1.Did the project work contribute to the improvement of approaches to the opening of the Internet to seniors in your group?

Ulm:
Four of the Ulm seniors stated that the work lead to improvement through learning about new techniques and approaches of using the Internet, two seniors considered the handled subjects of no special interest as one was already familiar with them and the other considered the methods in use at home sufficient.

Prague:
In Prague, 10 out of 11 people said yes, one "more or less".

Vicenza:
The Euconet project was a guiding line which has influenced the various Rezzara Institute activities concerning Europe: travels, historical research and so on. As the Rezzara Institute deals not only with adult education but also with research, communication, social problems, and European issues, the Euconet project has been used as a useful stimulus to the introduction of the new technologies to the elderly. Therefore, some specific courses were selected in whose framework the senior students of our organization approached the Internet as an up-to-date means to gather and present information, or to communicate through the e-mail.

Brno:
In spite of the fact that most of our seniors had already come into contact with the Internet, they worked with the Internet far more frequently after becoming involved in the project. They took particular advantage of e-mail to correspond with the other members of the project. Their responses were without exception positive. To a certain degree their work on the project broke down the generation differences. Our seniors themselves proved that they are willing and able to learn new things.

A selection of the views of the seniors in the group:
"Thanks to U3A, a computer and the Internet, and thanks to the EuCoNet project, I can forget my age and the unpleasant medical problems this age brings with it."

"Even at their age, seniors are fully aware of the possibility of acquiring the enormous amount of information available on the Internet."

"Now surfing the web is nothing new to me, and I use it to find out about foreign regions and towns and important people, I visit virtual picture galleries, read newspapers and correspond with my husband's family in Australia."

Glasgow:
Yes, there is no question that the work carried out throughout the project period has helped widen accessibility to the Internet for seniors. Within Strathclyde, this has been done in 3 ways:

• 1. The 'Buddy System' being introduced provides basic training to new users and provides a confidence building approach to people of similar ages. This key, fundamental principal, although simple, has been very effective and successful, with new learners leaving after the sessions with a greater understanding of the Internet and E-mail.
• 2. The Computer Club within the Senior Studies Institute has been proactive in encouraging other Clubs (there are over 30 currently running) to embrace the Internet to enhance their respective activities and interests. Already several Clubs have participated, with the Art Club being particularly keen to show their members the advantages of using the Internet. This has resulted in a greater understanding of how the Internet can allow members to appreciate art via a different medium, with virtual tours being taken of major museums and art galleries throughout the world.
• 3. The EuCoNet project has allowed some members of the Computer Club to experience new ways of using technology to communicate, for example video conferencing and web based chat forums.

Quotes from seniors:

• "It has made us aware of the possibilities of different approaches and made us look at our situation in the SSI."
• "It made us realise that our Buddy Scheme was a very good way of helping older people gain confidence in their own ability to use computers."
• "The need to prepare and deliver presentations to EuCoNet seminars, to the Art Club and the film making, must have increased the confidence of our group members in these activities. It also increased the need to help each other in our group in techniques for preparing presentations, e.g., PowerPoint. The international group conversations using Paltalk and Centra were new Internet activities for our group."

Bratislava:
At the time the project commenced our UTA at University Komenskeho had 8 years of experience in organizing computer courses, which were offering Internet in a single lecture only. Under the influence of the project enhanced the content of the study by adding the matter of practical use of Internet in addition to theoretical study.

Course attendance was initiated by involving other institutions and individuals from retirement homes as well as public town libraries visitors. Benefits of Internet education were demonstrated to seniors in a form of Peer Groups.

We initiated an accelerated rate of introducing Internet into further institutions with senior communities and providing access to Internet for retiring homes.

The web page has been expanded by adding study papers relating to some fields of senior courses making it a base of distant study at UTA. We have been able to show seniors interested in studying that courses at UTA are financially accessible considering the fact that high connecting fees for individual connections limit the use of Internet in households. That is why (or for this reason) we make an afford to expand the possibility of Internet use in libraries and university lecture rooms.

Alicante:
One of the objectives of the programme of the Permanent University of the University of Alicante (UPUA), was since the very beginning, to open senior citizens to ICT and computers with the aim of covering the seniors' population gap of knowledge on this subject. Therefore, the EuCoNet project has contributed to continue and improve this approach to new technologies, always in mind, in our academic programme.

The project work has been accepted with a lot enthusiasm by all the EuCoNet students in Alicante. All of them think that this initiative has been a very important tool to improve the Internet opening process to seniors in the UPUA. Some of them had never used the Internet before and even they were afraid of doing it.

Quotes from seniors:

• "The project works have satisfactorily contributed to improve the Internet opening process to seniors in our group, because it has brought us a better knowledge of the computer tools."
• "Absolutely!. I think that the project works have been very useful and encouraging, and have been also a essential help for all of us, even for those who had never dealt with computers."
• "Of course, they did. There were some students who were afraid of using the Internet. Now, these students enjoy using it and want to improve their computing skills."
• "I'm totally convinced that the project has been good for arousing our interest in the Internet."

2. Did it contribute to the improvement of approaches to the opening of the Internet to seniors in your country?

Ulm:
4 out of 6 seniors said, that the experiences and the discussions in the projects have had a positive effect e.g. due to the outreach and dissemination activities, one did not see the learning about other approaches valuable and one said that it is difficult to say as online activities are rather frequent in Germany. Suggested was more dissemination activities to make the results more widely known.

Prague:
9 people answered yes, 2 more or less.

Vicenza:
Locally, the project has boosted the activities of the university and its branches in the province of Vicenza. It proved to be interesting for seniors also outside our organization, because it was presented in magazines and newspapers all over the country. So far, we have not been able to verify the actual impact of our efforts outside our region, but we are available for comparison and exchange of experiences with other Italian institutions.

Brno:
The contribution towards improving this approach can only be considered in respect of the people over whom the project co-ordinators were able to have an influence (whether directly or indirectly - reports on regional and local radio, articles in the press and specialist publications). Overall the effect of the project can be better assessed in terms of information than in terms of implementation. This is also influenced by the overall situation in the Czech Republic, as a country in transformation from a totalitarian regime to a standard democratic system.

Glasgow:
Yes it has, but is still at a very early stage with a lot of work still to be done. A small bit of dissemination work has been carried out with more to follow over the coming year. This has involved EuCoNet being discussed at a national event, Age Matters in Scotland - Learning in Later Life, held at the University. A workshop took place to inform delegates of the work being carried out by the project and the value of work in this area. At another event in the City, the Lord Provost of Glasgow was informed of the work carried out by Strathclyde and the EuCoNet project in particular was mentioned.

Quotes from seniors:

• "The group has produced a paper on the use of the Internet by seniors and tools which are appropriate to senior citizens. This has been published at the 2004 Conference in Lugano, Switzerland on EDMEDIA."
• "This confidence made it easier to help other seniors in our country, in the Auchinairn outreach work, in a meeting with the Lochaber group, and within our Buddy Project and Computer Club."

Bratislava:
In Slovakia computer courses were initially offered at 4 UTA's, today they are available at 5 out of the 10 existing UTA´s. During the last 2 years the content of computer course was expanded to contain computer use in homes leading to practical use of Internet in the daily life. By mapping the availability of computer courses at Education Academies in 36 Slovak towns we have created an information base for those UTA´s, which do not have conditions to teach computer literacy.

We created a UTA Association home page now available in 2 languages.

Under the influence of expanding project ideas and increased number of UTA´s in Slovakia a need was found to organize a conference on information teaching study methodology at Slovak senior universities.

Alicante:
The UPUA has incorporated to the EuCoNet project in year two. During this year, our work has been mainly focused on our 1,100 students enrolled. In order to spread the approach to the opening of the Internet to seniors in our country we have developed actions to promote new technologies in the different university venues in the Alicante province.

Once that we have consolidated it, our intentions are to share this examples of good praxis to all around Spain through the Spanish State Association of University Programmes for Older Adults, in which the UPUA is member of the Governing Board.

Quotes from Seniors:

• "The project works have specially meant the older adults' familiarisation to New Technologies at a provincial level. Thanks to the project works, the students have learnt the great possibilities of ICT: a fast and instantaneous communication through the e-mail, a quick access to all type of services without moving, and an useful access to a great variety of contents and research works"
• "Yes, we have begun the ICT opening process to the local community and have obtained the first results."
• "We are working in it, and I believe that the results will be very successful."

3. Which of the collected examples of good praxis did you find of greatest value?

Ulm:
Two seniors highlighted the Buddy Project in Glasgow, blended learning examples as inspiration for future work of ZAWiW, the computer study course at the University of Alicante. One person pointed out as an example of good practice the project approach in which groups from different countries and different structures work together well and exchange experiences.

Prague:
The Prague seniors mentioned communication with partners (3), international contacts (3), portal for seniors (2), cookbook for seniors (2), project history of computers (1).

Vicenza:
From the point of view of methodology Scottish buddy learning appeared to be successful, also when applied to our context. Indeed, the tutoring done by senior citizens to help their peers surf the Internet is more effective than the one done by young people, because young people take for granted many aspects that come natural to them. The approach to the Internet in blended-learning courses offered examples of a cultural use of the means, which was appreciated by various partner countries. The Forum created by the Germans has offered a stimulus to compare ideas, widen horizons and overcome prejudices. For elderly people used to traditional means of communication it was an extraordinary experience to realize that their opinions could be read by other people all over the world almost simultaneously.

Brno:
We obtained examples of good practice from the following sources:

• the activities of B. Mannová and her team at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague
• the work of Dr. Dvoráková with a group of seniors at the Technical University in Liberec
• our own experiences at Brno University of Technology

In addition to these exclusively university-based activities, we have also been following the work of D. Steinová (the Academy of Leisure Time) and the National Programme for Computer Literacy organised by the Ministry of Informatics. In view of the main aim of EuCoNet (greater use of the Internet and other information and communication technology - ICT), we can state that:

• it is necessary to respect the specifics imposed by the greater age of the students during all information and education activities.
• any efforts to increase ICT use must be unconditionally implemented with a clear and easily demonstrable aim and methodology.

Glasgow:
Quotes from seniors:

• 'The Blended Learning of Vicenza has made us think about how we could use it here and the Strathclyde group has been promoting e-learning to students interested in Art.'
• "All of the other countries have good practices to teach and assist seniors to be able to join in and enjoy the new technologies of the Internet. All of them have courses that run from a few days to several months in length. The general rule emerging seems to be the further east the country the longer the course. This is, I am sure, a cultural thing and will probably change. The Germans are well organised and enthusiastic and had a technology bus touring the country for several months teaching and demonstrating the use of PCs and the Internet to outlying villages, which seemed to provide them with a large response for courses. The Italians are set up slightly differently with many outlying groups attached to their University(s) stretching out to include the many diverse communities. They seem to have good central control and be able to disseminate their information quickly and cost effectively. The (former) Eastern countries, Czech Rep., Slovakia are organised on a more formal bases with long courses with certificates and graduations after many years of study... this is due to the influence of the Soviet times probably where everything was more formal than today but they seem to be considering changes. The Spanish are extremely well organised and have the same sort of incentive with their connections to South America as we have to the USA and North America, common language and history. From all of this I believe we can take some of the best practices in organising our operations to enable us to expand the spread of teaching and encouraging the seniors to get online and the usefulness of so doing!"
• "The German bus with PCs, which visited remote areas. In Scotland, a similar bus has been used this year. Experiments with Paltalk and Centra, and in-house chat rooms in Ulm and Brno were interesting. In our Computer Club, a talk and demonstration showing a camera 100 miles distant, remotely controlled by a mobile phone. The one-to-one teaching used in Strathclyde University's Buddy Project. The typing of minutes by Gaby, shown on screen as people spoke during a seminar, so that we could all see and agree before publication on the website."
• "I was most interested in the topics that addressed the benefits of "Blended Learning" and also Prague's paper on the future role of video-conferencing in distance learning. Not all participant countries took part in the exchange of information via the Centra Symposium system but for those of us who did it provided an interesting experience in online communication."

Bratislava:
We appreciate the accent given to more skilful and more versatile use of the computer mouse. CD (from Glasgow group) presented to our seniors was a good example of the practical use of the mouse. The Buddy learning was the next impulse for establishment of the learning method called Self help groups of seniors for educating seniors in retiring homes and libraries in respect of information technologies.

Alicante:
According to the programme planned for the Vth Strategic Seminar in Alicante, the UPUA worked with the Glasgow team in the group sessions. This shared work let us know about the examples of good praxis built up by Glasgow. Among all of them, the idea that aroused the most interest in our team was the "Buddy Project". Our students considered this volunteer initiative very attracting and decided to set up a similar project in Alicante. As a result, the EuCoNet Club was established at the beginning of May, as an example of good praxis of greatest value.

Quotes from seniors:

• "The Computer Buddy Project from Glasgow and the EuCoNet Club from Alicante."
• "Without doubt, the creation of the EuCoNet Club is a very good example of good praxis and will make possible, in the medium-term, to achieve the project goals."
• "From my point of view, the Alicante meeting gave us chance of knowing the Scottish praxis, which has inspired the Spanish EuCoNet Club."

4. What did the personal meetings with other participants from the various countries bring you?

Ulm:
All group members valued the opportunity to meet seniors from other countries who share the same interests, whom they can present and to discuss their work, learn about other approaches, see the country-specific problems. They also appreciate the opportunity given by the EU East enlargement to get to know people from the new member states. The personal meetings were a "salt in the soup" of the project as one of the participants said.

Prague:
Partnership, friendship, self-confidence, ideas and inspiration for other activities, experience and practice of foreign languages, finding same interests and problems with partners, experience exchange, participation on new ideas.

Vicenza:
The entrance of the Spanish partners in the project has made us discover many similarities between our lifestyles and cultures. It was wonderful to discover the liveliness and warmth of the Czech and Slovak people, their fondness of music and dance. We appreciated the Scottish group for their sense of humour and their enthusiasm. We felt reassured being guided by the German team for their precise organisation and hard work of co-ordination. All the partners shared the willingness to overcome old prejudices and language barriers. On the whole, it has been an enriching human experience.

Brno:
A selection of views:

• "For me meeting up with other people taking part in the EuCoNet project is a fantastic opportunity to learn from the experiences of people who have already been working with computers for some time."
• "I think that along with the increasing length of life, it is absolutely essential for seniors to engage in further education."

Glasgow:
Quotes from seniors:

• "The personal meetings have meant that many new friends have been made, understanding of their situation has been enlightening, especially the difficult learning situation in the new countries of the European Union."
• "The personal meetings with the other groups probable yield the best results in so far as culturally socially and politically although we all have many and varied experiences there is a common theme through all the countries and confirms Robert Burns famous saying "We are all Jock Tamsons bairns". We are all striving to understand each other and I believe achieving some success in this area."
• "I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the partners from all countries. Although I have travelled around Europe on holiday, these seminars have confirmed that there are plenty of good-natured relationships in people of many countries, particularly when we have a common task. National pride is allowed, but we British, and Scots in particular, should be careful to explain that our custom of teasing others, to see if they can withstand it, is a sign of friendly acceptance, not of attack. The others must understand this, and it is perhaps worth writing this. (My personal apologies to Josef Lipták of Bratislava). We admire the efforts of partners whose native language is not English. When writing or speaking, it is important that we use simple English, without slang or words or phrases which, when translated into another language, would not be understood. For example, "Pain in the neck", "Scunnered", but computer slang is usually international. The hospitality and social events of each partner country have been excellent. There may even have been competition to see who could do better. (I must avoid our phrase "Keeping up with the Jones's", which means "Competing with the neighbours")."
• "Our meetings with the other participant countries gave us an insight into the problems faced by some of the countries in their attempts to introduce seniors to the Internet and also to e-learning. For example, we learned of the high cost of e-learning courses for seniors in Slovakia and that Italy had very few facilities where Internet is taught to senior citizens at reasonable prices."

Bratislava:
Personal contacts with project participants were not only a base to gain and exchange information and experience but also a possibility to make close relations. The participants exhibited an equal stand against each other this creating a mutual filing of security, self-confidence and mutual respect towards our work and success reached. Pleasure and willingness in exchanging knowledge was a base for quality personal and working relations. During face to face meetings we avoided the creation of competitive atmosphere but we tried to learn from each other and hand over good experiences to others.

We learned that the level of education in our country is comparable with the level of our partners with a little difference in educational forms. As against educating seniors and a comparable massive scale in Eastern countries (CZ, SK) we could see the possibility of educating seniors in smaller groups (Glasgow), in internet cafes and mobile computer classrooms (Ulm), Own CD production (Alicante, Vicenza) as seen and negative experiences from implementation. We observed not only study matters but also culture, tradition and life specifics of seniors in partner countries. We appreciate all attention and arrangement of all meetings, which have already taken place.

Alicante:
The EuCoNet project has been the first international experience for the Permanent University. Therefore, our students had never met other foreign seniors with the same interests and goals. These new contacts introduced in the UPUA programme have been lived with great enthusiasm and interest by all of them. The personal meetings with other participants from the various countries have brought them academic and personal contributions. On the academic field we can mention: direct knowledge of methodology, approaches, good praxis and tools developed by other partners. On the other way and talking about personal contributions, our student have been able to know another countries, cultures and ways of living that have opened their minds and also enriched them.

Quotes from seniors:

• "I believe that the personal meetings are very interesting for us. Thanks to them, we can know the achieved goals for the different project participants and we can compare and evaluate our project works."
• "The most important thing for me is to meet people from different countries, their culture, ways of life, customs, work methodology, etc, because this knowledge enrich us."
• "The personal meetings with other participants from the various countries bring me: a direct and enriching contact with European citizens; the exchange of opinions and ideas about the project; the work in groups to achieve the project goals."
• "I have had two encounters with the EuCoNet participants. Firstly, a personal encounter during the Alicante meeting. Later, a videoconference with the University of Ulm. For me, it is important to emphasize the seriousness, the illusion and the effectiveness of all the project members. "
• "Meeting other project participants has offered me the opportunity of knowing about their countries, their ways of thinking and their methodologies."
• "The personal meetings have brought me a direct knowledge of the realities of each country."

5. What was the most important learning effect of this project?

Ulm:
Important learning effects noted were: getting to know new methods and especially electronic communication methods such as the Telecom electronic classroom CENTRA, knowledge of the various approaches of the partner groups, "the comparison between the approaches to senior internet access in the partner countries brought us to think over our own models", having the opportunity to work with friends from other countries.

Prague:
ICT competency, new knowledge about computing, finding that seniors are able to learn about computers, requirement to learn new things, identification of seniors problems with+A61 ICT.

Vicenza:
The project has helped the growth of our knowledge of the new technologies, in particular of the Internet. The teachers appreciated the new approach to the Internet as a tool for their lesson presentations, while the students widened their interests, their desire to look for information through the Internet, and to learn good practices. The members of our group have learnt how to become tutors in a peer-learning context, thus turning their computer science passion into a means to transfer their technical knowledge.

Brno:
From the viewpoint of being part of a traditional technical university with a highly developed infrastructure and educational opportunities (an Internet study open all day, construction of a study with 15 Internet stands reserved for priority use for senior students), we see the most important educational effect to be the fact that, over the course of the last three years, more than 320 seniors have taken basic and advanced courses (the Internet, Internet technology, Power Point). We have been able to monitor and, most importantly, compare the standing and method of instruction at our partner universities. The EuCoNet Internet pages, which gave us the opportunity of obtaining up-to-date information, were also a huge advantage. The chance to share experiences at partnership meetings was also invaluable.

Glasgow:
Quotes from seniors:

• "The most important learning effect of the project has been to make us think about the importance of the use of IT among older people and to question our own methods. The knowledge gained of other work in European countries has been valuable."
• "The most important learning effect for me is that there are many ways to learn and we all have to adapt to suit the various cultural and social needs of our seniors and probably there is no single right one way to go but many."
• "It convinced me that, if all countries are to keep up with each other, the relentless onward march of the Internet has to be tackled, despite viruses, worms, and system failures."
• "The most important learning effect of the project for myself was the realisation of just how much can be learned from the host countries who spared no effort to make sure that English was spoken along with German throughout all of the presentations. We also gained from the experience of the other countries' projects, to name only one - Germany had previously run a nationwide campaign to provide information to 50 plus people, introducing 100,000 people to IT through the use of the Senior-Info-Mobil bus."

Bratislava:
Under the influence of the project we have expanded our activity to reach further target groups of seniors, who are not the participants of senior courses at universities (seniors from retiring homes visitors from libraries). The project motivated us to increase the number of students and the spectrums of contacts, to seek new ways of education - like E- learning, buddy learning. Seniors become more conscious of Internet as a form of self learning and not only an information channel.

Dissemination of the project goals and ideas influenced other UTA's in Slovakia to establish PC courses and to work on own homepage.

Alicante:
The most important learning effect of this project in Alicante has been the promotion of new communication and information technologies among seniors. In this sense, the project has let us know about the importance of developing suitable methodologies addressed to the target group, in order to achieve the ICT opening process.

Some of the actions that we have carried out in order to achieve this goal are:

• Development of ICT self-learning systems (Internet para todos).
• OnLine Campus.
• Club EuCoNet.
• Specific seminars and ICT courses.

Quotes from seniors:

"The creation of the EuCoNet Club."

"Encouraging and involving seniors to use the ICT. We have tried to show them that the computing science is available to everybody. Everybody is able to learn computing skills. Older people are sometimes afraid of starting up using the Internet. I think they fear because of lack of knowledge."

"The development of new learning methods, which are suitable for older people and adapted to the new technology."

"The establishment of the EuCoNet Club."

"An improvement of the computing skills in the country members."

"The setting up of a computing club as a support to promote the use of the ICT among older people".

6. How do you see your work in the future?

Ulm:
In the future they want to meet seniors from countries not yet involved in the discussion, continue to work together on new projects, develop better dissemination strategies. One person thinks that totally new ideas and interest areas are necessary in the future.

Prague:
Continuation of cooperation, participation in new projects, to help seniors with ICT, to work as mentor for seniors in ICT education, to participate in communication and videoconferencing for seniors.

Vicenza:
We would like to continue and improve the work that has been done so far. The goals decided at the beginning of the project could not have been achieved without the co-operation of many people with different competences. Therefore, we are considering the possibility of opening the computer laboratory once a week to enable the students to continue the experience of guided Internet surfing or to practice what they have learnt, or simply to familiarise with different PC applications, feeling confident that there is a tutor ready to help them if they encounter technical difficulties.

Brno:
If financial support from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic continues at the same level for development projects, then we can expect positive development and being able to take full advantage of the methodical and specialist experience already acquired. The graduates of our computer courses (at all levels of proficiency) are an extremely valuable and absolutely irreplaceable advertisement for the further development of these untraditional university education activities. The continuing development of ICT with practical applications (digital photography, artistic processing of digital images, home processing - editing video recordings = a continuation of the once extremely popular narrow-gauge films) clearly indicates an extremely good environment and conditions for further education activities for seniors.

Glasgow:
Quotes from seniors:

• "Further work on publicity via a new radio station for older people. Promotion of e-learning inside and outside this University. In particular we expect to further encourage groups out with Strathclyde, in the use of Internet technologies, including verification of members' identity for the purpose of surveys."
• "In the future it would be good to increase and strengthen these ties and perhaps to experience more contact between the groups and possible even share in each other's teaching and learning practices and though the language barriers may make this difficult it is not impossible."
• "To keep on with the work of helping the next batch of beginners by Buddy project Taster sessions and the Computer Club. To improve my personal skills in the editing of photos and in sending them by email. To install some Windows updates which cannot be downloaded now without disabling virus protection and my firewall."
• "I would personally like to see our work in future progress our recent proposals for a beginners' course, either to supplement or substitute for the Buddy scheme we have run to date. I also think there would be merit in introducing Douglas McGregor's plan for a research project (with steep learning curve)."

Bratislava:
In the future we will continue in well proven forms of education, expand PC courses and Internet to further seniors communities. Another aim is to improve education methods based on accessible possibilities. Knowledge inn practical teaching, we try to implement into improving methodical procedures and into seeking new approaches dependent on good local conditions.

Alicante:
Although our continuity within the project depends on the approval of the renewal by our National Agency Socrates, all our students would love to go on with the project in the future. They want to keep on working hard in the spread of the EuCoNet philosophy among other students and communities because they consider it very relevant for the future of the seniors society.

Quotes from seniors:

• "I am very hopeful about my work in the future, because the project has got a very favourable reception and we are all very interested in it."
• "I suppose that I will continue working in the project with the same impetus that at the beginning and I will try to improve my project work as far as possible. Besides, I would like to encourage other students to take part in similar projects. "
• "We have been encouraged by the response so far. So, I will hopefully continue collaborating with the project. I believe that it is a very important project for the older population and we have to use all possible means so that old people access to ICT skills."
• "Interesting. I would like to collaborate, as far as possible, in any projects that be started up."

7. How far was the overall goal reached?

Ulm:
One person sees the goal reached to a great extent, one sees the goal reached in that the meetings with people from other countries contribute to mutual knowledge and understanding and to peace, one sees the goals reached with the work having to go further, one sees the goals reached to 50%, one suggests this should be answered in the meeting in Bratislava and one obtained.

Prague:
Overall goals were completely reached, portal is used by seniors outside the project, project created conditions for work with seniors, improvement of seniors education, introduction of ICT to seniors.

Vicenza:
At the beginning of the Euconet project, we realised that the other partners were operating within the framework of institutions with state-of-the-art technical equipment, contrary to our situation. However, the comparison of different experiences which was done during the partner meetings was a stimulus to update the cultural offers of our Institute, and to actively participate in the project. Through our blended-learning courses, we proved our capacity to update our teaching approach by using the new communication technologies and to open the Internet to the senior students of our Institute.

Brno:
Although the original formulation of the principal goals of the EuCoNet project is not specifically focused on the fulfilment of a non-traditional role for universities from the viewpoint of all the institutions of higher education we were able to consult, we would give the results an unambiguously positive assessment, particularly in respect of the fulfilment of the role of university education in terms of its action on the development of society, improving the lives of seniors and increasing the standard of education for the broadest possible sections of the population.

Glasgow:
The overall goal of the project is well on way to achieving the targets, as the activity over the past two years has allowed all groups to compare different practices, different cultures and share knowledge. Overall, it has helped raise awareness of barriers relating to older people and the Internet, and identified ways of addressing this to help increase accessibility and confidence.

Quotes from seniors:

• "Taking into account that the project has one more year to be completed then we feel we are on course to have made a significant contribution to the overall goal by the end of three years."
• "At times in the past two years, I thought that some of the activities were getting too far removed from the task of making the Internet available to seniors who are beginners. They were testing the ability of us more experienced seniors to see if our brains were capable of remembering more complex routines. However, I think much has been achieved, and many good relationships have been established which could be used in the future."

Bratislava:
The overall goals were reached according to our conditions. We succeeded in achieving all planned aims and we created a very good team of problem solvers with a common target. We had misgivings as to whether our ideas of disseminating our plans for practical demonstration in retiring homes will find any response from managements or seniors. A successor to this phase of the project was brought about also with the great help of seniors who managed to convince not only the management of retiring home, but also their inhabitants.

Alicante:
After our first year in the project, we consider that most of the overall goals have been reached by the Alicante team, such us:

• collection and exchange of "good praxis" and experiences on ICT to seniors.
• development and evaluation of state-specific strategies.
• contact with the local communities and foreign associations.
• extension of our programme to other towns and university venues.
• development and standardisation of OnLine Campus as a useful instrument.
• tutors' project (gifted students, EuCoNet and UPUA) for older adults' learning.
• optimisation of the web: www.ua.es/upua.

Quotes from seniors:

• "We all have worked hard in the project and we have gained much experience. We have reached most of the proposed goals, but I think that we will achieve the overall goals next year".
• "In my opinion, we have reached the overall goals. We are very glad of our contribution to the project and the results have been successful. We have familiarised people with the project and we have encouraged many old people to use the new technologies."
• "I have achieved my own expectations, but I cannot specify the achievement degree of the overall goals."