Mobile phones, computers, tablets
You are never too old to learn
Cariñena is a small city in rural environment in Aragon province, about 50 kilometres from Zaragoza. Main occupation there is the growing of wine. Many elderly people live in the villages, and many of them had no chance in their youth to visit school for more than a couple of years. Still, after a live of hard work, they are interested in education and learning, and CPEPA Ricardo Sola, the municipal adult education centre in Cariñena, has developed various methods to work especially with the elderly learners. Two of these methods were further developed and tested in the pilots in MobileBE and are presented in the video documentary from Spain.
One method is the portfolio approach where learners produce a collection of texts, collages, artwork - either physically on paper in a traditional folder, or electronically in form of web content. In these personal portfolios they creatively document their learning progress on a chosen subject, often with reference to their biography, life experience and memories. Thus, the creation of a portfolio is also a way of gaining self-awareness, and awareness of one's skills, needs, attitudes and desires. For some participants, this is a way of developing their personality, for others it is a way of keeping mentally fit, and in any case it is a way to learn how to learn.
The second course presented in the video from Cariñena is an experiment in leading elderly people into the use of modern communication technology, often used for keeping contact with their children and grand children abroad, or simply because everday life today depends more and more an mastering computers - for example for finding important information, of for everyday tasks such as banking and getting an appointment with a doctor. As part of the MobileBE project, CPEPA Ricardo Sola ran tablet courses with elderly leaners in each of its eleven village classrooms dispersed over a 40-60 kilometres wide educational district. A set of 40 tablet computers was used, plus devices some of the learners brought themselves.
Watch our 5 minutes video documentary on this innovative course.
The video is availabe in several European languages.
Select video from table here!