SILVER CODE: Coding in later life

The SILVER CODE project aims at improving the quality of life of elderly people in our digital world through developing knowledge and skills for fully taking an advantage of the digital technologies and making a step towards active aging. The project has developed an online training platform for developing ICT skills for elderly citizens with a special focus on learning the basics of coding.

SILVER CODE was created in order to achieve the following:

• Active ageing
• Improvement of personal skills
• Favoring active participation and better understanding of the digital world
• Promotion of non-formal and informal learning
• Improvedintergenerational learning and safer usage of ICT

 The project turned the focus from young and perspective developers to the elderly members of the society who want to remain active and are still curious. It offered opportunity to encourage, train and equip people with the knowledge, skills and attitude to make technologies work for them in joyful way and thus make them more confident, autonomous, and connected with the latest technological possibilities.

Year(s): 2016-2018

Target group(s): Elderly people; Elderly people acting as educators of other elderly people; Young people acting as “tutors” of elderly people

Website or other online channels: https://silvercode.aidlearn.pt/en/

Methodology

The main activities of the project included:

• Development of a training course for coding for elderly, delivered by professional lecturers (for theory and general supervision) and youngsters, possibly ICT students, expert on coding, acting as “tutors”(for the practical sessions).
• Creation of a “Silver Coding” community based on tools such as platform, forum, social network groups
• Peer-to-peer events where trained elderly people became trainers themselves of fellow elders, introducing them to the basics of coding

Type of product

Online resource Course / Training

Brief description of the outcomes

The SILVER CODE training course is available for free in 8 languages – English, Bulgarian, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Slovene. The course is structured into 6 modules, each one subdivided into learning units:

• Module 1: Basic digital skills– parts of a computer, letter in text editor, presentation in PowerPoint, web browsers, emailing, communication and social media tools, algorithms, logical block schemes, control structures, vector and matrix algorithms, subroutines or functions, strings
• Module 2: Basic web programming– HTML (building a simple web page), CSS (designing your web page), JavaScript (creating a web app)
• Module 3: Computational thinking & Transversal skills– introduction, decomposition, pattern recognition and abstraction, algorithm design
• Module 4: Basics of computer programming– programming languages, JavaScript (oriented programming), reading, writing, using and implementing simple JavaScript code
• Module 5: Coding everyday
• Module 6: Glossary– Key words and terms

Impact on target groups / Transferability potential

The SILVER CODE learning platform is a step towards active ageing. It helps elderly people improve their digital literacy through learning the basics of coding and spreading this knowledge further to fellow seniors. It is considered that through learning to code elderly people will experience the feeling of achievement and increase their life satisfaction.  

The project also fosters the intergenerational dialogue and the transfer the IT skills from youngster to elders, and backward to their grandchildren.

The website and Training materials are free to access and use.

Promoter of the initiative: Znanie Association

Country: Austria Bulgaria Italy Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia

Languages available: Bulgarian English Italian Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovene German

Website or other online channels: https://znanie-bg.org/