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Get Online Week 2012 in Serbia

Already a partner in 2010 and 2011, the International Aid Network (IAN) was again the Serbian national partner for Get Online Week 2012. Through a wide national call for support and participation in the campaign more than 70 schools, libraries, professional associations and civil society organizations were mobilized for joining the campaign. A series of creative workshops, educative lectures and “open classes” promoting e-skills were organized throughout the country in more than 30 towns and villages.

The true heroes of the Get Online Week 2012 in Serbia were schools. Both primary and secondary schools have opened their doors – or more precisely their digital cabinets – wide for all local community members who wished to make their first steps towards becoming digital citizens during this week.

» view the GOW2012 pictures from Serbia

Already a partner in 2010 and 2011, the International Aid Network (IAN) was again the Serbian national partner for Get Online Week 2012. Each new Get Online Week campaign brings more and more citizens of Serbia online: this year more than 10.562 people clicked on the counter. This was a huge success for Serbia, as it has put the country on the 5th place among 50 participating countries.

Through a wide national call for support and participation in the campaign more than 70 schools, libraries, professional associations and civil society organizations were mobilized for joining the campaign. A series of creative workshops, educative lectures and “open classes” promoting e-skills were organized throughout the country in more than 30 towns and villages.

The true heroes of the Get Online Week 2012 in Serbia were schools. Both primary and secondary schools have opened their doors – or more precisely their digital cabinets – wide for all local community members who wished to make their first steps towards becoming digital citizens during this week. Through public IT classes for grandparents, special lessons for women to encourage their greater use of ICT, fun IT classes for the most disadvantaged young community members – Roma children, and other various other creative activities performed by school children and their teachers, a number of people from both the capital city and the small villages in remote areas of the country got online for the first time. Within the Get Online Week most schools had classes devoted to children internet safety using the web site www.pametanklik.rs as one of the good guidance resources for kids and their parents.

» In the primary school “Djura Jaksic” situated in the northern provincial town of Kikinda, school children brought their grandparents to school for to an IT class. Grannies and grandpas were happy to join their grandchildren in the computer classrooms and they filled it with a positive intergenerational learning atmosphere where most of them made the first steps towards e-inclusion.
» In a small mining town in the south of Serbia, Aleksinac, school children of the 3rd grade in the primary school “Ljupce Nikolic” organized an IT class where they helped their younger friends from the 1st grade to start a journey through a vast universe of web and together joined the campaign.
» The Sixth Belgrade High School organized public IT classes for the members of their local community, facilitating their first encounter with computers and the helping them acquire basic e-skills. This granny is learning how to find her favorite evergreen music on You Tube!
» Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre organized a special IT tournament for Roma children teaching them about the kids internet safety using the Wild Web Woods game created by the Council of Europe.

Other activities included IT education for teachers, basic skills as well as advanced trainings for the more experienced ones on how to use IT technology in teaching. Libraries supported the campaign through promoting it among their members, especially among the senior citizens, through the 65+ program currently running in some of the libraries which provides e-skills courses for elderly.
The counter has been embedded on the web sites of numerous stakeholders, including schools, national and public libraries as well associations of IT professionals and school teachers, thus enabling wide promotion of the Get Online Week and encouraging people to join the campaign.

Skillage has been localized and strongly promoted among youth primarily. More than 400 Skillage tests have been completed. The statistical results obtained on this initial sample will be used further for advocacy and promotion activities putting the emphasis on the importance of e-skills for youth employment.

Promotion of ECDL
IAN Telecentar also organized free ECDL testing for acquiring a European Computer Driving License. In total 25 people passed 97 exams and 17 of them received also a free ECDL index thanks to the support of the national ECDL association.

Media coverage
The campaign attracted great media interest and coverage,especially through the electronic media. Articles about the Get Online Week were published on 42 different web sites, IAN staff were guests in live TV and radio programs talking about the campaign, including the national TV Avala as well as in one of the most popular radio programs related to digital technologies called Digital icons broadcast on the national Radio Belgrade 2.

“I`m glad that our country has taken part in this campaign for promoting digital literacy and I expect that many digitally excluded citizens will participate and start using ICT through the campaign activities, realizing the necessity of digital literacy for all aspects in our life. In this way we will raise the level of digital literacy in our country. I wish all the best to the participants of the Get Online Week 2012!” – said Ljiljana J.

“How can schools keep the pace with the pupils and offer them relevant education? I believe that exactly with actions such as this one we can “keep pace” and free ourselves from certain prejudice. I salute the campaign and I am glad that I am participating in it.” – wrote Radmila TJ

» Download the complete report of Get Online Week 2012 in Serbia