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Senior service
aging learners are just like the rest of us

By Lisa Neal / November 2006

TYPE: OPINION
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Just as we wake up each morning a day older but don't usually label it "aging" or think about our deteriorating physical and mental capabilities, seniors seldom consider themselves "disabled." This is important to keep in mind when designing an online course for seniors: The barriers they face in online learning are not so different those experienced by the general public.

This idea was among the highlights in a talk given by Indiana University's Lesa Lorenzen Huber and Mark Notess at the recent Aging by Design conference at Bentley College.

Huber's and Notess's findings can be organized into two categories of focus: features that have no impact on users unless they're needed, and features that help everyone. The former category includes adjustable text size and contrast, and speech capability, such as those incorporated into the NIH Senior Health site. Elements like these can be designed to help users without demeaning or patronizing them, and to be easily ignored by uninterested parties.

The "help everyone" category addresses what I think of as the strain of modern life: multiple passwords, inconsistent registration processes, new technologies, and so on. Simplification and consistency benefit everyone, and there is no reason why things like registration should differ so much from site to site. I certainly get excited about the potential of new technologies, but it is sometimes easier to do something the same old way than to relearn a process that already worked. Taking this to the extreme, we are all trained from young ages to learn in a classroom: to listen, be attentive, take notes, and raise our hands when we have a question. Learning online is a challenge at first for anyone, which is compounded by the ever-changing myriad delivery technologies.

The oft-cited advantages of e-learning loom awfully large for seniors with restricted movement, or with restricted access to learning. An extreme example is an Alzheimer's caregiver who may be unable to leave his or her home but often has much leisure time for learning. While there is less need for credentials as this stage of life, there is no shortage of interests among those in the later stages of life.

Making it easy for seniors to learn online is really just the same as making it easy for everyone, with perhaps a little extra sensitivity to the particular needs of this demographic. Where there's a desire to learn there should be no insurmountable barriers.

As Pete Seeger sings: "I get up each morning and dust off my wits; Open the paper and read the obits; If I'm not there, I know I'm not dead; So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed…" Or, better yet, sit at the computer and take a course.



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ADDITIONAL READING

    Lisa Neal
  1. My life as a Wikipedian
  2. Five questions...for Elliott Masie
  3. The stripper and the bogus online degree
  4. Five questions...for Lynn Johnston
  5. Five questions...for Tom Carey
  6. Not all the world's a stage
  7. Five questions...for Karl M. Kapp
  8. Five questions...for Larry Prusack
  9. Five questions...for Seb Schmoller
  10. Do distance and location matter in e-learning?
  11. Why do our K-12 schools remain technology-free?
  12. Music lessons
  13. Learn to apologize for fun and profit
  14. Of web hits and Britney Spears
  15. Advertising or education?
  16. Five questions…for Matt DuPlessie
  17. Back to the future
  18. Serious games for serious topics
  19. Five (or six) questions...for Irene McAra-McWilliam
  20. Learner on the Orient Express
  21. Learning from e-learning
  22. Storytelling at a distance
  23. Q&A with Don Norman
  24. Talk to me
  25. Q&A with Diana Laurillard
  26. Do it yourself
  27. Degrees by mail
  28. Predictions for 2004
  29. "Spot Learning"
  30. Q&A with Saul Carliner
  31. When will e-learning reach a tipping point?
  32. Online learning and fun
  33. In search of simplicity
  34. eLearning and fun
  35. Predictions For 2003
  36. How to get students to show up and learn
  37. Everything in moderation
  38. The basics of e-learning
  39. Is it live or is it Memorex?
  40. The Value of Voice
  41. Predictions for 2006
  42. Five Questions...for Christopher Dede
  43. Five Questions... for John Seely Brown
  44. Five questions...for Shigeru Miyagawi
  45. "Deep" thoughts
  46. 5 questions... for Richard E. Mayer
  47. Designing usable, self-paced e-learning courses
  48. Want better courses?
  49. Just "DO IT"
  50. Five questions...
  51. Formative evaluation
  52. Blogging to learn and learning to blog
  53. Q&A
  54. Blended conferences
  55. Predictions for 2002