In this project qualifying voluntary Senior Online Editors (Senior-Online-Redakteure - SOR), ZAWiW offers the possibility to gain writing and editorial skills necessary for writing articles on social, cultural or scientific themes for the monthly online journal LernCafe www.lerncafe.de

This project was developed by ZAWiW and is funded for the period of two years by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. After this time, it is expected, that the qualified "Senior Online Editors" will edit and publish the online journal LernCafe independently without the support of the ZAWiW staff.

The course is taught online and in residential courses and the target group are seniors from all over Germany. The learners can apply their creativity in various ways, irrespective of which subject they handle. They are supported by ZAWiW workers, who advise them.

The course has a modular structure and is free of charge for all participants, who after a short introductory period, commit themselves to further cooperation.

The course consists of 5 modules and several residential workshops. The modules:
Online Journal: Introduction, development of rubrics, development possibilities in text types and interactivness, regionalisation.

To interest and inform: Winning readers, mediating information, target group related subject selection, Internet search and analysis, information through design.

Other modules are:

• Journalistic writing
• Texts for the Internet
• Editorial work

The first residential workshop took place in Bad Urach in November 2003, further regional workshops are planned.

This project should demonstrate, how older people within the frame of such a project learn a creative use of the new communication technologies and how they can apply it for an active participation in social dialogue.