identify the specific barriers that keep older adults and other groups out of digital participation, rather than assuming a single, generic "digital skills gap".
• Design accessible, age-friendly learning activities that adjust pace, language and materials to real differences in confidence and prior experience.
• Recruit and prepare younger peer mentors, with a briefing and support structure that keeps sessions structured and genuinely two-way.
• Build learning sessions around real-life tasks rather than abstract technical instruction, covering everyday online safety, fraud awareness and privacy.
• Evaluate the effect of a programme on participation, confidence and social connection, using indicators that go beyond attendance counts.
• Produce an intergenerational programme blueprint that can be adapted to a different community, partner network and set of local resources.

Day-by-day programme

1. Day 1 — Who is excluded, and why

   Welcome, needs mapping and group contract. Identifying real barriers to digital participation: confidence, access, literacy, isolation and the assumptions each generation makes about the other. Introduction to accessible, age-friendly activity design. First look at teaching through real-life tasks rather than abstract instruction.

2. Day 2 — Peer mentors and facilitation

   Recruiting and briefing younger peer mentors: what makes a good mentor, and how to prepare one. Structuring sessions so intergenerational learning stays respectful and two-way rather than one-directional. Adapting pace, language and materials to different levels of confidence. Practising facilitation techniques in mixed-age pairs.

3. Day 3 — Real-life tasks, safety and everyday problems

   Designing sessions around everyday tasks rather than software tutorials: accessing essential online services, safe information searching and practical digital problem-solving. Online safety, fraud awareness and privacy, taught through realistic scenarios. What a local demonstration can and cannot involve, and what always requires prior consent.

4. Day 4 — Evaluating participation and impact

   Moving beyond attendance figures: indicators for confidence, autonomy and social connection. Building simple pre- and post-session evaluation tools that participants can actually use. Case studies of what worked and what did not, examined honestly. Small-group review of draft programme outlines against these indicators.

5. Day 5 — Transfer to your own community

   Building an intergenerational programme blueprint adapted to your own setting, partners and resources. Peer review of draft blueprints and action plans. Discussion of realistic next steps and local partnerships still to confirm. Evaluation, certificates, and a guided cultural visit in the afternoon.

Who it is for

• Adult educators and trainers working with older or digitally excluded learners
• Primary and secondary teachers coordinating intergenerational or community-learning projects
• School leaders and education coordinators, and library, cultural-centre or community-learning staff
• Professionals supporting digital inclusion and lifelong learning

Methodology

Structured around workshops, guided practice and peer exchange rather than lecture-based delivery. Case studies are grounded in island, rural and community contexts, and small groups work through design challenges to produce a real programme outline. A pre-course questionnaire maps participant experience and objectives; post-course evaluation and follow-up resources support implementation once you are home. Any local demonstration or community contact is arranged only where it is appropriate, ethical and agreed with everyone involved well in advance, and is never presented as guaranteed access to a specific group.

Erasmus+ priorities addressed

• Inclusion and diversity
• Digital transformation

What's included

• All course sessions and materials, in digital form and reusable under an open licence
• Pre-course questionnaire and preparation pack
• Certificate of attendance stating contact hours
• Europass Mobility support
• Cultural activity and guided visit
• Local contact person for the duration of the mobility