In the summer of 2011 Watershed hosted two digital literacy workshops for learners aged over fifty who had little or no experience of working with digital media. The workshops were part of the Grundtvig learners programme, and were designed to ensure participants developed skills and increased their confidence with new technologies. Participants were also encouraged to share personal memories and experiences throughout the workshops, using technology to inspire a dialogue across different European countries.

The first workshop was the Memories and Mediascapes workshop, which took place at Watershed over five days in May 2011. The workshop invited participants to explore their relationship with water through a series of hands-on activities. Using Calvium’s PIRL (Played in Real Life) platform, participants were shown how to create mobile applications that connect digital content to physical locations.

The second workshop was the Digital Storytelling: Love workshop, which took place at Watershed in June 2011 over the course of five days. The workshop invited participants to use their personal archive material (such as photographs) to create a short digital story dealing with their love for a person, a place or a time.

The 2011 workshops followed 2010's successful week long digital storytelling workshop 18 Summers, where participants from across Europe travelled to Bristol to share their stories of the summers they turned 18.

The third workshop took place in April 2013, and was themed around food. Digital Dishes brought thirteen over-fities from across Europe to cook together, tell stories and learn new creative skills. They worked with Barney and Lucy Heywood of Stand + Stare to create stories for the Theatre Jukebox.

Grundtvig is a European programme supporting education and training across Europe. Their Lifelong Learning scheme funds training opportunities for adult education organisations, staff and learners.

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Grundtvig

Both workshops were funded with support from the European Commission under the Grundtvig Lifelong Learning programme. This publication [communication] reflects the views of the author, and the commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Ended in April 2013

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