Abstract:

Promoting the development of a European society based on knowledge is the fundamental pillar for citizens to take an active role in boosting common values and fundamental rights. The essential elements for its achievement are lifelong learning, mobility between all countries in the European Union and employability, as means to achieve greater European competitiveness, improve social cohesion, equal opportunities and quality of life. The achievement of these objectives requires new methods of learning, as well as more flexible educational models, in a society where the rapid digital transformation of the economy is a reality. Currently digital skills are necessary, both to get a job, to be part of society and to participate in it [1]. Within this framework, My Smart Quartier is an Erasmus+ KA204 project (2017-1-FR01-KA204-037375) aimed at proposing methodologies and resources to implement formative programs for adults to boost the digital competences in citizens under a life-long learning framework, and enhance the participation and dialogue between civil society and the administration. Creativity, innovation and collaboration stand out as pillars for the upcoming learning models and its incorporation into the educational methodologies is pointed out as a challenge, mainly for citizens who has already overcome their institutionalised formative periods. In this sense, specific courses of trainers of trainers must be designed in order to acquire specific knowledge and methodologies to address the needs of citizen to acquire digital competences.

The My Smart Quartier initiative has proposed activities focused on 4 key aspects for the design of this courses:
(i) Identification of the formative needs;
(ii) Contextualization of the training action;
(iii) Design of training actions based on the acquisition of competences
(iv) Promotion of learning communities.

All these activities will lead to participants in the courses being able to manage information and developing new knowledge through exchange and interaction with other people, solving real problems, and dialoguing with the administration through e-participation platforms, therefore ultimately becoming digital citizens.

References:
[1] European Commission, COM(2018) 24 final, relative to the key competences for life-long learning.

Acknowledgements:
The authors acknowledge the support of the European Union by means of the Project My Smart Quartier, with reference number 2017-1-FR01-KA204-037375

Keywords:

Creativity, innovation, Collaboration, learning, digital divide, digital citizens.