Project name: Geragogy ANd Young MEDia – GANYMED
Project number:  2020-1-DE01-KA226-HE-005745
Duration:  24 months
Coordinator:  KIT – KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE (Germany).
Financed by: European Commission under the programme Erasmus+ KA2 – Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness
Partners: PH – PAEDAGOGISCHE HOCHSCHULE KARLSRUHE (Germany), CEIPES – CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA PROMOZIONE DELL’EDUCAZIONE E LO SVILUPPO ASSOCIAZIONE (Italy), INERCIA – INERCIA DIGITAL SL (Spain), CETEM – ASOCIACION EMPRESARIAL DE INVESTIGACION MUEBLE Y LA TECHNOLOGICAL CENTER MADERA DE LA REGION DE MURCIA (Spain). 

On the 9th of July of 2021 the Kick Off Meeting of Geragogy ANd Young MEDia – GANYMED create innovative learning pathways through geragogy (science of education in old age), took place in an online video-call due to the COVID-19 emergency. 

The meeting was organised and managed in an excellent and productive way thank to the great organisation of the coordinator (KIT) of the project and the cooperation of all 4 partners from different European countries (Italy, Germany and Spain) with different backgrounds and expertise. 

GANYMED has as main goal to help older people in using technologies. Specially, to keep in touch with their loved ones.

On these days, of Mondial pandemic, unfortunately, one group of the population particularly affected by the Corona pandemic remains excluded from modern digital communication channels. In the specific, this target is the elderly people that are often not able to use the current media and communication channels. These circumstances have fatal consequences for the integration of this group into society, especially in times of enforced quarantine and social distancing. They continue to become lonely and lose contact to their relatives and society in general.

GANYMED project develops and evaluates educational systems, contents and structures to be provided to teachers to train older people in the fields of digital communication and media using the methods of geragogy.

The materials and didactic concepts created will be intended to enable teachers to convey the dynamic content and potential of digital media and communication in an age-appropriate manner on a well-founded basis, thus enabling the 70+ generation to participate in digitisation.

There are three fundamental aspects that the whole consortium will take into account during the development of the project:

• Digital tools and media are not adapted to the special needs of the elderly. 
• There are insufficient training programmes for very old people, which could introduce and enable them to use digital tools and media. 
• Teachers are not well enough trained in the didactic requirements for training very old people. 

To achieve the goals of the project, the consortium has defined the following Intellectual Outputs:  

IO1: Research report on geragogic requirements and needs.  

IO2: GANYMED Methodology – Training path, learning content structure and guidelines for teachers. 

IO3: GANYMED Community platform. 

IO4: GANYMED Learning Units und Curriculum. 

IO5: Webinars and pilots.

Regarding the meeting, it was held following a structured Agenda. Partners discussed different topics. In a first moment the partner PH, the expert of Geragogy, explained in a detailed way the topic, to make partners aware about the difficulties and problems of elderly people on using technologies in general fields, even in emergencies, such as calling loved ones, following the new payment procedures, customizing the mobile phone for their needs and etc.

In a second part, leaders of the IOs presented all the activities that the consortium of partners should undertake during the lifetime of the project. All the partners have shown great enthusiasm for their IOs’ Activities, and they are looking forward to starting all together.

In the last part of the meeting, the coordinator explained all the managerial and financial rules to conduct the project. In conclusion the leader of the Quality Assurance (CETEM) and Dissemination leader (CEIPES) gave an overview to the partners on how they will manage this task, also they gave the all directions to follow during the project implementation.

Partners will meet again for a quick online meeting to monitor the progress in September.

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