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