Digital transitions: The elderly and technology

My dad's portable computer

When I consider the elderly and technology, I think of my own father. Dad was involved with computers when computers did very little. He put some of his own together. He once used a large wooden folding table and converted it into a "computer desk" where the "guts" of the system were all configured inside the desk. I can still remember dragging the piece down from the attic a number of years ago when my mom finally put her foot down and made my father trash the old technology he was not using anymore.

Dad had one of the first Apple Macintosh computers in the area. When portable computers were still more of a dream than a reality, dad was placing his smaller Apple computer in a carrying case with a dot matrix printer so he could travel with it to Toronto to do consulting work.

For years he did programming, creating software for local businesses and companies that needed custom-based databases for tracking different things. He worked with trucking companies, convenience stores, and pulp and paper mills. Back in the 90s I remember going on a conference with him when Microsoft was unveiling some new software. I went in my capacity as a sales rep since, at the time, I worked for a local computer retailer. Dad went as a programmer. I remember looking around during the conference and noting that a lot of the people there were younger than me, and dad was the only grey hair head in the room.

Up until July 2011 dad was still doing consulting and programming for local businesses. He was 77 years old. In July of that year he suffered a serious stroke. Thankfully, his recovery went well. However, the next year my family lost our mom and my father lost his life-long companion of over fifty years. We worried about dad's recovery, and what he would do to fill his time since we knew he would probably never use computers again.

Dad's stroke left him partially blind and his short term memory is hit and miss. While he still likes to talk about his days using computers, his desire to even attempt using one is gone. However, he has a trusty CD player companion, compliments of CNIB, that he uses to listen to documentaries, lectures, news and audio books. Dad has used an iPad for FaceTime, and my sisters and I discussed setting one up for him. We soon realized, however, that while we would see the benefit of it, dad finds it much easier to have his CDs provided to him where he can play them in a unit that has basic buttons he can remember how to use.

So my father transitioned from firing up at least one computer everyday to having very little desire to even turning one on again. He certainly appreciates thing like Facetime, but his capacity for remembering how to use it is not there, and he knows that and accepts it. I only hope when (and if) I am his age, I can be as accepting of whatever life throws at me.

Nursing home residents use FaceTime to stay in touch with family
On another note related to the elderly, my friend was telling me about a student he knows who is working at a local nursing home on a school co-op. She realized a lot of the residents had family who lived away. So she contacted some of the families and arranged Facetime sessions on her iPhone between the residents and their families. It has been a big hit and residents look forward to chatting on Facetime with their families.

Call me maybe?
And, finally, some of you might have seen or heard of the resident home in Ontario where, with the help of the recreation coordinator, the residents did their own rendition of "Call Me Maybe." I provided a link here if you want to check it out. Or check out the embedded video below:

How trendy is technology?

From: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/156096

Over the past few years, "the noise" surrounding technology in the classroom has been loud. From my own experiences, however, I find it has recently been quieter. I am not certain if the quiet has more to do with the general acceptance of technology and the "shine" of it has dulled, or if the issue is deeper. Lately, I have found less talk about implementing technology as departments cut costs and students find the technology in their back pockets more sophisticated than the school-issued clunky laptop or computer that endlessly churns over and over, if it starts up at all.

I have found in my discussions with other teachers that one evident trend in technology is to open it up in the schools. In other words, allow students, particularly older students, to bring their own devices. Open up social media so educators can initiate classroom discussions with students  about its implications, and how we can use it properly and responsibly. How can we harness the wealth of online applications that students already use or would use if they could apply them to their studies in a relevant and meaningful way?

This trend among educators, at least in my own area, does not come without first showing acceptance of and being open minded towards the previous approaches that were tried. But over and over, when the department of education or the district implemented a plan, whether it be one to one net/notebooks or creating customized media servers for students and staff to use, it quickly became evident that long term management and financial commitment to these projects were going to become major barriers.

So educators were finding their own online resources. Yet, excited with what they discovered and eager to try it at school, they would soon realize that network restrictions would sometimes block some sites, or security preferences prevented students to fully use the services or slow down the services to the point that the only results witnessed were student frustration and disengagement.

The article Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Activity Types: Curriculum-based Technology Integration Reframed by Judith Harris, Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler, articulates well the problem with "trickle down" technology integration. The articles states "...there is no single technological solution that will function equally well for every teacher, every course, or ever pedagogical approach. Rather a solution's success lies in a teacher's ability to flexibly navigate the spaces delimited by content, pedagogy, and technology, and the complex interactions among these elements as they play out in specific instructional situations and contexts."

There is a troubling trend where teachers are frustrated with cumbersome networks and outdated equipment while department and districts offer "one stop" solutions. Two years ago I sat in a session where two members from the department of education plugged an online platform they developed where students could go and create a personal space. It was similar to MySpace, they explained. One teacher raised his hand and asked how he could access it. A puzzled look came over one of the presenter's face as he explained the site is for the students, not the teachers. I watched teachers turn and look at each other and shake their heads. How did the department expect us to present this to students if we could not play with it? Further, how did the department want us to implement its use in our classrooms if we could not be exposed to the platform to consider how it might be possible to implement it in what we taught? Unsurprisingly, I never heard anyone talk about it again.

There is, as the article states, no single technological solution, and educators realize or are quickly realizing this. Additionally, educators also observe how quickly technology is changing and evolving. Another trend among many educators is working alongside students to determine what equipment or platform would be best to use. Sometimes allowing students to determine which application they will use to present a project or work on an assignment is one of the best lessons for both the student and the teacher. I have been in situations where I have suggested an online tool for students to use, only to have a few hands shoot up with other suggestions, which, in some cases, were more versatile and useful than the one I recommended. In such circumstances, the teacher becomes the student, as a student introduces and explains the resource to his/her classmates.

From: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/67265 

  But there is, as mentioned in the beginning, a trend toward teachers being exhausted with trying to integrate new technologies in suffocating environments where old standards are still being enforced. I recently started reading The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil argues that "within several decades information-based technologies will encompass all human knowledge and proficiency, ultimately including the pattern-recognition powers, problem-solving skills, and emotional and moral intelligence of the human brain itself" (p. 33). He further states that progress is now happening at an exponential rate where "we won't experience one hundred years of technological advance in the twenty-first century; we will witness in the order of twenty thousand years of progress...or about one thousand times greater than what was achieved in the twentieth century (p. 37, 38).

Whether one agrees completely with Kurzweil's arguments, there is no denying the pace of developments in technology is sometimes mind-boggling. Additionally, how we define who we are as a society is also changing. While I do not think educators are claiming they have all the answers, many do recognize the need for us to acknowledge these realities in our classrooms. Many of our educational institutions need to seriously rethink how we integrate technology in our settings so that what we do continues to be relevant and meaningful to the students we teach. Educators have to play a big part in the shift from"trickle down" technology integration to a system that effectively reflects what is happening (and will happen) in the world our students live in.