Guided participation in ICT-education for seniors: Motivation and social support

The Seniors' Club (SC) is a computer club for elderly, aged 60-80 years. This paper describes the experience gained from starting, and development of the club in Eastern Finland from late 2005. The findings are supported by thematic interviews conducted with the participants in April 2009. The goal of the undertaking was to teach useful ICT-skills to the elderly, and to empower them to contribute to user-centered design. A guidance model based on guided participation and ideas of shared cognition has been applied to socially, motivationally and cognitively support our elderly participants. For the development of SC-concept, the grounding research methodology has been action research, supported by observation of the participants at work, questionnaires and group interviews. The results show that the elderly are capable of and enthusiastic in acquiring ICT-skills and of gaining knowledge. They are motivated by the younger generation in their circle of acquaintances, by the novelty of things and by staying the pace of development. They prefer things/skills, which are practical and applicable in real life, and they appreciate the social mode of learning, like peer-tutoring. In addition our seniors are willing to contribute to research, design, and development activities with students in our department.