On-going software and technical skills – learning by trial and error

As we have seen from the earlier discussion, many of the participants in this age range have learnt digital technology through the lack of availability of correct courses for their needs, as in the case of Carol. However, there appears to be another consequence from this re-education and a previous knowledge on computers, and that is the ability and willingness to learn by trial and error. Once they have learnt the basics of digital technology through re-education, participants expressed that is was much easier and a natural step to move towards a trial-and-error approach to learning. Christine expressed, “I think as you develop knowledge you find it easier. I find it interesting I really think it’s fun. It’s fun to stretch your boundaries”. Jane

believes that her previous experience working as a schoolteacher with computers and young children helped to overcome her anxieties about digital technology.

Jane +65: I think I’m reasonably literate on that sort of thing. I’ve taught myself the Apple [Macintosh computer] and scanning stuff. I had to find how to do it through trial and error. I think one of the things about being a primary schoolteacher teaching IT [is that once] you see the kids […] press every key together and they are all crashing and they all recover, you lose your inhibitions about making mistakes with the computer.

In Peter’s case, the courses and classes incentivised him to go and learn the software that could help him achieve his creative fulfilment.

Peter +65: I did go to many classes to learn many things, but in the way of making videos I had to learn it through the help files that were offered in the software so that was quite difficult. […] On shelves behind me you will see dozens and dozens of videos on Photoshop techniques. So I’ve learnt everything myself either through help files in the programs or by reading and [watching] videos.

Carol found that learning on one’s own was very time-consuming and absorbing. She found it also interfered with other non-digital activities.

Carol +65: Trying to find it out yourself takes hours and hours sometimes. I mean sometimes I can go in and sit on the computer in the morning and I come down at 7.00 at night. And there’s too much to do, I’ve got too many other things to do.

Susanne expressed a less complimentary view of learning technology, “It’s very nice to have the skills but it’s very boring learning them”. She felt that all digital learning and software tends to be a solitary act.

Susanne +65: Learning about Photoshop and computer matters in general is something I think you have to basically do by yourself […] because you can’t really teach that in the group.

It must be noted that many of the members of this age range learnt technology as an unintended consequence of a hobby or an interest that they pursued in retirement. As a result, using digital technology is a means to an end and, therefore, a ‘tool of the trade’.

Jane +65: I’m fairly comfortable with [the skills that] I’ve got. I feel I’m under using the Apple [Macintosh] at the moment but on the other hand that’s just a tool for me. It’s not my raison d'etre. It’s not what I’m about. It’s about all the other physical things and this is just a means and a nice one.

Indeed, Jane’s comments characterise several participants’ views that the technologies they use as tools help them to achieve a desired outcome for their interest or hobby.

5.2.10 +65 Re-education summary

All the participants in this age range of content-creating retirees have engaged in some form of post-retirement education. Over half of the sample had learnt to use computers in their place of work, which lessened the need for entry-level computer education on retirement. Consequently, they found it easier to pursue a higher level of digital knowledge and skills. The other participants used education to introduce and help them to reach a level of computer and digital understanding, sometimes as a result of their interests, which enabled them to pursue their chosen or current retirement hobbies.

It must be noted also that, for the over 65s, acquiring skills to use digital technologies are often unintentional or as a consequence of adopting a new hobby or interest in retirement or the rediscovery of an old one. Learning to use computers and digital technologies has been a gradual and necessary requirement for them to pursue their hobbies and, in many cases something, as in the case of Sheila, which they “just fell into” or, like Mary, was a natural progression. In some cases this may have originated as a non-digital hobby but through the gradual adoption of technologies within these practices has become part of the process of engagement in the hobby.

Knowledge and understanding of technology varies greatly in the over-65s and is multi-faceted, as with all age ranges. However, what can be drawn from the participants in this study is that after intital introduction to software or online platforms several have developed high level digital skills through the adoption of trial and error learning. By making mistakes and learning from them they developed greater knowledge and understanding, which has lead to a higher level of digital literacy. This is a literacy that has shown both the early stages of a technical mastery of software an ability to research, identify and develop personal creativity. A participant such as Iris, whose perseverance to learnt Photoshop gave her the skills to experiment on her own, has used software to advance her creative skills. In this sense technology has been an enabler to suppressed behaviours.

All participants have shown to be intrinsically motivated to learn through their desire to create and share content, where learning and skill are sought for personal pleasure. This is commensurate with Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of motivational “flow” (1990) and Amabile’s concept of creative production. Carol described how she lost track of time so intently when she was involved in creating work on Photoshop. What the participants have revealed about adopting and learning digital technology and re-education in retirement has been fourfold.

1. Participants were self-initiated in their uptake of post-retirement education. This enabled them to acquire skills necessary to rediscover and explore interests they were unable to partake earlier in life. This may have been due to constraints of working, family life or through being discouraged at an early age by family members or institutions.

2. For some, post-retirement education helped extend or transfer physical world interests they were already engaged in, such as painting or drawing, to a digital form.

3. For some, introduction to the digital domain was an unintended consequence of education and came via an interest in subjects, such as photography or astronomy, where introduction to digital technology or software was necessary for successful completion and progression.

4. For some, knowledge attained from formal education has led them to adopt ‘trial and error’ learning as a way to gain a higher proficiency of digital technology.

5.3 40–50 Introduction

The 40–50 age range could be described as the group of the ‘middle aged’. However, a recent study shows that opinion was changing on this issue. The Pearson-affiliated website Love to Learn, commissioned markettiers4DC to research older people’s attitudes to age and learning. They surveyed more than 1,000 UK adults aged 50+ and found that the perception of when ‘middle age’ begins had increased and now starts at 55 and ends at 69 (Pearson PLC, 2012). Previous studies identified middle age starting as early as 36 (BBC News, 2012). Therefore, ‘middle age’ in the context of this research refers to the middle age range of the three age ranges.

Many in this age range have had access to the internet for several years, having spent much of their earlier life using it in the workplace. Nonetheless, little empirical academic research has been conducted into how UK adults of this age use the web, let alone create and share digital content. A questionnaire-based quantative research paper of 550 individuals over the age of 40 in the US revealed:

middle-aged and older Web users are remarkably similar in (a) their amount of Web use, (b) their use patterns, (c) how they were taught to use the Web, (d) perceived Web problems encountered, and (e) perceived efficacy in using the Web (Morrell et al., 2000).

This statement must be viewed with caution due the proliferation of use and uptake of digital technology and the web during the years since 2000 and, additionally, a wider access to computers both in the workplace and at home. The paper went on to state that results from the questionnaire disclosed “[m]iddle-aged adults, however, perceived themselves as being more knowledgeable, efficacious, interested, and willing to learn more about the Web than older adults” (ibid.).

A report by Social Media Today stated that, by and large, women are more active and have more online friends when using social media than men (Singer, 2011). On average, in 2011, women aged between 40 and 50 in the major European countries (the EU5 – UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy) spent around five hours per month

acute when looking at women aged 45-54 who “spend more than twice as much time on social networks as their male counterparts (5.5 verses 2.7 hours a month), pointing to a digital divide opening up – not between the young and old in general, but with men aged 45+ increasingly being left behind” (ibid.).

The rise of one-parent families and single-occupancy dwellings within in the UK (Government Office for Science, 2009) over the last few decades has directed adults towards seeking new ways of meeting potential partners and forming new intimate relationships. There is evidence that sections of this age range are prolific users of online dating websites (Hogan et al., 2011; Goehner, 2010). International research conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute found that 36 per cent of those interviewed aged between 40 and 69 found their current partner online. This contradicts the notion that social networking and online dating is primarily for the young. The proportion of 18 to 40-year-olds, who had started a relationship through the internet, was significantly smaller at 23 per cent (Hogan et al., 2011).

5.3.1 40–50 Participant overview

All of the 40–50 participants had been using the internet for between 10 and 20 years. Introduction to the internet was generally a gradual process developed through the workplace with the use of email, followed by the web. A large majority of participants found learning the workings of digital and online technology in a domestic setting a fairly natural continuation of skills they had learnt in the workplace. ‘Trial and error’ has been adopted as a heuristic learning technique as they became familiar with digital technology and the workings of the internet. Of the 12 participants three started using the internet in the late 1980s, two in the early 1990s, two in the late 1990s and five in the early 2000s. Every participant was using the internet by 2001 (see Fig. 5.2).

As all the participants had been using the internet for over 10 years before this study began there was a familiarity with the medium. Consequently, they felt they had been able to follow the evolution of the internet and the web more easily. However, this familiarity has generated negative views towards the digital domain and UGC within some participants. In some cases it is regarded as being of unprofessional or inferior

proportion of their life through traditional media and broadcasting. One interviewee exemplified this by saying, “Everybody thinks that they can take a good photo”. There was an overwhelming feeling within the participants that they tended to upload too much content in the early days of their online sharing of content. Later, they wanted to be more selective about the content they shared as the novelty value of creating and sharing content thorough networks decreased. Of the 12 participants, three started creating and sharing digital content in the last few years, seven started in the mid-2000s, with two in the early 2000s. Two were creating content as early as late 1990s (see Fig. 5.2).

There was strong evidence of some anxiety and disappointment with the digital environment in several participants. In some cases, this manifested itself as an antipathy towards the immediacy and ease to which digital artefacts are made and distributed. While many accepted that the web allows people’s content to get noticed, shared, distributed and appreciated, some participants in this age range questioned the value of digital content. There was also an expression of negativity towards the ever-greater volumes of people creating content and the perceived competition this has brought. This has even led to some of the interviewees feeling anxious, insecure and ‘depressed’ at this realisation.

To many in this age range, creating digital content and the networked capabilities of sharing content has enabled them to see further than their traditional job titles. They now see themselves as having multi-faceted titles, which in some cases are different to their main profession or job. Most will have a job or role that they consider as primary but will sometimes include numerous other titles, such as artist, musician, video-maker, authors and webmasters as part of their life. This tends to be developed as their visual and/or audio web presence expands and diversifies.

Fig. 5.2 40–50 Participants’ Adoption of Internet and Content Creation & Sharing

The first graph shows that internet adoption was relatively early, indeed three participants were using the internet before the invention of the web. This is consistent with the premise that this age range used of digital technology over a longer period of time. The second graph shows that two thirds started to create and share content around the time, so called, Web 2.0 technologies and services emerged.