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Digital Citizen 2.0 - continuation of collaboration

Continuation and further development of digital competence in the local community in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo!

February  19th, 2020.

Croatian version is here.

On Wednesday, February 19th on the press conference in Zagreb Digital Citizen 2.0 was presented, a continuation and further development of IRIMs project with the aim of further developing digital competence in the local communities in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

The project is under financial grant from Google of 400 thousand USD and is continuation on last years project about which you can read more here.

The project Digital Citizen 2.0 is an extension of the Digital Citizen project that IRIM has implemented during the 2018/2019. school year with Google’s financial support.

As part of the Digital Citizen project, IRIM and its local partners have already, in collaboration with local partners, equipped more than 170 libraries in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo with educational technology (micro:bit, BOSON experimental sets for micro:bit and 3D printers).

During the project IRIM has organised 83 workshops and trained 368 librarians preparing them for their work with citizens. The project surpassed the expected results with 1,512 free workshops organized in local libraries and participation of 13,105 citizens.

With the planned goal reached – participants were introduced to the new dimension of the library, they used their creativity and developed small projects.

The project Digital Citizen 2.0 aims at transforming public libraries into digital centers for innovation and development of digital skills and knowledge for children and adults in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

In addition, thanks to Digital Citizen 2.0 project IRIM will provide continuous support to the libraries to continue with their activities by organizing educational workshops for librarians, develop new educational materials, increase the number of libraries involved in the project and launch creative challenges to motivate users to use the equipment.

Also, IRIM will broaden the possibilities of libraries by donating new equipment, developing educational materials and curriculums, and establish digital makerspaces in a small number of libraries.

Liza Belozerova from Google.org stated:

“Google.org supports the programs that put technology to address societal challenges. Developing digital skills is one of the most important areas of Google, so we are proud of our coopetition with IRIM and will continue to support their programs aimed at removing barriers to digital skills training and effectively navigate increasingly digital world”

Nenad Bakić, president and founder of IRIM said:

 “We are very happy and proud of the results achieved in the Digital Citizen project, and thankful to Google for their support. Citizens have, regardless of their age, shown high interest in new digital content offered in their libraries which have become the focal point of communities for learning and culture. Often, especially in smaller communities, they have a problem accessing new technologies and continuing their learning process. Making technology more accessible will have a positive impact on their creativity, learning behavior, career choices and will contribute to further development of digital competence.”

Josko Mrndze, Country Manager Adriatics from Google said:

“Google believes technology should play a helpful role in people’s lives, improving them. We’re constantly inspired by the ways people use technology to pursue knowledge, explore their passions and the world around them, or simply make their everyday a little easier in seizing technology opportunities around us.”

Here are few photos from event: