The meaning of the conception “Active Aging” for Europe. The role of ZAWIW of Ulm University in that connection. The project DASUN – “Danube universities as a bridge between the universities and the civil society”. The conception of the State University for Librarianship and Information Technologies for organization of an Academic Day. The stress is put on the search of materials for the presentations and for the leaflets for adults 50+. We share how we have chosen the themes, which websites and information sources we have used for the leaflets. The results of the feed back. Future ideas for education of adults 50+ in IT skills. read more (Bulgarian)

At the beginning we made a brainstorming and decided what to choose for the education of adults 50+ in our university. We made several assumptions about their needs and interests. That helped us to design a questionnaire.  The sociological survey was conducted, based on 140 respondents. Included were adults from 50 till 90 years, with different professions and level of education… read more

The education for adults is so important, as in traditional education and has a potential for better success

The continuing academic education for adults is not only chance for higher qualification, new qualification or improves of the adults’ skills. It is a new opportunity for long life learning and non stop personal development.

read more…

On the Academy Day realized in State University of Library Studies and Information Technologies /SULSIT/ on 8 June 2011 took part 51 persons. 47 from them were women, 4 were men.

All of them received feed back questionnaire for assessment of the Academy Day. The questionnaire were filled in by 34 persons or two third from the participants.

The feedback questionnaire contains 3 groups of questions. The first group is about the personal data of the participants.

According to them 88, 2 % form the respondents are women, 11, 8%- men. The persons with high education are dominating /70, 6%/. Secondary school has 29, 4%. Bigger part of the respondents are pensioners /58, 8%/.

The rest of 41, 2% work on the full working day. This result is normal having in mind that the Academy Day was realized in the working day /Wednesday/. The majority of the recipients don’t indicate their professions, among working persons are dominated teachers and librarians. It was interesting the questions- Whether do you use computer and Internet? – 52, 9% answered “Yes”, 47% answered “No”.

The second group of questions is connected with assessment of the Academy Day. First of them was: “How did you find information for the Academy Day?” The analysis of the questionnaires give us the following trends: the participants are attracted from the invitation of the librarians from small public libraries from different parts of Sofia /47,1%/; the second group was invited by Association of University Libraries /AUL/ and from SULSIT. No one didn’t come because of some advertisement or announcement of the Academy Day. This fact gives us reason to thing for better publicity of the event next time.

 The next questions aim to clarify the reasons for participation in the Academy Day. Here we have 6 possible answers. Part of the participants indicated 2 answers. The majority of answers are “I want to learn something new” /70, 6% followed by “to sustain my brain condition” /47%/. Very close are indications for formulation “in order to be together with people who have the same interests” /35, 3%/.

Small number of participants indicated answer- “because my friends participate” /11, 8%/ and 5, 9%- “in order to discuss problems with other people”. No one didn’t answer- “in order to avoid boring”. The analysis of this question gives us a clear answer for the expectations while the next questions aim to assess the achievements.

The first of these questions is “How did you estimate the proposed themes?” The possible answers are 4 with possibility to explain of the answer. The majority of the recipients answered that all themes like them /70, 7%/. No answer- “nothing likes my”. Small number from the participants indicated concrete titles of the lectures- for the cultural heritage of Thracians and for healthy life. The next questions aim to receive the opinion of the audience of the lectures.

Equal number approval received and the both themes mentioned above- 70, 6% each, but the explanation is given for the theme connected with the Thracians. It is important to indicate that the part of the additions is connected with the style of the lecturer and attractiveness of the presentation. It is indicated that the lecturer is interesting, wonderful, and incredible. Others indicate that they learned something more and interesting on the topic.

On the lecture for healthy life “Characteristic illnesses for the third age. Prevention and possible treatment.” is estimated that the lecturer presented important illnesses that concern the participants and contains important information, the topic is presented pragmatically. There are two single recommendations: for the lecturer of the Thracians- to speak loudly and clearly /woman 83 age/; for the other lecture- to speak more in details for one illness. This recommendation is useful for the future.

The other themes are not indicated concretely in the feed back questionnaires, but the reaction of the audience during their presentations shows that they were well accepted as well. The proof for this is the desire of the participants to attend all presentations in the afternoon session. Concerning the themes and form of presentations the answer is- “It is like me because it is useful” /41, 2%/. No other answer. All participants indicated – “all themes like me” which concerns the whole contents of the Academy Day.

The biggest percentage positive answers receive the question: “How do you estimate the organization of the Academy Day?” Here all answers express acceptation – 70, 6%- “everything likes me” and “it likes me because the topics were interesting, professionally presented with understandable language; direct contact with the lecturers; Academy Day was organized dynamically, received useful information on the Academy Level. No negative answers, no missed answers.

In the third group of questions are included such which concerns opinions for the future organization of the education for adults 50+. Here 94, 1% answered “Yes” if the themes are interested for them. Most of the participants add: “Only if it is a free of charge” /64, 7%/. This answer deserves attention and corresponding initiatives for participation in the projects or subsidies/ sponsoring for realization of the event.

The following questions are connected with the type, themes and continuation of the future training. Small number of the respondents is interested from different topics from these during the Academy day. These themes are about the nature, tourism, Information technologies and their implementation; lectures for concrete illnesses.

Concerning the form- equal number of votes received 2 forms- Academy day and seminars /52, 9%/. Lectures or courses are indicated by 23, 5% from the respondents. Only 2 persons choose electronic education.

In conclusion we can note that the Academy day realized in SULSIT with the cooperation of AUL is assessed positively. The themes are well accepted and the form of presentations as well. Positive support received and the informational leaflets distributed for the participants with useful and practice information on the themes of healthy life, ideas for spending of leisure time of the adults 50+, information for typical illnesses.

Verbal approval received presentation of Internet addresses for search of tourist and health information which contained two of the presentations. To the participants were given leaflets with these web sites in order to use them in their leisure time. As positive trend we can indicate the possibility to open addresses in skype and facebook for which the adults heat for first time. Ands last but not least it is important to indicate that the participants were eager to leave their names and contacts which will be used in future organization of Academy day in SULSIT.

The partners in the project DASUN in Sofia, Bulgaria were the State University of Library Stud- ies and Information Technologies (SULSIT) in partnership with the Association of University Libraries (AUL). For all activities we received advice from the Zentrum für Allgemeine Wissen- schaftliche Weiterbildung (ZAWiW) der Universität Ulm.

Preparation

During the first meeting in Ulm at the beginning of the project we made a brainstorming and decided some basics re thematic direction and structure of the planned education event for adults 50+ at our university. We made several assumptions about the learners’ as well as in- stitutions’ needs and interests. That helped us to design a questionnaire. A sociological survey was conducted with 140 respondents. Included were adults from 50 till 90 years, with different professions and level of education. We aimed to receive information about the respondents’ computer skills and if they are interested to improve their knowledge in that field. Then we had to clarify the form, themes, length of the education. Concerning the form, the biggest inter- est was shown in lectures, followed by practical education. Preferred were shorter education forms. Most popular themes were: “healthy manner of life”; “ideas for leisure time” ”informa- tion for treatment of illnesses” and “information about heritage”. This provided the basis for the design of our Academic Day.

Academic Day

The Academic Day was held on 8th June, starting from 9.30 until 17.00 o’clock. In the morning we had two lectures. The first one was “The Thracians and their belief in immortality” by Prof. Valeria Fol. The second lecture was “Typical third age diseases. Prophylactic and therapy pos- sibilities”, hold by Dr. Petrov. All participants received leaflets with web addresses on the above themes. After lunch we made several short presentations, disseminated leaflets with useful information and made practical exercises. There was a computer for every participant and tutors to help. The participants learned how to use Skype, how to sent an e-mail, how to communicate per facebook. Others were interested in how to find information in the Internet

Outcomes

The participants filled also a feedback form. As a motivation for the presence on the Academy Day most of them indicated – “I want to learn something new”. The majority of the respondents answered that they liked all presentations (70, 7%). They also said that the first lecturer was interesting, wonderful and incredible. Others indicated that they learned something new and interesting on the topic. The second lecturer was perceived as practical specialist in the most common diseases for that age. The most valuable was considered that the lecturer provides easy to implement information. Also all other presentations were highly appreciated. Special interest was shown in the practical exercises with the Internet, when the participants wrote their own e-mails, addresses in facebook and searched for practical information in Internet. We hope that this will help for better communication between older people. We hope that they will be more confident in searching for the necessary information on the web. In this we see the benefits of adult learning 50+ in universities.

The biggest percentage positive answers we received for the organization of the event. Most of the answers were – “I liked everything” or “I liked it because the topics were interesting, professional; presented in understandable language; there was a direct contact with the lec- turers; the Academy Day was organized dynamically, I received useful information on an aca- demic level.” There were no negative answers. Most importantly, 94% of the participants were willing to attend future academic days..

Problems to resolve

In Bulgaria the work activity of the adults 50 + is very high and organization of the Academy Days must be comply with the working time.

In conclusion, we understood that SULSIT, in partnership with AUL, disposes of enough tech- nical equipment and premises for realization of Academy Days and other similar events. Both organizations can provide quality education how to use information technologies. In the future the Academy Days can be realized as cyclic initiatives. The target groups can be defined more clearly according to their life position and interests. Another option is to create special virtual programs to improve the information knowledge of working people 50+. We can also arrange for adults 50 + guided trips to new cultural and historical sites.