CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Published by
International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED)
www.iated.org
EDULEARN12 Proceedings
4th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
July 2nd-4th, 2012 — Barcelona, Spain
Edited by
L. Gómez Chova, I. Candel Torres, A. López Martínez
International Association of Technology, Education and Development
IATED
ISBN: 978-84-695-3491-5
Depósito Legal: V-1971-2012
Book cover designed by
J.L. Bernat
ELDERLY: FROM 0.0 TO WEB 2.0
C. Meiler-Rodríguez
1, D. Freire-Obregón
2, E. Rubio-Royo
3 1Ayuntamiento de la Villa de Ingenio (SPAIN)
2
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (SPAIN)
3Innovation Center for Information Society – C.I.C.E.I.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
Information technology and the Internet are becoming a necessary resource for the convenience and enjoyment of individuals. Web 2.0, the new and improved Web, has created a sophisticated user base with new online functionality and tools such as blogs, wiki’s, online social networking. As a result of Web 2.0, the Internet is changing from merely a place to get information or give information, to a place to access a whole set of interactive applications, online sharing and collaboration. Moreover, the population of elderly people and the use of computers and the Internet are both growing at extraordinary rates in the European Union. The potential exists for elderly people to improve their own lives as well as the lives of others by making more use of this technology. However, the elderly are currently among the lowest users of computers and the Internet. In this paper we show how, through a course of ten lessons length, we have instructed elderly from barely use a computer to managing social networks independently. We also have developed new ways to deal with the learning disadvantages that age involves. Some of those problems such as the digital divide are exceeded by other more serious deficiencies like being trouble when reading or writing. Nonetheless, the perseverance during the learning process showed by this group of people plus a correct and gradual course planning have provided us very significant data about the learning curve showed by the elderly during the course. The purpose of this research was to explore whether the elderly were familiar with modern technology.
Keywords: Elderly, Web 2.0, Social Media, Innovation.
1 INTRODUCTION
Our society is facing a more and more growing part of people at great age. Elderly people nowadays have a strong interest in participating actively in working processes and in social life. That requires their continuous learning concerning changing needs at work places and current social conditions. On the one hand, European countries are insufficiently prepared for the individual and collective resources of the elderly. Unfortunately the countries lack institutions capable of supporting a lifelong process of education, including the elderly. Today's elderly people become increasingly aware that because of technological and economic demands and changes in society it is necessary to learn and retrain through the whole of one's life. The strengthening of the community of solidarity in Europe requires not only the promotion of older and younger people learning about each other, but especially the transfer of experience and knowledge among the older people of different countries. On the other hand, computer technology provides us a great chance to help with this aim. However, all that glitters is not gold; computer technology is embedded in our Western society in a way that the majority of people seem to forget that it is a relatively new development. The mainstream of this society has quickly adopted computer technology as part of their daily life, and in doing so opened up to all the possibilities this technology has to offer.
The need to tackle this challenge is urgent. The ever growing group of elderly people (age 60 and older) in our society, which will grow from being 20 per cent of the population in developed countries to being 32 per cent by 2050 [1], seems to have been forgotten in this matter. Based on this fact, to cover this field is considered a subject that offers great potential in helping people in all sorts of ways with and trough the use of computers. This paper relates an interesting educational experience based on the use of the Web 2.0, standing out against the business focused majority of research subjects in the field. It must also be pointed that the experience is developed for seniors with a severely lack in the use of computers.
Proceedings of EDULEARN12 Conference.
The opening of our country to the Europe and the development created the welfare state. As a consequence, different social and cultural phenomena emerged and that situation imposed family and social organization changes, and therefore the need for an adequate answer.
These phenomena refer to the work and family life reconciliation. The women incorporation into the labour market, the decrease in birth rate, the delay in youth integration into the workforce and the Spanish people ageing influenced into the creation of a new family model. This situation required the formation of services and resources that cannot be completely undertake by the family as a primary social agent.
At this time of economic and social globalization, it becomes increasingly necessary to fix the situation of disparity contexts and social disadvantages such as situations of dependency. This scenario encouraged the creation of the Law 39/2006 for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for dependents, which came into force in Spain in January 2007, ensuring the rights of persons in situations of dependency.
On the other hand, a lot of studies show that during the last decades the rate of population over 65 years has progressively increased. The 2008 Report: Older People in Spain published by the Ministry of Health and Social Policy shows more than 6% increase of the population over 65 years in 2007, compared to the population of the late 80's. Also this document identified the significant prolongation of life expectancy for people over 80 years which in the early twentieth century was around 0.6%, while the projection for 2040 is that this estimation rises to 9%.
Fig. 1: Population Predictions U.N. (Revision 2002) and Eurostat population projections 2004 (Basic Scenario)
Considering the data from the Collection of Senior Series Studies 11005 - "Social Participation of Older Persons", the Spanish population over 65 has exceeded 6.6 million in 2007, representing the 14.7% of the total population. By age, the interval between 65 and 74 years is the largest, reaching 3.8 million people. The number of people aged 75 and over is now slightly more than 2.8 million people. This situation provides the need of adapting both; social policy and services offered to the population of these age ranges.
These and other related data point into the same direction, which is the design of a legislative framework that includes this new reality, supported by the current population. For this reason the Law 39/2006 for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent was introduced to seek into an international, regional, local and insular collaboration. Till now, attention to the dependence is under the Concerted Plan of Basic Social Services and under several Plans of Action for the Elderly
and Disabled. However the State, supported by the System for Autonomy and Care Unit, is committed to ensure a stable framework of resources and services in this area of competence, where initiatives come together from different public authorities.
The potential of the collective, and the importance of its active participation, are spelled out in Article 10 (issue 1) of the report of the Second World Assembly on Ageing [2], of the World Health Organization, held in Madrid in 2002, where refers to the "Active Participation in Society and Development" (points 19 and 20). Thus, article 10 points:
“The potential of older persons is a powerful basis for future development. This enables society to rely increasingly on the skills, experience and wisdom of older persons, not only to take the lead in their own betterment but also to participate actively in that of society as a whole.”
As we already mentioned it also gives us two recommendations for action for the active participation of older people:
“19. A society for all ages encompasses the goal of providing older persons with the opportunity to continue contributing to society. To work towards this goal, it is necessary to remove whatever excludes or discriminates against them. The social and economic contribution of older persons reaches beyond their economic activities. They often play crucial roles in families and in the community. They make many valuable contributions that are not measured in economic terms: care for family members, productive subsistence work, household maintenance and voluntary activities in the community. Moreover, these roles contribute to the preparation of the future labour force. All these contributions, including those made through unpaid work in all sectors by persons of all ages, particularly women, should be recognized.
20. Participation in social, economic, cultural, sporting, recreational and volunteer activities also contribute to the growth and maintenance of personal well-being. Organizations of older persons are an important means of enabling participation through advocacy and promotion of multigenerational interactions. “
Moreover we cannot ignore a change in the society’s model. With the integration of information technology, a new medium of communication, interaction and social organization is introduced. This new social model is defined by Castells, M. as "a society whose social structure is built around information networks from micro-structured information technology on the Internet, understanding the Internet as the medium that is the organizational form of our societies."[3].
This social model could generate a lot of new opportunities but also could generate a new sphere of inequality in the access to information technology and communication. This means that in the case of older people’s access to this "new media", it creates a technology gap. This gap difficult access to a larger collective society increasingly dynamic and connected, fundamental variable to consider for promote the integration of our seniors in daily life today.
Furthermore, it is essential to have initiatives to promote healthy ageing, in order to promote health and integration of all people in society, defined by the World Health Organization as “ (…)the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. It applies to both individuals and population groups. Active ageing allows people to realize their potential for physical, social, and mental well-being throughout the life course and to participate in society, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they need. Ageing takes place within the context of friends, work associates, neighbours and family members. This is why interdependence as well as intergenerational solidarity is important tenets of active ageing“[4].
1.2 The Internet and the Elderly
The percentage of older Internet users has been increasing in recent years. According to statistics released in 2009 by the China Network Information Center (CNNIC), the percentage of Internet users aged over 60 in mainland China steadily rose from 0.3% in 1998 to 1.5% in 2008 [5]. By contrast, this percentage for people between 50 and 60 rose from 1.0% to 4.0%. Elsewhere, the European Union is also trying to reduce the gap in the use of the Internet between the elderly and the average of population. Figure 2 is a survey of Internet use by age and the average in European countries in 2007, in which we can find a considerable proportion of older Internet users. With the advent and development of online social networks, an increasing number of old people are beginning to explore these new technologies.
Fig. 2: Internet use in EU countries in 2007 [6]
However, young people, the pioneers of social networks, are still the mainstream. Services available and appropriate for older people are inadequate. In addition, in contrast to most young web users, the elderly face challenges when enjoying such services because their physical and mental states have changed. In fact, the designs of most social network websites are poorly suitable for the elderly. This fact often keeps the elderly away from existing services, no matter how popular and functional these services can be.
Therefore, we adapted some tools in order to facilitate the elderly learning, for example, we developed our own social network adapted to the elderly capacities.
1.3 Ageing changes
Heller pointed about ageing: “As people grow older, their abilities change. This change includes a decline in cognitive, physical and sensory functions, each of which will decline at different rates relative to one another for each individual.” [7] This makes it hard to define “the elderly” as one consistent group, and presents a challenge for designers of computer technology. Facing this challenge, however, can ultimately provide benefits for both elderly people and society.
Vision This is an important factor that should be considered when elderly people are facing the use computers. There are some existing basic sets of design guidelines for interfaces (including websites) given by various authors [8, 9]. Colors, fonts, navigation, sound, content and layout and style can be very helpful if they are managed in an appropriate way. Web design guidelines such as [10] and [9] give recommendations on this matter.
Hearing It has been proved that decrease in hearing already starts around middle-age [11], gradually progressing from then on. This is an important fact, not for the use of computer by itself but for lack of attention that can occur during the lessons.
Sensory and Motor Changes
Motor Skills The way people move affects the way in which they use a computer [10]. The use of the mouse could be an extremely hard action for some applications like Google Maps [17] or even for some specific mouse's combined movements such as selecting a text. Dickinson described that this can be done “by removing, where possible, the need to carry out complex actions using the mouse, presenting larger targets and removing menus” [8].
It must be also pointed that, as people reach old age, in general, their cognitive skills deteriorate, which affects their learning capability [13]. Elderly people do however compensate for this disadvantage by developing a number of strategies that are acquired trough experience [8].
Fig. 3: Effectiveness of learning activities by age [12]
One of those strategies is the use of a mental model that is related to another type of technology which they understand. For example, when using a computer application and the older user need to remember a sequence of actions, they act the same way as when they need to remember the buttons of a remote control, they write them down the steps on a note [8]. An interesting survey [12] debates the increasing need to support informal learning in order to deal with this cognitive disadvantage. Thus, they concluded that there are significant differences in the learning habits across different age groups, suggesting that design and development of the course need to consider the age profile of their management population when developing these lessons.
2 COURSE DESIGN
When we teach, we engage in two closely related, but distinct, activities. First, we design the course by gathering information and making a number of decisions about the way the course will be taught. Second, we engage in teacher-student interactions as we implement the course we have designed. Due to the elderly profile, a lot of innovation is introduced in their lives through this course. The adoption of innovations is considered to represent a process rather than an instantaneous event. Rogers offered a five stage model:
1. Knowledge. The individual becomes aware of the innovation’s existence and gains understanding of its function.
2. Persuasion. The individual develops a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the innovation based on the information acquired.
3. Decision. The individual engages in activities that lead to a decision to adopt or reject the innovation.
4. Implementation. The individual puts the innovation to use.
5. Confirmation. The individual seeks reinforcement of the innovation decision already made. This approach is based on marketing, but it can be also applied for our educational purpose. Contrary to popular belief in education, it is extremely important to adopt this different approach because the course is not just providing a bunch of contents but also providing a way to think. The elderly need to
in the future, with no fears.
The basic course’s components are the same as those found in other models of instructional design: analyze the situational factors, formulate the learning goals, design the feedback, and select the teaching/learning activities. (See Fig. 4)
Fig. 4: Course design
One of the best benefits of this model adoption is that it allows us to see the importance of an integrated course and to know when we have achieved one integrated course and when we do not [15]. The learning goals describe what we want students to get out of the course. Many people take a content-centered approach when they are setting the learning goals. This is an easy, natural approach but it generally results in an overemphasis on “understand and remember” kinds of learning. Due to the elderly profile, this second approach would be more suitable. It is better to change their minds and their way of thinking rather than trying to teach rigid concepts. About the teaching and learning activities the active learning was incorporated to the course. In fact, one of the more powerful ideas to emerge in the literature on teaching in the last decade or so is the concept of active learning. In essence, the concept of active learning supports research that shows: students learn more and retain their learning longer if they acquire it in an active rather than a passive manner. The last important element of our design is the feedback. In a content-centered course, two mid-terms and a final exam are usually considered sufficient feedback and assessment for the teacher to determine whether the students got it or not. But, in our case we adopt the forward-looking assessment. Forward-Looking Assessment incorporates exercises, questions, and/or problems that create a real-life context for a given issue, problem, or decision to be addressed. To construct this kind of question or problem, the teacher has to “look forward,” beyond the time when the course is over, and create a question or problem that replicates this real-life context as closely as possible. For example, “how would you send an email to X” or “How would you look for Y in the Internet?”.
2.1 Experience
We began our course in April, 2011. The full course spanned 10 sessions, 90 minutes each. The course was promoted in day centers for the elderly of the City of Villa de Ingenio, limiting the enrollment to 15 students. In total, 15 students were enrolled voluntarily, 6 men and 9 women, and the mean age was around 63 years old. There were no abandonment during the course and the course
attendance rate was over 93%. Regarding to the available resources, besides having computers for all students, 2 students asked to use their own laptop. The teaching team (2 instructors) saw very positive this possibility, because these students do not often use their own laptop at home because not knowing how to use it.
Fig. 5: The pedagogical approach
The pedagogical approach considered during each lesson is shown in Figure 5. An important factor that can be related to it is that older people often do not have experience with the use of computer technology. This has two implications; on the one hand elderly people cannot derive the relevance of computers to them from previous experiences. On the other hand, elderly people that want to use computers need to acquire computer skills. This means that elderly people that are willing to learn how to use a computer should find and gain access to opportunities in the community for learning computer skills, which can be a major difficulty. This is the main reason why two main steps before providing the new contents are necessary. The first step is a review of the previous lesson; remain what they learned before in order to link the old knowledge to the new knowledge that is coming during the current lesson. The second important step is to explain the usefulness of the things they are going to learn during the current lesson and the best way to explain it is through examples of the daily life. For example, "The Internet is a city and it has many streets, every street is a web page. The web browser is a taxi that, given direction, takes us to the street. There are many occasions we may not know where is the street (web address) we would like to go but we can ask it to the Yellow Pages (a search engine). The Yellow Pages will tell us the exact address where to find what we are looking for.". By doing this, the level of abstraction is always adapted to the elderly level of understanding.
Before these two steps we are in the right path to start providing new contents. A brief description of the course contents is shown on the next table:
1 First contact with computers First day of course, individual introduction and expectations about the course. Definition of a computer and its components. How to switch on and switch off a computer. 2 Keyboard and mouse How to use a keyboard and a mouse. In order to achieve
these objectives, some simple exercises were solved by the elderly. During the learning process it was shown the common problems when we start using a keyboard (finding letters) or a mouse (no control of the movements, difficulties holding buttons while they move the mouse). 3 Introduction to the Internet First time to use the Internet. Basic exercises of using a
browser; manage a search engine and how to filter our searches (images, videos, web pages).
4 Creation and management of an email account
How to create a new and free email account in order to start creating their own digital identity. Also how to deal with the email; how to send and receive emails.
5 Blogging and chat How to access a blog, to consume the posted information and to insert a comment. Also a chatting exercise to show them the differences between synchronous and asynchronous communication.
6 Social Network What does a Social Network is? Why can they be helpful for our purposes? Seventi [16] was introduced in this lesson. Seventi is our own social network, developed for the elderly.
7 Social Network - personal profile edition
How to upload their own photo and fill all the fields of personal description. This lesson is particularly important because continues with the digital identity development. 8 Social Network - Interaction How to deal with social network groups, making social
network friends and posting on their walls.
9 Social Network - Messages How to send private messages and joining groups.
10 Course Review At the end of the course is important to collect all those impressions that can improve our learning project. What would they add/delete from the course?
As it can be appreciated the course goes from not knowing anything about computers to social networks and their tools. From our experience we can confirm that the Web 2.0 tools provided us a great chance to cover all the contents in an efficient and appropriate way. All the objectives were covered. Perhaps the most difficult task was related to the use of the mouse or the keyboard. Even if they understand all the contents, the execution time for each task was quite long because of their difficulties using the hardware. For example, at the end of lesson 3 we tried to introduce the Google Maps [17]. The way the mouse should be used, the refresh time of the map’s images and the introduction of this new tool by itself, made impossible to handle the Google Maps just in one lesson. Sometimes we think that given a tool, the perfect manage is just a question of understanding it. This idea is wrong; it is a matter also of time, capabilities and resources.
3 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we show how, through a course of 10 sessions length, we have instructed elderly from barely use a computer to managing social networks independently. We also have developed new ways to deal with the learning disadvantages that age involves. Some of those problems such as the digital divide are exceeded by other more serious deficiencies like being trouble when reading or writing. Nonetheless, the perseverance during the learning process showed by this group of people plus a correct and gradual course planning have provided us very significant data about the learning curve showed by the elderly during the course.
Thus, we need to educate the older people from this new perspective of knowledge, so this new educational process can cover basic aspects associated with their prior knowledge. Furthermore,
many times people tend to define these educational issues from a very optimistic point of view. Firstly, these people do not have the same learning abilities than the average population. Secondly, these people do not have the same interests as the average population. Thus, we must adapt to the interests and resources that older people have; it is useless for them to acquire new knowledge if they cannot afford the resources that provide this new knowledge. These resources may be hardware and software. The hardware resources cannot be redefined, i.e. a computer is always a computer, we cannot change many of the physical characteristics of it but we can improve their use by teaching an ergonomic way to use the computer. On the other hand, the software is customizable, we can overcome the physical disabilities suffered by these people (whether visual or motor disabilities) to develop new tools that enable a greater intellectual development in an environment more suitable to their characteristics.
Furthermore, from the perspective of teaching, two things have been shown. The pedagogical approach is essential and it must be in an underlying layer between the hardware and software. That is the key for the elderly learning process, by doing it this way, they will be able to connect the dots between what they already know, what they must learn and how to learn it. And, what is more important, they are able to do this by themselves. The second important thing that has shown us this project is that, from an educational perspective, the time needed by the elderly to acquire the necessary skills in the use of Web 2.0 technology is greater than any other younger person. However, a good planning supported by visual references during the sessions significantly reduces the learning time. We must bear in mind a very important and common feature of the Web 2.0 technology is to provide intuitive visual references.
AKCNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Mr. Borja Rubio-Reyes for his advice, criticism and encouragement during the development of our Social Network, SEVENTI. This social network has been hosted by the Innovation Center for Information Society (C.I.C.E.I.) from the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain). This project is also possible thanks to the cooperation agreement between the Ilustre Ayuntamiento de la Villa de Ingenio (Spain) and the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain).
REFERENCES
[1] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2004): “World Population to grow from 6.5 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050, Press Release”, New York, USA.
[2] International Plan of Action on Ageing 2002. Second World Assembly on ageing, Madrid, Spain 8-12 April 2002.
[3] Castells, M. Internet y la sociedad en red. En Lección inaugural del programa de doctorado sobre la sociedad de la información y el conocimiento. Barcelona. (2001).
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[16] Meiler-Rodríguez C., Freire-Obregón D., Rubio-Royo E., SEVENTI: NEW APPROACH FOR TEACHING SENIORS BASIC SKILLS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA. ISBN: 978-84-615-5563-5. Proceedings of INTED 2012.
