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people in risk of exclusion (including digital exclusion) bypassed the need for competing for public
funds for lacking equipment and reached out to the private sector to get support of companies that
are willing to upgrade their equipment while donating used one, but still perfectly adequate for

educational purposes IT equipment to adult education institutions and served by them individuals.
Moreover, thousands of volunteers, especially students, have been engaged to support educational
organisations not only in providing digital skills and support to keeping up with digital transition
among learners, but also to support educators in understanding modern digital tools and how can
they use them to make their learning more digital, modern and engaging.

Why is relevant for adult educators and adult education centers?

Why this case study is a success / best practice?

This case shows how educators struggling with access to basic tools can effectively overcome their
barriers by engaging their community and increase their relevance and ties to the local community
in the process. The case of community support to digital transformation within the adult education
sector has been proven a successful model not only by individual organisations. It also has been a

base for nation wide program for improving digital literacy of Portuguese within the Portugal Digital
2
governmental scheme
5.6 SPAIN

Think about the learner and offer interactions 33

Despite increased level of digitalisation in education, Spain still remains hesitant regarding the use
of digital technologies for delivery of many learning opportunities. As a big country with many
people living away from main urban centres, you could expect that the population will be more than
happy to welcome move toward the digital learning. But Spain has much more ‘touch-oriented
culture’ than most of European countries. Lack of direct contact with instructors makes people feel
insecure; both educators which struggle to provide support according to the psychological and

pedagogical characteristics of the student that they recognise online more as a ‘digital ghost’ than
a 3-dimensional individual, as well as learners that lack the human face-to-face support, which is
especially challenging for less qualified learners. Spanish educators admit that while they integrate
digital solutions, moving fully toward online teaching does not seem to be responsive to their
learners needs. From the Spanish perspective, people engage in adult education for development
opportunities often as much as for meeting other like-minded individuals, sharing their interests,
values, problems. The process of exchanging knowledge and information among learners is a big
part of the learning process. Therefore, even with most contents available online educators often
offer most of the learning activities in the form of rather informal face-to-face learning activities.
More it has been suggested that the less skilled participants the more the face-to-face learning

2 https://www.dgert.gov.pt/medida-de-inclusao-digital-de-1-milhao-de-adultos