Newsletters

This project has been funded with support from the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. These Newsletters reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

NewsletterMarch 2011

Learning 2.0 for an Inclusive Society - Links-up Goes Online

Links-up is research project about how ‘Web 2.0’ technologies – e.g. social networking software – are changing the face of education and training for disadvantaged people. The project puts together a picture of ‘Learning 2.0 for Inclusion’ by reviewing research done in the academic field, and reviews what has been done by practitioners working on the ground in projects that have been using Web 2.0 to work with disadvantaged groups. It uses a series of ‘action research’ experiments, collaborating with host projects working in the field, to evaluate the added contribution Web 2.0 can make to practices that use learning to support social inclusion.

The website offers a full collection of cases involved as well as podcasts and more on local initiatives such as the Podcasting-Workshop in Senior citizen center of Walser Birnbaum.

Upcoming relevant events10-13 May 2011, 10th anniversary symposium Web in the Hood in The Hague, Emmen, Almere, The Netherlands, Social use of ICT

19-22 June 2011, EDEN 20 th Anniversary Annual Conference, Links-up workshop, Dublin, Ireland

Collection and analysis of local initiatives online The project website shares Experiences from the real world. They tell us about what works and what doesn’t work. The observations made based on the experiences distinguish the general trend from the particular and local circumstances. You may share your experiences by registering and adding your good or bad practices on the field. The e-library of the project offers the first study on in-depth case studies of innovative examples of the use of Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0 for inclusive lifelong learning.

This project has been funded with support from the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. This Newsletter reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Highlights – local initiatives introduced

Seniorkom.at (www.seniorkom.at) is one of the biggest and largest barrier-free information and communication platforms for German speaking seniors in the Internet and offers information services and a lot of latest (regional and national) topics. It has more than 13.300 active users with an interactive member area to write articles or comments, rate content, upload photos and videos, take an active part in raffles, games and voting’s as well as to communicate with others via forums, weblogs, chats. Seniorkom.at offers cross-generational training courses free of charge in whole Austria. Elderly people learn from adolescents how to use the PC and the Internet and both sides benefit from this idea. With these courses the computer barriers are teared down for senior citizens, they learn how to use the Internet in a useful, practical and relevant way. Some of the courses are e.g. First steps in the Internet; Searching and finding in the Internet; E-Mail, Skype & Co; Security in the Internet.

Web in the Hood is a web 2.0 approach of local community building. The activities take place in a public working space in the neighbourhood are of local citizens with computers and internet with a community worker who is trained to use Social Media to enhance individual empowerment and networking. It is developed by social and IT experts and academic researchers who work together in a national organization called 'Web in the Hood'. It is currently powered by housing companies, local authorities and institutions working in the field of community building and healthcare.

The project is a good example of informal learning. Through Links-up we will get to know why people want to learn in this environment, what applications do they use and how can the quality of the approach be enhanced. More information can be found at the Links-up website and http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/equal/practical-examples/adapt-07-nl-myport_en.cfm

This project has been funded with support from Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission . This Newsletter reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

NewsletterMay 2011

Research Experiments

Links-up has recently entered into the core phase of its action-research approach, by implementing on-the-field experiments, aiming analysing the three general Links-Up research questions through five “innovation laboratories”:

1. Is learning 2.0 really supporting inclusive life-long learning?

2. Can isolated experiments be mainstreamed?

3. Is learning 2.0 fundamentally changing the educational landscape?

The laboratories have already started and will end in October-November 2011, though a follow-up will be carried out until the end of the whole project, according to the action-research approach adopted by Links-Up.

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Upcoming relevant events 26-28 May 2011, New opportunities for an independent (immigrant) voice in the public debate, The Hague, The Netherlands

19-22 June 2011, EDEN 20th Anniversary Annual Conference, Links-up workshop, Dublin, Ireland

26 - 28 October 2011, eChallenges e-2011 Conference & Exhibition, Florence, Italy

Research Methods

The evaluation design adopts a multi-methodological approach combining qualitative and quantitative aspects through interviews, questionnaires, observation etc.., in order to examine ‘success’ and ‘failure’ factors and impact on individuals, organisations and communities. Our analysis is based in three key factors:

• innovation - examining how far innovative learning approaches and pedagogies are facilitated and supported by particular Learning 2.0 initiatives;

• key learning competences and social inclusion skills acquired - exploring whether and in what ways Learning 2.0 initiatives and innovations foster new kinds of e-skills beyond the level of basis computing skills; whether and in what ways such initiatives support soft’ skills;

• institutional change associated with the intervention - assessing and reflecting on how far the institutional framework of teaching and learning affects and is affected by Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0, particularly changes in the educational enterprise.

Highlights – local initiatives introduced

FreqOut is a UK-based initiative that uses technology to engage socially excluded young people aged from 8 to 25, inspiring them to tell their stories and giving them the opportunity to work with artists and industry professionals. The target groups are broad and provide a wide range of 'exclusion' scenarios involving marginalised groups in the local area: young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, ex-offenders, those at-risk of offending, refugees and immigrants.

MyMobile- Education on the move In Italy the innovation laboratory is organized and held in conjunction with Grundtvig mobility project "MyMobile- Education on the move" (2010-2012) through the collaboration with the Educational Technology Laboratory of the University of Florence, the Italian Grundtvig project partner. The pilot case is TRIO (http://www.progettotrio.it/trio/), the official e-learning platform of the Tuscany Region. The pilot is named 'Tell Your Resume' and consists in the implementation of a short series of podcasting workshops, where a group of migrants and unemployed people will learn how to promote themselves on the labour market producing, publishing and sharing their multimedia CV. This pilot exploits and leverages TRIO educational network. TRIO (Technology, Research, Innovation and Vocational Guidance) is a public portal providing free access to a wide variety of contents and services, and offering learning opportunities to a large and heterogeneous audience at both a regional and national level. The workshop series will be conducted in blended learning using TRIO distance learning open source LMS and Social Network platform as well as TRIO physical territorial poles. A blog has been implemented to support the pilot’s action.

This project has been funded with support from Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission . This Newsletter reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. All digital material displayed in this newsletter is owned by the project partners and their affiliates.

NewsletterSeptember 2011

Final Budapest Gathering for Good Practice Sharing

The Links-up project and the FREE (Fostering Return to Employment through Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity) project, two outstanding EU funded initiatives, are organising their closing events on 22-23 September 2011 at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, in Building A (20-22 Egry J. Street, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary) to offer their audiences their highly valuable research findings, products and services.

The two European projects join forces in offering specifically knowledge-sharing sessions where the participation at both events is free of charge for pre-registered participants At the event you will be introduced to research results and practice oriented solutions of several projects and initiatives that have similar focus to that of the FREE project and Links-up project. If you wish to share, bring your flyers! Both projects will be finishing shortly after this jointly organised conference.

Registration Deadline: 16 September, 12 am

More information (Downloadable Programme, Hotel Booking Form): www.links-up.eu

Upcoming relevant events5-8 September 2011 – GMW 2011 Wissensgemeinschaften, Dresden, Germany 22-23 September 2011 – Final Links-up Conference: Joint Project Seminar with FREE, Budapest, Hungary

26 - 28 October 2011, eChallenges e-2011 Conference & Exhibition, Florence, Italy

Five Outstanding Experts Interviewed on Learning 2.0

Steve Wheeler, Ingeborg Boe, Graham Attwell, Maruja Gutierrez-Diaz and Roni Aviram were interviewed during the International Learning Dialogue organised at the 2011 EDEN Annual Conference in Dublin on three key

research questions related to Learning 2.0. All video testimonials have been loaded to Youtube for public access to boost discussion on the main issues of the project. Take a look at the videos to find out how Learning 2.0 was born and what do personal learning environments have to do with social inclusion.

Highlights – Personal Takes and Professional Views

Dublin The last Links-up Workshop took place at the EDEN Annual Conference 2011, Dublin, Ireland on 22 June with the title "Social Software for Social Inclusion: Successes or Failures?". We reflected on policy, conceptual & practice landscape, problems encountered and lessons learnt, and reports from the ground.

Take a look at the short video documenting the athmosphere.

You can find out more on the programme of the Conference and useful information here.

Salzburg In Wals-Siezenheim, a very small town 20 Minutes from Salzburg, we found the "Zentrum Walser Birnbaum" (translated the "center of the pear-tree of Wals"). At this institution there is a periodic event, called the "narrative cafe": Elderly people meet and talk about the past, their activities and what life was about in those days. The participants were offered to work with podcasts in order to document this narrative cafe. After meeting every 2 weeks and learning how to tell stories, how to talk and moderate, how to record, cut and to publish by uploading to a podcasting webspace something funny happened: the participants wanted more!! "Can we do blogs as well? What about a homepage? Can we document our activities ourselves?"So (as all those questions matched with the Links-Up idea), Salzburgresearch, the Austrian partner in Links-up expanded their activities: they set up a website, held more workshops, dealing with all different sorts of Web 2.0 activities and included all activities, that are currently going on in the centre. Read and listen to the media coverage here (in German).

This project has been funded with support from Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission . This Newsletter reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. All digital material displayed in this newsletter is owned by the project partners and their affiliates.