<< Background >>Our capacity to access, have a critical understanding of and interact with media has never been as important as it is today. According to the Flash Eurobarometer (2018), 85% of europeans think that disinformation is a problem in their country and 83% consider that it is a problem for democracy. Most europeans trust the information they receive through traditional media like radio, TV or newspapers, but only 47% trust online newspapers. In order to fight disinformation it is essential to train citizens to be critical so they can analyse and verify the information they receive. The EU Commission released a joint communication in 2020 warning about the increase of disinformation during COVID-19, and that this can have grave consequences for our societies and democratic institutions. It highlights that this “can directly endanger lives and severely undermine efforts to contain the pandemic” as disinformation spreads “Conspiracy theories that may endanger human health, harm the cohesion of our societies and may lead to public violence and create social unrest” as well as “Illegal hate speech”, “Consumer fraud” and “Cybercrime”. Over 50% of Europeans believe they have been exposed to disinformation online, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey (March, 2021)Given its cross-border dimension, the adverse effects of disinformation in the EUI require a coordinated and long-term approach to respond to the challenge at both EU and national level. It is also necessary to highlight the importance of adult education as a means to counteract disinformation through media literacy. Media literacy has been defined by the EU Commission as the capacity to communicate in all media and access, analyse and evaluate the images and words, which constitute a very important part of our information society.As more daily tasks are carried out online, from applying for a job to paying taxes or booking tickets, using the Internet has become an integral part of daily life. The report ICT for Work: Digital Skills in the Workplace (2016) shows that digital technologies are used in all types of jobs, also in economic sectors not traditionally related to digitisation like farming, health care, vocational training and construction. Between 2011 and 2016, the use of ICT increased in more than 90% of workplaces and in 2016 a 93% of European workplaces used desktop computers and 94% used broadband technology to access the Internet.However, according to the Eurostat (2018) an 11% of Europeans have never used the Internet and a 6.72% of Europeans have no information skills (2017). Information and data literacy is one of the key components of digital competence and is defined in the European Digital Competence Framework (2018) as the capacity “to analyse, compare and critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources of data, information and digital content.” The 2021-2027 EU Digital Education Action plan stresses the need for a quality, inslusive and accessible digital education. The group of Europeans with no information skills is made up mostly of people aged 65-74 years old, people on low incomes, the unemployed and the less educated. This is an important need to be addressed at a European level, given that digital competence and media literacy have never been as important as nowadays and their lack contributes to the exclusion or partial exclusion of these people from society. These groups are also the most vulnerable in front of disinformation and, therefore, they will be the target group of our project. Since digitization is on the rise in the labor market and there is a need to tackle disinformation across Europe, this inequality is a challenge that needs to be addressed and adult education has an important role to play. In order to give a practical answer to this problem, disinfoEND aims to develop the digital and media capacities of vulnerable adults, with a special focus on adults aged +55, unemployed and low-educated.<< Objectives >>Therefore, the disinfoEND project will:1. Strengthen social inclusion and active digital participation in society of vulnerable groups, especially adults with low levels of education, unemployed and aged +55, with the implementation of he Dilalogic Media and Digital Literacy Gatherings in different contexts: 3 different countries (Spain, Italy and Romania).2. Transfer the Dilalogic Media and Digital Literacy methodology to tackling disinformation in adult education with an intercultural and intergenerational approach, in diverse topics such as health, migration, ethnic minorities, gender violence, etc. (PR1)3. Offer an innovative Toolkit (PR1) co-created with vulnerable adults that supports inclusive and participative ICT and Media Literacy training through the implementation of SEAs with a participatory, sustainable and dialogic approach. 4. Promotion of common EU values and critical civic engagement and participation, by developing social and intercultural competences, critical thinking and media literacy of vulnerable adults. 5. Training of adult education professionals and volunteers on how to combat disinformation in their ICT courses and/or courses in other areas of knowledge, using the DMDL methodology. PR2 will develop staff competences that lead to overall improvements in provision, targeting and effectiveness of adult education in the field of media literacy, with an innovative and evidence-based methodology.6. Increase the quality educational offer in the digital field oriented to digitally excluded groups.<< Implementation >>PROJECT RESULT 1: disinfoEND Toolkit on how to implement Dialogic Media Literacy Gatherings to counteract disinformation in adult educationA Toolkit for educators on how to counteract disinformation in adult education. The toolkit will consist of 2 deliverables (A curriculum and a methodology) and a testing phase (pilot course)1. disinfoEND Methodology: We will Transfer the Dialogic Media and Digital Literacy (DIMELI, e-Quality) Methodology on how to use Dialogic Media Literacy Gatherings (DMLG), to learn how to think critically and have the ICT and ML competencies needed to specifically counteract disinformation (on topics like health, migrants, culture, ethnic minorities, gender violence, etc.). 2. disinfoEND Curriculum: With the specific content DML programme needed to tackle disinformation in adult education, in topics like Health, Migration and ethnic minorities, Gender Violence and others that the adults participating in the pilot course choose. It will also include concrete activities with usable materials for implementation and evaluation of the curriculum and methodology3. disinfoEND Pilot course: A testing phase with a pilot course to develop participants’ critical thinking will be implemented in 3 countries (Romania, Spain, Italy). It will have a duration of 64 hours in 4 months.PROJECT RESULT 2: disinfoEND MOOC course for educators on how to implement Dialogic Media Literacy Gatherings to counteract disinformation in adult education.The objective is to train educators and adult education volunteers on an innovative methodology to teach ICT and ML competences while promoting critical thinking, in order to tackle disinformation. The DML methodology in which they will be trained will be both evidence-based and co-created with vulnerable adults; to which DML the courses these professionals implement will be targeted. The course will have a total duration of 20 hours and participants will have 1 month to complete it (Dedication of 5h x week). It will be implemented in 3 countries (Romania, Spain, Italy).The materials of the MOOC course (video lessons, questionnaires with answer key, interactive activities) will remain available on the project’s website, for them to be freely used beyond the project’s life. They will be available in all the languages of the consortium (Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, German and Romanian) and English. The platform used will be Coeus, Moodle Learning Management System or Wordpress.NATIONAL MULTIPLIER EVENTS AND FINAL CONFERENCENational MEs will be held in all participant countries (Spain, Italy, Romania) and Final Transnational Conference will be held in Belgium, in order to let people know about the project and its results and multiply its impact both at national and EU level.<< Results >>1. Digitally empowered vulnerable adults by providing a quality training on digital and media literacy, which is going to increase the level of digital and media competence among the target group, and as a result is going to permit the target group to increase the level of inclusion and participation in society.2. Acquisition of new skills by vulnerable adults; to identify disinformation and analyse critically all the information they receive, which will in turn contribute to better informed citizens, who will have the resources needed to critically analyse information and to contrast it with diverse, reliable sources.3. Promotion of EU common values, such as human rights, freedom and equality, as well as other related topics like the right to be informed about the scientific evidences in health, education, gender violence, etc. and combatting prejudices against migration, ethning minorities, among others. 4. Transferring two Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) Interactive Groups and Dialogic Gatherings to Media Literacy in order to tackle disinformation among vulnerable adults, with an inclusive, democratic and evidence-based approach. The project will adopt an educational model based on the democratization of training activities and focused on providing participants digital fluency. This is going to generate dynamics of cooperation and collaboration between people at risk of social exclusion, members of the participating organizations, and other organizations outside the consortium. The results will also be disseminated in other educational levels asides from adult education.5. Better trained professionals and volunteers in adult education organisations. Professionals and volunteers from the partner organizations will be trained in PR1 and, in PR2, educators and volunteers from other organizations will be trained as well. They will be trained on how to implement DMLGs to tackle disinformation addressed to vulnerable adults aged +55, unemployed and with a low level of education, with a democratic approach based on dialogic learning and the SEAs Interactive Groups (IGs) and Dialogic Gatherings (DGs). Therefore, they will be trained in an innovative teaching method, as well as on how to better motivate, guide and advise vulnerable adults in the learning process in order to surpass the digital breach (both in their personal lives and in competencies needed for work, especially after COVID-19, as there is a growing tendency of virtual and remote work). After the course, they will also be able to apply this approach in other fields aside from ICT or Media Literacy courses (Social Sciences, literacy programmes, science literacy, etc.). This MOOC course will also be open to other professionals and volunteers working in other fields, for example in the youth training/education sector or secondary education, to create synergies and amplify the impact to other sectors.6. Co-created tools and resources for ICT and Media Literacy training, focused on how to create a collective understanding of information and to contrast information in order to tackle disinformation. A Toolkit (with a methodology, curriculum and concrete activities) to implement DMLGs with a democratic approach and based on dialogic learning, IGs and DGs will be made (PR1), both tested in a pilot course and improved and co-created with the participation of women from the disinfoEND project. These resources will be available with a Creative Commons license free for download on the project’s website and they will also be uploaded to the Erasmus+ results platform. These tools will be transferable to other fiends of education.