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Comunicar Journal 39: Curriculum and Teacher Training in Media Literacy (Vol. 20 - 2012)
Uses of digital tools among the elderly
Susana Agudo-Prado
María-de-los-Ángeles Pascual-Sevillano
Javier Fombona
A «multiage» society needs the design and creation of new areas of learning and communication to manage the digital demands of the elderly. In this article, the relation of the elderly to information and communication technologies (ICT) is approached and two objectives are considered: to discover the technological resources they use and to objectively describe the types of usage that senior citizens make of ICT. To that end, a survey technique is used, with the results validated by means of discussion groups. The study participants consisted of 215 elderly people, all ICT users, and 7 discussion groups of 5 people each. The results indicate that the resources most widely used by the elderly are computers and the Internet, and the type of usage is grouped into 4 categories: education, information, communication and entertainment. There were no significant differences in gender or age although differences were found in the availability of these resources for private use based on the level of education.
Keywords
Learning, active aging, cognitive stimulation, digital divide, digital literacy, elderly people, healthy living