All Digital Week - Lithuania

All Digital Week is one of the key EU-wide awareness-raising campaigns on digital skills that engages the citizens of 36 countries in Europe through various national activities taking place in participating countries. In Lithuania, the campaign over the last 3 years or so has been organised under the flag of the 'Connected Lithuania' project, an initiative whose goal is to raise the skills and competences of everyone in Lithuania. The All Digital Week usually takes place in the last week of March each year, with the aim of introducing people to ICT opportunities, their potential, and the importance of digital competence in all sectors. 

Digital Week events take place in 36 countries in many locations: Digital Competence Centres, libraries, schools, community centres and others, bringing together a large team of partners since the start of the campaign in 2010. Each year, All Digital Week gets more than 100.000 participants together. In Lithuania, a big focus of All Digital Week is on good practices in digital skills in education that can be used and replicated by schools, institutions, libraries, teachers and educators, to support their individual activities. 

Why do we need a digital week in Europe?

According to the Digital Economy and Society Indicators (DESI) report, the survey results on fake news and disinformation online, the survey results on the impact of digitalisation and automation on everyday life, digital skills may be the way forward, but Europe still has quite a bit to go. Close to half of EU citizens (43%) do not have sufficient digital skills - and therefore may miss out on growing employment opportunities. Another 35% of people in the EU lack even basic digital skills - and 13% of Europeans are still not using the Internet. 

A growing number of EU citizens (29%) are sceptical in their ability to recognise disinformation. And concerns about automation also run high, with 72% of Europeans worried that a robot may replace their livelihood. 

The Lithuanian experience: zooming on results

As a general rule, the topics of the Digital Week campaign revolve around several competence areas all linked to digital skills: media literacy, the development of critical thinking, digital literacy, safe online behaviours, and promoting digital skills for digital jobs.  

In Lithuania, the Digital Weeks 2019 - 2021 were organised under the framework of the national ‘Connected Lithuania’ project. So how did the campaigns take place over these 3 years and what was the engagement? 

Results from 2019 and 2020 - the move to the digital sphere

In 2019, 527 libraries (central libraries and their branches) organised activities and 9928 visitors took part. The 2020 national lockdown meant that events previously taking place in libraries were transferred to the digital realm. Importantly, this also brought the advantage that the live discussions could be followed by a much more diverse audience from all around Lithuania. Almost 9.000 people participated in the online activities of 'Digital Week 2020 in Lithuania': more than 3.000 watched video seminars and lectures, more than 5.000 took part in interactive discussions via the project's website. The discussion on critical thinking when faced with information online alone attracted more than 600 viewers. Almost 200 public libraries from all over Lithuania and their branches also joined the activities remotely. 

Digital Week in Lithuania 2021 - record number of participants 

The 2021 edition of the Digital Week in Lithuania was launched by the association "Langas į ateitį" at the project conference of "#PrisijungusiLietuva. Connected Lithuania" in cooperation with the Committee on Culture of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. The aim of this Digital Week's edition was to analyse the ability of the Lithuanian population to meet the demands of the changing labour market and face the challenges of the digital age. 

One discussion on the topic of the various opportunities for digital skills development in Lithuania brought together 7.7735 participants. During the discussion, members of the 'Connected Lithuania' project presented the project's background, context and insights from people who have already taken part. The project "Prisijungusi Lietuva" also launched invitations to watch 5 daily video broadcasts, gathering a record number of viewers in Lithuania - 20.500. 

Digital skills resources for teachers and educators in Lithuania

The following materials may be of interest to teachers, schools, school administrators, VET teachers and trainers and educators in general. They can also help to organise an activity under the framework of the Digital Week in Lithuania. The resources listed below include good practices in increasing learners' digital skills as well in integrating digital technologies in teaching and learning. Materials include: video recordings from lessons, discussions, self-assessment tests, and materials adapted from previous educational activities. 

Some useful digital skills resources from Digital Week 2021 in Lithuania include: 

• "Comments on the internet: share opinions ethically” - a practical task, intended for a wide audience, where participants are invited to learn about online conduct, or how to express their views in online comments.
• ‘My profile — my space’ - a practical exercise for 15-18 year olds, in which participants have to analyse the situations presented and perform certain actions using their Facebook account to test their critical thinking skills. 
• “Unreliable offers” - a practical task aimed at a larger demographic audience (20 to 50 year-olds), in which participants explore fake news and disinformation on social media and online platforms.
• "Fact or myth?” - a practical task aimed at older audiences (people aged 50 to 80), which draws attention to the variety and differences between various sources of information. Another focus of this task is the analysis of video material, including video blogs and recordings.
• The "Digital World" - a quiz for adolescents aged 12+ via the Kahoot application, that aims to offer useful facts and relevant information about the changing nature of the internet and new digital technologies. 
• “Me and the internet” - a brain battle, or game for participants of all ages to encourage the development of creative thinking and improve digital literacy levels. is a game for participants of all ages aimed at encouraging participants’ creative thinking and enhancing their digital literacy.
• “Advertising critic” - a game-discussion targeting those above the age of 12, as well as adults. The game tries to get learners to reflect on what it means to think critically about advertisements regularly seen on the Internet, and teachers them to look at titles and hidden advertisements in their day-to-day life and especially shopping. 
• “How to distinguish fake news” - a lecture for young people from the age of 12 and adults, that focuses on texts visible online. d will encourage participants to think critically by assessing texts that are visible online. A combination of lnectures and debates will help everyone take up relevant information in a creative and realistic way.