It is consensus that promoting digital competence amongst senior citizens is a way to support older people to actively get involved in the knowledge and information society, furthermore it prevents social isolation and dependent living and proactively confronts the problems that ageing European societies face.
But how to do it? The use of advanced learning and communication technology for the sake of the personal development of seniors it is a feseable and very promising way. Older people are among the target groups that qualify most for technology-enhanced learning:
- eLearning comes to people and not vice-versa. This aspect addresses seniors’ frequent mobility constraints due to physical impairments, domestic responsibilities (e.g. taking care of relatives) or living outside urban areas where ICT- training offers are available;
- eLearning works best for those with variable free timeslots. Post-professional life is often characterised by free variable daily rhythm and plenty of leisure activities. In these cases, asynchronous eLearning offers are extremely flexible;
- furthermore, it is a fact that, due to their life experience, many seniors are experienced in self-management and motivated to try something new, a fact that well supports the demands of eLearning;
- eLearning enables people to choose their own learning speed, as they are not driven by others, and it enables them to repeat things as often as they wish. These factors effectively support the changes in memory processing that occur as we get older. For example, older adults have difficulty in novel situations in which they must respond flexibly to memorise things;
- in addition, it should be emphasized that mentoring and tutoring can be done much more individually in eLearning. A factor that again adapts to the individual needs of older adults;
- competitiveness and pressure to perform amongst course participants, which is often seen as rather a problem in face-to-face offers, is almost non-existent. The pressure of having to keep pace with other participants declines significantly in virtual learning environments. This aspect is of major importance since third agers tend to have less self-confidence and are more afraid of making mistakes. In learning processes, fear leads to increased activity in the amygdaloid nucleus, which decreases cognitive processes;
- mutual support amongst participants in virtual learning communities is one further positive aspect. Community building is supported by personal and technical assistance. Learners are engaged in the whole learning and teaching process and gain self-confidence.
[Source: Held, P. et al [2006]: Gutachten zur institutionellen Verankerung vonAngeboten und zur Bereitstellung entsprechender Bildungsorte und Lernweltenür eLearning im Alter. ILI-Institute für Lern-Innovation, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Adapted accoding to the results of the project eLSe-Academy]
Sónia Hetzner 