Learning Civic Attitudes through Intergenerational Cooperation with ICT Tools: Promising Practices from Local Communities

Abstract

The idea of this paper comes from community-based projects under the Erasmus+ programme which brought together immigrant young people and unrelated older adults for ICT courses. In this chapter, we first describe ways in which educational activities using information and communication technologies (ICT) in out-of-school local communities can promote civic attitudes, prevent radicalization and extremism, and have the potential to help assimilate immigrants into the local environment. Second, we present how ICT-based learning influences a common understanding, communication, a willingness to help each other, and the sharing of mutual concerns and passions. We claim that ICT within intergenerational learning can be perceived as a sociocultural construct and that it can facilitate mutual interactions and promote the building of subjectivity, self-determination, and an awareness of social and cultural potential. Activities that support ICT within intergenerational relations can provide opportunities for preventing destructive behaviours, accepting the binding patterns of civic activities, and developing lasting and far-reaching learning experiences. ICT-based intergenerational learning further helps participants build their status as citizens based on trust and cooperation.