Creating Success with Community Partners
The Technology and Aging Coalition is a group of members from agencies supporting community service for older adults, education, and technology. San Diego Continuing Education represents the educational agency on the coalition.
The coalition is helping a program for older adults that has been funded partially by a grant through Motorola. The program provides a computer and internet access to low income, older adult households in the Bayside neighborhood of San Diego.
Continuing Education instructor Mary Prine, wrote the grant and has administered the program. Prine has established wonderful relationships through this training and the older adults who are benefiting from new skills are grateful for the class.
A 12-week, robust class introduces computer novices to their computer, and shows them how to communicate via e-mail, social networks, and social sharing.
“If not for this project, most participants may have never accessed a computer in their lifetimes,” said Prine.
The program uses older adult volunteers as ambassadors who help facilitate the learning experiences and design relevant learning materials to the participants.
“The ambassadors are key to a student’s success,” says Prine. “Instructors are the experts, but ambassadors are peers and since they have gone through the learning process themselves as older adults, they are able to connect immediately with the students.”
As many as five Technology Ambassadors assist in the computer labs during class. Ambassadors help with basic computer skills, language, and assist with lesson planning.
Aging and Independent Services, San Diego Continuing Education, and San Diego Futures are part of the Technology and Aging Coalition—a group that addresses solutions that help seniors access computers and use technology.
Ernesto Aeberhard, age 75, has been a Technology Ambassador for the program for about one year. Ernesto says one of the best ways for seniors to combat isolation, is to learn how to communicate by using computers. Ernesto has helped seniors learn to use e-mail as a way to share pictures with children and grandchildren, and social medias, such as Skype, to stay connected.