Target Audience
The focus clientele for this program regarding an Information Literacy is for the senior members of society who struggle with the advancement of technology and the rapid developments it has been making in the recent years (Hetzner et al., 2014). Mostly this senior adult group ranges in age from 60 years to above. Mostly, the elder people make up a generous and important part in the society. The maximum portion of this age group tend to stay back home and thus they are most likely to be kept alone. Therefore, any kind of assistance; be it medical or any other, is genuinely needed for this group of people.
Generally, people in this age range do make use of the latest technology in the contemporary times because majority of the society has been making use of the latest technology available (Lafontaine & Sawchuk, 2018). Clearly, the society has taken up the use of Wi-Fi, cell phones and computers as the societal norms. However, the way by which these technologies are being used to stay connected to each other may be problematic for the elderly people to cope with. Elderly people are most likely to have poor eyesight and poor hand-eye coordination. Therefore, the rapid changes and upgrades that the websites or applications make take a long time for the elderly to understand. It might even be possible that they do not understand the constant changes in the technical world. There may be added problems to this since the elderly people have special needs and disabilities. For example, poor eyesight and poor hand and eye coordination. These needs should be taken into consideration while the developing the Information Literacy program.
The latest advancements in technology has enabled most of society to use the likes of Wi-Fi, cell phones and computers in abundance, and the senior member of the society are not lagging far behind. There have been many studies that have demonstrated that over 60 are most likely to use these latest technologies but find it equally hard to cope with and thus struggle (McCosker et al., 2018). They seem to be struggling with the Skype UI and the rapid upgrade the mobile application and websites take.
The literacy skills that have been used so to help senior citizens have mostly focused on the connectivity of the seniors with their families (Castek et al., 2015). Local libraries have been instrumental in providing the seniors with creation and updating of their profiles in the form of a resume that provides many amenities to connect with their families through a number of ways (Friemel, 2016). The libraries have been providing email services to connect with their families. For the general mass, Local Libraries have been helping many sectors of the community, like the job seekers, student, children and other in finding their requirements over the internet. For example, the Australian local community library called Street Library helps people to find out almost all the requirements like looking for jobs, houses, medical assistance and various others. The most difficult thing that elder people find with this system is making relevant searches regarding their needs. In addition to that, it uses various services like provisions for the downloading applications to book flights, book rides to the airports, create and edit presentations for work, report any device malfunctions directly to the authorities and many others (Hausknecht & Kaufman, 2018). However, they have always been falling short of the technology that will provide the seniors with ease of use. Therefore, it has been noticed that the seniors are always at a risk of struggling with the provisions even if they are meant for their use only.
Challenges for Senior Citizens in Technology
Senior members of society also need internet. The latest societal norms have seen that people are connected to each other in the digital world, but mostly in the real world they are not that connected with each other and the senior members of society face major loneliness (Miwa et al., 2017). The Information Literacy program thus would focus more on making these people feel at ease with these technologies so that they might use the internet and connecting devices as a trusted assistant and not a mere technologically able device (Atkinson et al., 2016). For instance, there might be many incidents where a senior might need medical assistance but they have been left completely alone (Duplàa et al., 2017). This is where Internet Literacy or IL comes into being, so that they can book their own medical assistance in the time of need. There are various other uses of these IL services, which provide the senior members with aids like navigating the government websites, evaluate health websites, borrow book online and many others.
Since there will only be two Information Literacy sessions for the seniors in the community, they should be used to introduce the basics to them (Elueze & Quan-Haase, 2018). The two sessions would be confined to making the seniors strengthen the foundation of basic internet usage and helping them as comfortable as possible to the searching techniques via different search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others. The elderly people can search for all their requirements using these search engines; be it medical assistance or social connections.
The Information Literacy program has the sole focus of making the senior clients feel at ease with the usage of the latest internet technologies and connecting devices. This would enable them to be updated with the latest technology and provide for themselves when in need of any assistance of technology (Castilla et al., 2018). The seniors are probably the most neglected part of the society when it comes to Internet Literacy and they have been found to struggle the most with using the internet (Mihailidis, 2015). These days, where internet and the connecting devices have been associated so much with the society that it has become a norm to the people in general. Internet is being considered as the main source of connection between the people. However, it is found that the seniors have been struggling with these new technological advancements with limited help from their friends and family.) You have already said this in the Profile. These days the internet has made life easier for people with digital literacy (Schreuers, Quan-Haase & Martin, 2017). From watching TV to making social contacts to medical assistance; everything is available online. To provide the same benefit to the elderly section of the society as well, the Information Literacy Program is trying to engage the patrons to easily use the digital world for their own need.
There are some governmental services that are only accessible online, therefore, to use these services the senior members should be eased with the use of technology (Powell, 2017). Information Literacy is thus one of the ways to improve the society by helping the senior citizens and making them digital literate and thus bringing about a change in the society. It is expected that with acquired digital literacy, life would be made easier for these senior members of the society.
Previous Programs to Help Senior Citizens with Technology
The program that is to be held for the senior members of the society consists of only two sessions. Therefore, there is only provision for the Internet Literacy Program to facilitate the patrons with the basic idea of the digital usage. With this implementation, it can be made sure that there is limited scope of the elderly people to be struggling with their internet usage further (Quan-Haase, Mo & Wellman, 2017). All the additional amenities like stationeries will be provided by the authority. The elderly people would just have to make sure that they bring their own mobile phones and portable computers to the centre to be acquainted with the device they use. The class would comprise of just 15 people at a time and it would be an interactive program with each participant being provided with a person to assist them while the instructor teaches. The following suggestions would be included in the curriculum for the Internet Literacy Program for the elderly people that would be followed for the two sessions:
|
Sessions |
Descriptions |
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Session 1: Socializing on the Internet |
1. The curriculum would first make a person differentiate between website and mobile applications. 2. The second step would make a person be acquainted with texting and other communicating applications (Nowell, 2014). 3. Achieving success in these two sections will make sure that the seniors are effectively able to use a laptop or a computer or a tablet computer. 4. The next phase should make sure that the elderly people are able to effectively save and find a document saved in the tablet, cell phone or a computer. 5. The last phase of the first session will conclude with making the patrons exercise their learning s so far by making them have a conversation or communication with each other with the use of websites as well as applications. |
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Session 2: Using Internet for Health |
1. The first step should include the elders being taught how to create a username and password with thorough description of rules and tips. 2. The next step should include the elders being taught how to complete an online registration with necessary email accounts (Carlos & Silva, 2017). 3. The next steps should include the patrons being taught how to effective search for information online with rules, tips and tricks for easier browsing. 4. The next step should include teaching the elderly people about health information that are available online and what should be done to find an individual’s requirements. 5. The next step should include introducing the people with the common medical websites used in the country within their range. 6. In the last stage the elderly people would make them search the government sites as well as make adequate use of the Google search engine to look for information. |
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that an Internet Literacy Program for the senior and elderly members of the society can make a portion of the society be easy with the utilization of the internet. The reason why digital literacy needs to be taught is because the usage of internet has now become a norm in the society. IL helps the elder people to be comfortable with the internet as well as use them for their own assistance. Maintaining social connectivity is also necessary to them, and IL helps them achieve success over their fears with online socializing. Thus, this Internet Literacy program makes sure that the senior members do not find it difficult or struggle with using the internet to even look for medical emergencies and check on their own health records using government websites and other health related websites. Information Literacy is thus one of the ways to improve the society by helping the senior citizens and making them digital literate and thus bringing about a change in the society. Reflection
Digital Library is nowadays the latest trend with the help of which a local community is getting heavily benefitted. I have seen that the amendments that these digital libraries have made so far in the society have created a huge impact when it comes to a community. I have found that they have been helping every person in the society with the features they provide. It is found that digital libraries have always provided a one stop destination so that a person can fulfil all their needs about utilizing internet from a single website or application. This has made it easier for the people in a local area to fulfil their needs from the libraries. There have been provisions for every age division of people in the society to help. The jobseekers can look for relevant jobs with the information they have provided in their personal profile. The elderly people can be connected to their families as well as look for medical help when emergency situations arise. It also helps children in completing their school assignments to fulfil their entertainment needs along with educational services provided to them.
Focus of Program
With the latest development that the library services have provided, I have experienced that information literacy has gone through a huge change in the industry. This has mostly seen in the latest decade. I have observed that technological advancements have been a reason behind such huge changes. The exponential rise of the Information Literacy has been fuelled by the fact that people have been increasingly using more and more digital platforms nowadays. In addition to that searching information or using them to own benefit has been comparatively raised in number. The people nowadays take the help of internet in every situation; whether they want to submit assignments, look for jobs, search information, perform research work, or perform numerous of other tasks.
Libraries have lately using electronic databases as well as implemented the latest ideas of introducing internet literacy of the technically unskilled people. This includes the Senior Adult Internet Literacy programs and others. Taking a look at the digital libraries in Australia, I have found that the ways by which these are helping the people in a specific region or area, are manifolded. The libraries make sure that every person in the society irrespective of their age gets benefitted by the library application. Traditional meaning of a library can be deciphered as a place where all kinds of books are stored for readers to choose amongst. The digital libraries also make use of the similar cases but it offers more. Not just books but every possible needs of a human being with respect to their age division can look for their relevant queries. They do not need to visit different websites for their particular needs but all of them can be found in one website. Therefore, toll over surfing the internet is reduced as well as the navigation is made easier.
I support the Information Literacy Program that is effective in making the senior citizens of the society be acquainted with the facilities that others in the society have been utilizing through a digital library. This will make sure that the senior citizens can safely use internet along with making it their personalized tool to make life simpler. Senior citizens would also want to utilize their right to information and try to communicate with his or her family. According to my discretion, Digital Library is a great website tool to make every people in the society understands the importance of personal information and their rights towards searching relevant data, while also keeping them updated about facilities that they can easily get from the digital libraries.
References
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