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Colleges, ‘Digital Natives’ Help Elders Learn New Tech

Local universities, community colleges and public libraries are helping older generations learn information literacy and computer skills as fast-evolving technlogies become increasingly integrated into daily life.

An elderly person learning how to use a computer.
iStockphoto
(TNS) — Technology became a necessity for Linda Brandon while she owned Linda’s Music in Decatur.

“Back in the mid to late ’90s, we thought, ‘OK, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to get a computer,’ and we had one built,” said Brandon, who closed her store in 2020 and retired. “You couldn’t just go to Best Buy and buy one like you do today.”

She remembers how store manager Hugh Reeves and her “were kind of halfway lost.” But through trial and error, they figured it out.

Educators often refer to students today as “digital natives” because they’ve never known a world without computers, cell phones and iPads. Even a small child seems to instinctively know how to use them.

But people who grew up with rotary dial phones, no cable TV, and before computers were in every home and office had to learn to use them, and some still aren’t comfortable. In a world where even ordering at a fast food restaurant might require using a kiosk, and making changes to your cable TV lineup requires a visit to the company website, not being comfortable with technology can really hamper daily life.

“I’m passionate about information literacy,” said Steven Ward, library director at Forsyth Public Library. He offers computer classes at the library for all ages.

“When I got out of library school, my library school was geared toward instruction and reference,” he said. “My first two jobs were at academic libraries — Murray College and the University of Illinois at Springfield — and I was instructional librarian. That just helped just fuel a passion for instruction and basically creating lifelong learning opportunities and skills for people of all ages, especially seniors who might be picking up skills later in life.”

‘SO MANY DIFFERENT OPPORTUNITIES’



Ward teaches the use of social media and email, and basic computer skills that are a necessity nowadays. Without those skills, navigating even simple tasks like paying bills or signing up for Social Security might be insurmountable. He’s new to the Forsyth library and once he’s settled in, he said, he will start writing lesson plans and scheduling computer skills classes to offer.

“I’m teaching information literacy to help people in all facets of life, academically, professionally or even through learning social media and email,” he said. “There are so many different opportunities to learn and grow. I’m just trying to help them pick up and learn skills that help make life easier in this digital world we live in.”

Julie O’Laughlin teaches a computer skills class for adults at Richland Community College and said seniors are often apprehensive about technology, but practice and step-by-step instructions help them get over the hump.

In her experience, she said, “some people jumped on board, while others were kicking and screaming and others were so intimidated that they felt that by avoiding technology they didn’t have to learn how to use it.

Said O’Laughlin: “The amount of exposure a person has had to the computer before entering a class is the deciding factor on what obstacles they will have during our time together. Information that is considered to be most helpful is opening multiple tabs, browsing the Internet, creating word documents and files and how to look (and) show their families pictures.”

Brandon remembers ordering merchandise for her store via fax, and when companies like Peavey started requiring merchants to order through their website. Along the way she has become comfortable with technology and paying bills online, but she knows not everyone is.

“Last year I learned to use my hot spot on my phone,” she said. “Now if I’m somewhere that doesn’t have Internet, if my iPad doesn’t connect automatically, I use my hot spot off my phone.”

Clinton High School junior Jake Kalmer realizes that technology is more natural to his age group than his grandparents’.

“I make you tube videos and edit on my phone, using video software, and that is completely unknown to my grandparents,” Jake said. “I used to have to be in position to teach my step-grandpa how to do things on his phone, just kind of setting up the phone, that’s a big one. They don’t know how to do that, and they would need somebody to show them.”

‘YOU CAN’T JUST SHUT IT OFF’



Jake uses his phone for so many things, and is not afraid to try new things and “play” with it, while they are less confident, he said. He can show them how to change settings in one app, but they don’t know how to apply that skill in a different app.

“I feel like they just get the one thing I’m showing them,” he said. “They need to be able to branch out from that, and they need help with that (branching out), obviously.”

LSA High School junior Michael Disney has helped his older relatives navigate new technology, too, and said he thinks young people’s brains are just more adaptable to learning something new.

“When you’re young, your mind is still in the process of developing,” he said. “(Technology) just became part of the things that you learn growing up.”

Brandon has learned to be comfortable with technology by now and it has opened up some opportunities she didn’t have before. She reconnected with an old friend over social media. And she said she hasn’t written a check to pay a bill for a long time; it’s all automatically deducted from her account.

Adults have to learn to operate phones and computers, but it’s as if kids are just born knowing how to use technology, Brandon said.

“My granddaughter, when she was 2 or 3 years old, her mom would let her play some of these learning games and one day she was all done, went in the room and she said, ‘I’m done, I shut it off,’ and her mom said, ‘You can’t just shut it off. You have to walk through different processes,’ and she said, ‘I know, Mom,’ and (the mom) said, ‘How do you know that?’ And she walked Angie through every process,” Brandon said, laughing.

©2021 the Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.