WHILE SENATOR DAN BOYLE was attempting to bring down the government last week with the social networking site Twitter, JJ Higgins was doing something slightly more worthwhile. He was sending his first email.
JJ (62), a retired postal worker, is among a growing number of older internet users in Ireland. A recent survey by the Department of Communications shows that nearly 50% of Irish people over the age of 50 have a computer at home. And about 30% of these older people are eager to learn how to use them.
But can you teach an old dog new tricks?
For those ‘Silver Surfers’ who are willing to learn there are a verity of computer skills courses across the country. Dublin City University runs an award winning computer skills course specifically for older people.
Called the ‘Intergenerational Learning Project’ the course was set up by Trudy Corrigan, a lecturer in DCU’s School of Educational Studies in 2008.
It has already gained a number of awards. In 2008 Trudy won The Irish Times ‘Living Dublin Award’ for her work on the project.
The lessons take place every Saturday morning during the university’s 12 week semester. Each class lasts about three hours.
For the first hour the students are given an informal lecture on subjects such as sending emails or saving to USB. After a short coffee break they return to the computer labs to put their new skills into practice.
With some students in their early 40’s to others in their mid 90’s it is not hard to see why some students, many of whom may never have used a computer before, may need a little extra help.
Help is readily available. Despite having a small staff of only 5 paid lecturers the classes are busy with DCU students.
Students in the university are encouraged to volunteer their time to give one-on-one help to their older colleagues. Trudy believes it is this one-on-one support that has led to the success of the project.
“The [older] students are allowed to go at their own pace, they lead the lesson and the DCU students help them along”, says Trudy.
Joan McGrane, a former student and now a teacher on the course believes this is how adult courses should be taught. She is keen to point out that older people should not feel they are going to be talked down to, “There is a certain way of dealing with adults because they learn differently from younger people”
But neither, she says, should they be scared of the technology. “The beginner’s class is like a showcase, it’s like Rumsfelds ‘known knowns and known unknowns.’ A lot of participants know the internet as a vague concept but they mightn’t know what it offers.”
Listening to the student chat before the class it seems that many come to socialise as well as to learn.
Indeed, the aim of the course is not just to teach computer skills but to help the students improve their quality of life. Unlike other computer skills courses the DCU course emphasises social technologies such as mobile phones, Skype and email rather than more traditional fair such as spreadsheets.
This emphasis is supported by a recent study by Age Action Ireland and the Government. The study found that digital social skills can have important benefits for older people.
Simple tasks like emailing children and grandchildren or ordering groceries can improve the quality of life for older people.
As Trudy explains the ability to use a mobile phone or online-telephony service like Skype can go some way to reducing social isolation in Ireland’s older population.
These benefits, she says, are especially important for people who housebound, ill or living alone.
However, encouraging older people to take up digital technology can be difficult. According to Dr Albert Jordan, Deputy Director of Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland many older people believe that digital technologies have nothing to offer them.
He says that although many people feel intimidated by technology his research shows that many older people do not find it as difficult as they might first think.
JJ agrees, despite having a computer at home he says it never occurred to him to learn how to use it. It was only with the encouragement of his adult children that he decided to take the course.
“It never occurred to me before this year to learn to use computers. But now that I am I wonder why I didn’t start sooner.”
JJ, who has been attending the course for three weeks, says this focus on social technologies is the course’s strength.
At the moment however he is eager to learn how to use his new email account. He wants to tell his son in Scotland he has joined the information revolution.
So, has it been worth it? Yes, says JJ, “At the start of the year I was homeless and illiterate. I was homeless because I didn’t have an email address and I was illiterate because I didn’t know how to use the internet. That’s how important it is.”
