My presentation at OEW2023 on 7 March 2023 on the Nordplus project How Seniors learn digital competences in the Nordics and Baltics

1. How Seniors learn digital
competences in the Nordics
and Baltics
Ebba Ossiannilsson, Prof. Dr. Sweden
Ulf Sandström; M.Sc. Sweden
Swedish Association for Open, Flexible
and Distance Education
7 March, 2023

2. How seniors learn digital skills in the
Nordics and Baltic?
• NPAD-2020/10169: How seniors learn digital skills in the Nordics and
Baltic?
• NPAD-2021/10187:DIGITAL SUPPORT: Guidelines for training the trainers
to support seniors towards making daily life more easy in the digital world
Funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The first project was organized
under the project period 09/2020-08/2021 and the second one started in
September 2021 and ends in December 2023. Both projects are coordinated
by the Summer University of Jyväskylä.

3. How seniors learn digital skills in the
Nordics and Baltic?
The projects aim to strengthen and develop cooperation between Nordic countries and the Baltic region on
life-long learning for seniors and to learn and share ideas for digital skills teaching for seniors in different
countries.
During the first project, participants learned to know institutions that were taking part in this project and the
education on digital competencies, which they provide for seniors. Also, the presentations in meetings
covered topics like digitalization in different Nordic and Baltic countries as well as continuous learning in general.
Ideas and knowledge were shared and the good practices were adapted to own work at the local level.
During the second project partners will create an online portal, where they present their good practices for
teaching seniors digital competencies. This free and easily accessible portal is addressed to all actors in
the Nordics and Baltic, who work in the field of adult (senior) education.
Both pedagogical staff and representatives of adult students or volunteers (seniors) from each organization
take part in the project work.
The expected outcomes of our projects are sharing ideas for teaching digital skills and themes for new
courses. Another important aspect of this project is to find new partners and get the possibility to continue
partnerships in the future.

4. How seniors learn digital skills in the
Nordics and Baltic?
• Partners in the project
• Coordinating institution:
Summer University of Jyväskylä (FI)
• Partners:
• Swedish Association for Open, Flexible and
Distance Education (SE)
• Medardas Cobotas Third Age University (LT)
• Seniornett (NO)

7. I översättningsgruppen har
medverkat:
•Ebba Ossiannilsson, Innovation
for Quality och Svenska
Riksorganisationen för öppen
flexibel distansutbildning
(SVERD)
•Christer Berg, Digitala lyftet
•Carola Eklund, Ålands
landskapsregering
•Linda Mannila, Uppdaterad
•Peter Robinson, Lexicon
Malmö
•Heba El Sheemy,
Dataföreningen

8. Five takeaways from the Swedish
initiatives
1. Digital
competensies is a
question of inclusion
and democracy
2. Everydaylife in a
digital time and in a
digital society
3. Inclusion whats in
it for me?
4. Sustainability
Digitainability
Digitalization =
sustaianability
5. Universal design

10. https://nvl.org/Portals/0/DigArticle/17526/Digital_inclusion_o
nepager_140922_print.pdf

11. Lack of meaning, which articulates that the
citizen’s needs are not met
Institutional skepticism which articulates that the
citizen is treated as a client instead of a citizen
and lacks trust in the system
Lack of collaboration which articulates that the
citizen feels trapped in contradictory professional
initiatives
Technological entanglement which articulates
that the citizen’s opportunities to act become
retained by the inability to master digital systems
Four
problems
were
identified:

12. https://nvl.org/Portals/0/DigArticle/17526/Digital_inclusion_onepager_140922_print.pdf

14. https://internetstiftelsen.se/kunskap/

22. https://urplay.se/serie/225137-seniorsurfarna

23. https://www.disk-
project.eu/web/

24. MANDALA

26. https://mau.se/nyheter/familjen-ar-viktig-for-aldre-personers-
digitala-kompetenser/

27. Family First…
It takes peace and quiet, the right level
and getting involved in order for the
elderly to have as good a learning
situation as possible with children and
grandchildren. In research, people talk
about "warm experts", people who are
- in this case - close to the elderly
person and are available in their lives.
This is in contrast to ordinary "cold"
experts, for example engineers who
develop media technology.
https://mau.se/nyheter/familjen-ar-viktig-for-aldre-personers-
digitala-kompetenser/

28. Family First…
Older, retired people cannot call the IT department when the mobile phone or
computer is in trouble. Instead, children and grandchildren are important for
learning. Creating quiet moments when learning works is both crucial and
something that the elderly put a lot of effort into, new research shows.
https://mau.se/nyheter/familjen-ar-viktig-for-aldre-personers-
digitala-kompetenser/

29. Family first…
It was striking how active the older people I interviewed are to bring
about moments of learning and to make the situations work.Carolina
Martinez
• Lots of planning behind it
• Getting involved
• No structure in society
https://mau.se/nyheter/familjen-ar-viktig-for-aldre-personers-
digitala-kompetenser/

31. Ebba Ossiannilsson, Prof. Dr. Sweden
Ulf Sandström, M.Sc. Sweden
Swedish Association for Open, Flexible and Distance
Education