BSG launches youtube channel "Ageing bites"

From the BSG newsletter:

BSG is pleased to announce the launch of its new YouTube channel, AGEING BITES!

 http://www.youtube.com/user/AgeingBites/videos

Ageing Bites is a series of short films each highlighting a different aspect of ageing or ageing issue. The films are also available to view on the BSG website: www.britishgerontology.org/ageing-bites.

If you would like to film an ageing bite or already have some material from a research project or through work that you think would be suitable, please share it with Rachel Hazelwoodrhazelwood@britishgerontology.org

Elderly and dangerous driving

Reading the BBC article "Who, what, why: How dangerous are elderly drivers?" I had some reactions to it. I didn't like the perspective. The article was basically confirming that elderly drivers don't necessarily cause more accidents, but if accidents happen they are usually more critical or fatal in their consequences. The latter has to do with the fact that when an elderly person is involved in an accident they are more likely to be seriously injured due to the frailty of the bones. I would have preferred if the article had been written more from a more inclusive viewpoint. Rather than selecting elderly drivers to be the main focus, the article could have investigated who are the safest drivers. Or which age groups cause the majority of accidents. 
In many ways I feel that the focus on elderly in the news is frequently re-inforcing the views that growing older could be an issue. I would like to see more positive news about the elderly population. The fact that many are still driving (after health checks) shows how they keep active and participate in social life. It would be nice to remind everybody to drive with considerations for others particularly on weekends and bank holidays where people socialise with their families and friends. 
  

annual BSG conference - great program

I'm currently at the BSG conference and heard about fascinating research - in particular about the unconsidered use of the term "loneliness"(often mixed up with social isolation and being alone) (Christina Victor), the representation of older women (Sukey Parnell) and their choices of dress (Julia Twigg).

My own talk "Using constructive design research to develop online social technologies for older people" is later today. Here is a link to the conference and program.

"Alive" - a charity working with ipad and older people

I have been very busy in the recent months with the final part of my practical PhD. In July I ran a participatory design workshop to discuss the future of the Teletalker. One of the outcomes is that the form of technology, albeit important, is secondary to its role within society. But the functionality must be kept simple. The ipad, as a more approachable technology for non-computer literate people, came up in the workshop's discussions several times.

So this reminded me to blog about Alive - a charity, which uses ipads to involve and stimulate older people in care homes, next other activities they offer such as reminiscence workshops.
As it was pointed out in my workshop during discussions, not all older people are in care homes - more needs to be done to address older people who are at home. Maybe Alive could also give ipad sessions for an older person at their home?

InTouch - a video link system for people with dementia

I found this project, which is similar to my current field research where I connect with the Telewalker (yes, the Teletalker on wheels - teletalker.org) residents with each other in different lounges of a care home. Since I'm still in the preparation phase I can't report much about my field research.
Though reading about this project it shows me how current my research is and whilst there are many similarities, my research is different.

InTouch is aimed at people with dementia, to reduce their social isolation, so that friends and family can contact them with an intuitive video link system. I found it particularly interesting that they choose to use a traditional telephone handset combined with a touch screen, which supports the argument to choose technology people are familiar with, well with the hand set at least.

My research focus less on the video call, but more on the notion of presence by connecting two lounges with an online window.

I plan to contact the organisers of this project to learn more. In particular, how they worked with data gathering by older people with dementia.

Find out more about InTouch on this website.

Interesting blog entry on: How the Internet and digital technology can combat social isolation

I read this blog entry in the blog: Connecting Social Care and Social Media.
Shirleyayres presents 7 internet based or digital resources to keep socially isolated older people connected. I list them here with my comments.

• DropBy - a functionality laden website, for which you need to have web literacy to access it 
• The casserole club - you need to have web access to find your neighbour cooking a spare meal - I assume that once a relationship is established you can check with your neighbour by phoning them
• Good Gym - usually when an older person is active (physically fit) they are not socially isolated - I wonder how the project accesses the socially isolated older person
• Mindings - technology needs to be bought / set-up, so the dispersed family member is connected and this will include technical support - who is giving this?
• Gen2Gen - a young volunteer gets trained to give computer support to an older person. I think it is a great way to bring generations together... I suspect not only older people would like to have some IT support
• Alive - a reminiscence work with help of the internet's resources... absolutely great, but notice the emphasis would be on the 'therapist' working with the older person
• Chill4usCarers - lots of carers are older people and that is great, though web literacy is required again in order to make use of this site 

Overall, it brings home to me that real connectivity can only be done through people and that the technology can only support the 'connector' or carer.... I don't think that any of the technologies listed here are made easy enough for a computer in-experienced older person to use, except the Gen2Gen project. There I'd say it's important to understand that the relationship, which will be built with the older person is based on trust and that volunteers should not change frequently. 

I look forward to further developments in technology to combat isolation...

Thanks Shirley for starting to compile a list. 

Older people as inexperienced user

Last week (7th March 13) I took part at Open University's workshop: Older People and Online Social Interactions - Examining Usability, Accessibility and Online Safety aspects.
It was a very interesting and useful workshop where Shailey Minocha and team presented the results of their current research into older people and social online interaction. The workshop consisted of a mix of people either designers or people working in accessibility, representing organisations working with older people, researching older people and older people themselves. We were asked to input with our feedback on their research results such as feedback on personas and guidelines they had created.
One interesting aspect for me was the feedback at the end of the day. One woman said that she didn't feel old and that she felt patronised by the way issues were discussed. She pointed out that many of the problems occur due to inexperience of using the web or the computer and that this hasn't got anything to do with age. I completely agree with her. Many of the issues that we experience when using online technology (e.g. password management) are the same tricky / confusing / dangerous / risky for anyone of any age, but particularly disconcerting for someone who is inexperienced. It doesn't matter whether they are young or old.
But watching this BBC video just now makes me think again about the difference between an inexperienced young person and an inexperienced older person. In this video they keep on mentioning how the older person is used to the analog world where you, for example, press the button harder if it didn't work the first time.

An inexperienced (with online technology) young person hasn't got necessarily pre-conceptions on how they think the technology works. Younger people are known to learn more through trial and error. They try things out and see what happens. Younger people are better connected through groups. Either in school / circle of friends / hobbies. In those groups they can discuss their experiences.

An inexperienced (with online technology) older person has got life experience in using other technologies. Learning strategies of older people are usually by applying existing knowledge, to read instructions and to work things out by understanding them first. They might have pre-conceived ideas from previous technologies on how things might work. They are more cautious in trying things out. And here comes the greatest difference I think, older people are less well connected to groups where they could easily discuss experiences or ask questions about their computer use. Note: I use the term older people, meaning people starting from the age of 65 years plus. Many people in their 60s and 70s are still very active and likely well connected to groups / family members. But with the group of 80+ year old the social connections and activities reduce to due various reasons such as health issues, mobility problems, peers dying.

So I wonder how much having previous knowledge of using technology actually hinders a person (of any age) to understand the new technology? Or is it the lost connection to groups, which stops people from trying things out and sharing their experiences?

Go on UK (ex Race online 2012) estimates for 3-3.5 million active resistors in the UK for online connectivity

Go on UK, the charity, which was formerly 'Race online 2012' and championed up by Martha Lane Fox to get everybody in the UK connected, shows on their website a diagram including statistics & persona information of who the target group is.

source: Go on UK
Go on UK concentrates their work on 'potential users' and 'narrow users' as they classify them.
An interesting point for me is the fact that they call a group of 3-3.5 million people "active resistors". In my research in statistics for numbers of Non-Internet users I found that there is a group of resisting internet users, but it wasn't as large as this. The Oxford Internet surveys with their 2011 report differentiated between ex-internet users (people who used to use a computer) and non-Internet users. With this not to be forgotten the group of proxi-users; people who don't use the computer themselves, but get their son / daughter / carer or grandchild to do it for them. Are they active resistors, or simply comfortable with the set-up their have? In the OXIS report 80% of the ex-users and 60% of the non-Internet users indicated that they have someone they know if they needed to go online. In my calculations at the time (in Jan 2012) I concluded that less than 2 millions people are really digitally disconnected.
Link to Go on UK Link to Oxford Internet Surveys