What results the Information Matters Conference in Sofia shows

The closing conference for the Information Matters project took place on October 15, 2024 in Hall 1 of Toplocentala in Sofia, attended by over 150 guests. The IM project is dedicated to enhancing media and digital literacy in people over 55. Five partner organisations from four European countries have developed training materials for adults, a programme for trainers and pilot training with adults.

Spaska Tarandova from Global Libraries Foundation – Bulgaria, the coordinating organisation of the project “Information Matters” with partner in Bulgaria PR Care Agency said: “The project aims to improve the media and digital literacy of people over 55 so they can cope with the infodemic. This age group is from the analogue generation, so we needed to develop sensitivity in adults about which messages are fake news and misinformation, as well as skills to use the online space responsibly and safely.”

Pilot training has been conducted in Bulgaria, Austria and Romania, training 170 adult media and digital literacy trainers, who in turn have trained over 400 people over the age of 55. 

Semih Solmaz from EAVI, an organisation from Belgium that developed the concept of the training programmes, drew attention to the importance of media literacy. “We live in a complex digitized environment where the easiest way for many activities to be done is online. It is no coincidence that the UN Summit has set a target of developing a media literacy curriculum in all countries by 2030. In this regard, projects like Information Matters are very useful because older people are adapting to the digital environment and becoming socially engaged.”

Trainers from Bulgaria – Kristina Vladimirova, Lubomira Parijkova, Mima Kontaki and Silvia Tsvetkova-Gadzhalova shared their experience in training older people in media and digital literacy under the project. They stressed that the main motivation of the participants in the training was to become equals with their children and grandchildren in a digital environment and to be able to solve their problems. The training emphasized the practical side, such as protecting email, creating strong passwords, and internet banking safety rules.

Lifelong learning was addressed by Silviu Petrariu from Romania, who has been involved in non-formal adult education at CREFOP Fondation for eight years. “In our Vocational Education and Training Centre for young and older people, we treat children as adults and predispose adults to relax, feel like children and learn practical knowledge through play,” said Silviu Petrariu.

Helmut Kronika from the Austrian BEST Institut spoke about empowerment and self-directed learning. “We work with people of working age under 65 at a critical time in their lives when they have had to leave their long-time job. We give them a set of tools to help themselves, to make decisions about what is good for them, to realise their strengths and to gain self-confidence and belief in their skills.”

Ana Lazarova – founder of Digital Republic – explained to the audience what Creative Commons licenses are, regulating the copyright status of works.

Gergana Hrischeva, a health journalist at the Bulgarian National Radio, was adamant that reliable health information in digital media and social networks is almost impossible to find. “Credible, scientifically based and verified health information should only be looked at on the websites of institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the National Health Insurance Fund, the National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, the National Centre for Public Health and Analysis, etc.”

In her workshop, Justine Thomas focused on identifying fake news and Semih Solmaz presented EAVI’s media literacy training materials.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Agreement number: 2022-1-BG01-KA220-ADU-000085514

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