Marinilla Centro de Adulto Mayor – Foto Flickr

No functional literacy without digital skills? 

The already completed and awarded LearnersMot project had some limitations, a lot of new questions and issues that need to be answered. Consequently, some of them are being approached in the LearnersMot2 project: Creating a continuous supportive learning environment for the 45+, low- educated and low skilled-adults. The project is being coordinated by EDENSOL, Spain. 

So far, the project has yielded some of the planned results, mainly the Conceptual background (concepts constituting the philosophy of the project, a Blended course and a Mobile application containing digital exercises to be employed by low educated and low skilled older workers.

Low functional literacy is by-product of development

Functional literacy ( Fr.) or just literacy (Engl.)is a by-product of development and needs to be alleviated in the developed countries. Functional illiteracy is defined in most diverse ways what indicates that it is defined with difficulty. It is mostly believed that functional illiteracy is inability to do this and that with texts and in everyday life. But no, these are only diverse tangible manifestations of functional illiteracy. It should be rather said that adults become functionally literate when they have achieved a certain level of competencies based on basic skills.

Which adults could be qualified as low functional literates 

Persons in the situation of functional illiteracy did go to school, wanted to learn, but nobody really taught them how to learn while significant adults like their parents, teachers, etc. did not respect them, nor did they value their learning. Therefore, their bad school memories have hindered their learning, sometimes for a lifetime. On the other hand, social unfairness experienced on different levels, (poor economic level, poor socio-cultural level, stigma, etc.) strengthen the individuals’ situation of functional illiteracy. Living on social allowance, narrow socio-cultural habitus and stigma may contribute to adults’ “finding themselves in a situation of functional illiteracy”.

Only literates can function in today’s world

Low educated and low skilled adults – like each of us – need to cope with the changing world where the division of work is ever less present, and companies are ever more service-oriented, where ever more composite skills are required from each worker. (LearnersMot Deep In 1). Which skills are we talking about? Basic skills i.e. listening, reading, writing, communication and cognitive skills, cultural skills, social skills, digital skills and numeracy. Actually, there is no literacy without basic skills or digital skills. In literacy programmes, skills cannot be dealt with separately but rather jointly, several at a time.

Moreover, the LearnersMot2 project deals with various aspects of numeracy, i.e. mathematics applied to everyday life: using the number in context, estimating and calculating, using money, continuing and predicting patterns and relationships, interpreting proportional reasoning, spatial reasoning, etc.

Dr. Dušana Findeisen, Head of the Institute for Research and Development of education within Slovenian Third Age University. 

The first day was spent learning more about the project. First, we introduced ourselves and then did an activity called “World Caffe” to check what we already knew about people with functional illiteracy. Then the coordinator of the project, EDENSOL, presented the project, its rationale, objectives and results, and U3A explained the concepts behind the project.

During the different days of the training, the participants were able to familiarise themselves with all the material developed within the project. Each of the partners presented the topic they had developed. The presentations consisted of a short theoretical introduction and practical activities. In this way, the participating adult educators were able to see how they could put the content of the modules into practise.

Participants also had the opportunity to use the web application under development and provide feedback to improve the results. This web application, which can be accessed from the project website, will be available in English and partner languages.

The application uses thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context to improve user engagement and learning. These exercises aim to improve adult learners’ basic skills, such as spelling, math as applied to daily life, reading comprehension, problem solving, and communication.

As additional activities, the partners were able to have dinner together in a nice restaurant near Tivoli Park, where we further discussed the topics discussed during the day in a more informal atmosphere, and we had the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Ljubljana with Meta Kutin, who gave an interesting guided tour of the most representative buildings designed by the famous Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik.

While it is, of course, essential to invest money, time, and other resources into the education of children — and indeed we should be investing much more than we are — too often we gloss over or ignore altogether the importance of learning for adults.

Adults benefit from learning just as much as children do. They need it for various reasons, to keep their minds sharp, to find jobs that fulfill them, and to be active members of society.

Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash

Aside from the benefits that adults themselves receive from learning, we must recognize that society too benefits. Yes, children can help make the future better, but so can adults. And in fact, many adults already have important life experiences under their belts that make them a great resource, and source for ideas of how we can improve our society.

It’s time to stop ignoring adults when it comes to learning. By enabling adults to learn, we improve our society and help build a better future for adults and children alike.