Abstract
Background“Digital Partners” is an intergenerational information and communications technology learning project carried out in the municipalities of Vic and Centelles (Catalonia) from April to May 2018. Within the framework of the introduction of community service as a subject in secondary education, the Centre for Health and Social Studies (University of Vic) created a training space with 38 intergenerational partners (aged 14-15 years and >65 years), with the aim of improving the senior users’ digital skills in terms of use of smartphones and tablets, thus helping reduce the digital divide in the territory.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper is to evaluate the satisfaction of both junior and senior participants toward the intervention and to explore its main drivers.MethodsParticipants who volunteered to participate in the study were interviewed. Quantitative and qualitative data gathered in paper-based ad hoc surveys were used to assess participants’ satisfaction.ResultsThe experience shows a broad satisfaction of both junior and senior users. The project’s strengths include the format of working in couples; randomly pairing individuals by operating system; the ability to practice with the device itself; individuals’ free choice to decide what they wish to learn, develop, or practice; and the availability of voluntary practice material that facilitates communication and learning. With regard to aspects that could be improved, there is a need to review the timetabling flexibility of meetings to avoid hurrying the elderly and to extend the project’s duration, if necessary.ConclusionsThis activity can serve to create mutual learning through the use of mobile devices and generate security and motivation on the part of the seniors, thus reducing the digital divide and improving social inclusion.
Highlights
People aged over 65 represent approximately 13% of the population, a figure that is expected to increase by 2030 [8]
In accordance with the results reported in the literature, feeling safe is a crucial issue for older people; it acts on the intention to use the mobile phones (MP) only indirectly, by increasing its utilitarian value
The contribution of this study is the development and testing of a model addressing a number of dimensions that the literature indicates as potentially relevant to the acceptance of mobile phones by older people
Summary
People aged over 65 represent approximately 13% of the population, a figure that is expected to increase by 2030 [8]. There is no evidence that older people reject technology more than people of other ages; elderly, as anyone else, accept and adopt technology when the latter meets their needs and expectations [49]. We first propose and investigate on a large group of elderly people living in northern Italy, a model for the acceptance of mobile phones (MP), operationalizing acceptance as the “intention to use” the technology. The results confirm the importance of utilitarian considerations, and of the perceived usefulness, as a driving factor for the intention to use the MP. They show how intrinsic motivations, and in particular those concerning
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