Lord Mayor attends GrandExpertS event in DCU, aimed at helping older people to upskill through online learning

The new Lord Mayor of Dublin, Paul McAuliffe, spoke today of the importance of lifelong learning and access to education for older people, at the GrandExpertS event on DCU’s All Hallows campus.

GrandExpertS helps to empower older adults with specific knowledge and experience to develop digital learning content by themselves This is multimedia-enriched content in which they have been mentored by experts and trainers in adult education. The event today provided an opportunity for students to present their online modules, to outline their engagement in this project and what they have learned.

The Lord Mayor said: 

“I was very impressed by the idea of GrandExpertsS, bringing together the knowledge and expertise that’s already there, in a way that’s meaningful and useful for the citizens of Dublin and societies around Europe.

And even the building we’re in this morning [The John Hand Library in All Hallows] echoes all the themes [of GrandExpertS], a building that was here as an institution but has now been repurposed and continues to give.

Today I know we’re going to hear from a number of people who have embraced the challenge of technology, in order to share their expertise with others.  We know that technology is a key part of every element of our lives. This project values both the wisdom and the expertise and more importantly willingness of people to contribute.”

The project in Dublin City University was lead by Dr Trudy Corrigan, Dr Cathy Fowley and Carmel Conroy and was developed between 2017-2019 as part of  the Further Education Training Research Centre (FETRC) in association with the School of Policy and Practice, Institute of Education. It is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme.

Dr Corrigan said:

“The overall aim of the project is to facilitate opportunities for older people living in Europe to develop their expertise  to design and develop an online e-learning module which can be accessed and used by other older people. This is an important initiative to develop lifelong learning opportunities for  Europe’s aging population. 

This is becoming an increasingly high profile issue across a variety of disciplines namely education, art, social, cultural, health and even neuroscience as we work to promote healthy and active ageing.”

The lead partner on GrandExpertS is ILI, the Innovation in Learning Institute at Friedrich- Alexander- Universitat Erlangen in Nuremberg.  It was run across five countries, Bulgaria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland.

All the European partners were in attendance at today’s event. 

http://grandexperts-project.odl.org/

Photo caption: (L-R) Dr. Anne Looney, Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe and Dr. Trudy Corrigan outside Drumcondra House at DCU's All Hallows Campus