My Turn: GCC effort turning elders into ‘Cyber Seniors’

By Judy Raper

Published: 02-12-2024 5:49 PM

It would be an understatement to say that our world is becoming increasingly digital and the pandemic has only accelerated this shift. The reality is one uses digital skills to pay bills, access health records, watch television, connect socially, access education, shop and so much more. Increasingly, strong digital skills are needed to meet our most basic needs, and this “new normal” alienates and marginalizes multiple demographics, including people living in rural areas and those living at or below the poverty line.

One of the demographics most impacted by digital exclusion are older adults. Given that one in three residents in Franklin County will be over the age of 65 by 2030, it is imperative that we lend resources, compassion and our collective will to addressing this issue.

A few years ago, Greenfield Community College established a program to address the digital equity challenge faced by older adults. It is modeled after the international program “Cyber Seniors” (cyberseniors.org/), and involves young people (who are digital natives) meeting one-on-one with older adults to assist them with laptops, phones, tablets and questions related to technology. This summer, the Greenfield Senior Center received a grant from the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs, and partnered with GCC allowing for significant expansion of this critically important program.

The impact of this program cannot be overstated. One participant said: “This is the most awesome opportunity I have had in my life in over 10 years. I am so excited and hope the program continues and grows!” You can register for an appointment here: gccfor.me/cyber.

An added and significant benefit of this initiative is the intergenerational bond that grows from spending time together learning about devices essential to quality of life. Young people have grown up in the digital world, but for older adults, technology is not our native language. Confidence grows for young people as they are able to share valuable information and expands for older adults as they acquire skills and knowledge that previously seemed unattainable.

Learning is best facilitated in the context of relationships. Cyber Senior tech mentor and GCC student Liv Dow said, “I have loved helping older adults develop the skills they need to connect with their family and friends. It makes a huge difference in their lives.”

Unquestionably, the evolution of technology in our society has allowed us to progress in important arenas, but has also resulted in unintended harms. Cyber Seniors affords us the opportunity to align technology with the opportunity to serve our collective best interests.

The additional financial resources afforded by the state grant has allowed GCC to hire Cyber Senior Coordinator Donna Dusell. “As someone who didn’t grow up with technology, but was an early adopter, I have appreciated seeing how both sides of the spectrum can come together to learn from each other and forge intergenerational connections,” Donna said.

In addition to expanding one-on-one hours, we have begun offering workshops about topics such as understanding email, organizing photos, cybersecurity, social media and more. All of these workshops are offered free of charge to participants. You can register here: gccfor.me/engage-tech. We have even developed a podcast by and for older adults covering topics such as music, dementia, intergenerational conversations, volunteer opportunities in the Pioneer Valley and more. It is called “Backyard Oasis.” You can listen to our podcast here: gccfor.me/backyard-oasis. We are always open to new ideas!

An essential role of any community college is to partner with local leaders and organizations to address challenges and serve as a cultural, social and educational anchor for the regions they serve. Indeed, they play a crucial role in the preservation of democracy. Democracy demands that individuals have fair access to the information required for full participation in society. We owe it to the older adults in our community and ourselves to do all we can to ensure digital inclusion.

When we strive for inclusion and equity, life is enhanced for all of us. Providing access to digital education is a requisite component of fulfilling that promise. Whether you are an older adult who desires to learn more about technology or know someone who could benefit from Cyber Seniors, we hope you will take advantage of this incredible resource. If you have suggestions or questions, please email me at raperj@gcc.mass.edu.

Judy Raper is associate dean for community engagement at Greenfield Community College.

The best tech support helplines for seniors (according to my 73-year-old mom)

We, the adult children, can’t always be their only resource.

Amy Skorheim

Commerce Writer

Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 9:00 AM EST

Engadget readers like yourself are probably more tech savvy than the average person. That means you may get roped into helping older family members with email woes, new phone setups, or deciphering if a message is legit or a phishing scam. In my family, I’ve become my mother’s unofficial IT support hotline, which makes me wonder about older adults with adult kids who are short on time. Turns out there are a number of resources staffed with actual people who will calmly walk seniors through just about any tech trouble they may face. Many local libraries and senior centers host classes and even one-on-one tech assistance to seniors for free, but if they can’t make it to a live session or there aren’t offerings in their area, phone hotlines and online services may be the answer.

For the past couple weeks, I used my mom and her frequently asked questions to try out a few of the senior tech hotlines out there and found three services that are refreshingly helpful, two of which are completely free and a third that includes a free option. If you know a senior who could use help with their tech, directing them to one of these services won’t feel like pawning them off, but rather like you’re sending them to an IT pro with endless patience.

Top three free senior tech support companies

Cyber-Seniors tech hotline

What surprised me most about Cyber-Seniors (and Senior Planet listed below) is that the service is completely free. Cyber-Seniors is a non-profit staffed by volunteers, most of whom are young people trained to act as “digital mentors” to an older generation. The service also offers daily webinars via Zoom on topics like accessing internet radio, finding senior networking sites and understanding disinformation.

For one-on-one tech help, there’s a simple form to fill out with basic information (email, date of birth, device type, etc) before picking an available date and time for the volunteer to call back. I scheduled a session for my mom when she wanted to figure out how to invite my brother to a Google Meet video chat. The time was set for noon on a Tuesday and she got the call right at the stroke of 12. She explained what she wanted to do and the volunteer patiently walked her through the steps to complete the task. My mother said she didn’t feel rushed, nor was she made to feel dumb for not knowing how to do basic things such as how to find my brother’s email address. The volunteer even let her try out a test Meet chat with him before their call was over.

Before signing off, the mentor told my mother to ring back at any time to speak with him specifically (there’s a field in the sign up form to request a mentor by name) or with anyone else on the Cyber-Seniors team.

Senior Planet from AARP

Senior Planet, another free hotline service, is offered by AARP but callers don’t need to be members to use it. Like Cyber-Seniors, there’s also a live online class component, and in-person sessions are offered in major cities across the US as well. If someone needs help immediately and doesn’t want to wait for a callback, this is the hotline to try. Monday through Friday from 9AM to 8PM Eastern, staff and volunteers answer questions about email, Zoom, iPhone notifications and other tech conundrums.

When I called, I reached one of the “technology trainers” within a minute. The hotline is best for simple questions, but for more involved tech training, Senior Planet recommends its live Zoom sessions that it hosts each day in which participants can ask questions. The classes cover tech-related issues like how to use Spotify and how AI works, but they also range wider to cover book club discussions and daily fitness sessions. And if anyone needs help joining a class, the hotline can help with that.

GoGoQuincy

GoGoQuincy was the first senior tech help service I heard about, and it has since refocused to offer assistance to anyone who needs it, not just people over 65. There’s a hotline for immediate aid or you can schedule a call through the website. It’s free the first time you call and once per month after that. More than one call each month incurs a $5 monthly fee, plus $11 per call. If you think you’ll call more than twice per month, it might be wise to pay $20 monthly for the unlimited plan.

Though it’s not free, GoGoQuincy covers the most ground, answering questions about smart home tech, TVs, e-readers and more, and even provides assistance with sussing out scams and phishing. I set up a call for my mother when she found she had notifications silenced on her iPhone and didn’t know how to unsilence them. There was a little hiccup when Quincy called her back and her phone (for unknown reasons) blocked their number, but I walked her through how to unblock a number and she was ready for her session.

Much like Cyber-Seniors, my mom felt unrushed while explaining her issue. The technician led her through the fix, unbothered by any lack of understanding and stayed on the line with her until she received a few test texts and to make sure everything was working properly. Despite the fact that it’s a potentially paid program, the GoGoQuincy rep didn’t try to upsell a membership or get her to sign up for anything — they just wished her a good day and told her to call back if she ever needed more help.

GoodLife in Concord celebrates 10 years with an open house (technology included)

By David Brooks, Monitor Staff

When it comes to senior citizens and technology, the problem isn’t really that things are too complicated. The problem is that they won’t stand still.

“Technology is an issue with a lot of seniors – it changes so quickly,” said Lori Mckinney, program manager for GoodLife Programs and Activities, which has provided services for people over the age of 50 at the Smokestack Center in Concord for 10 years.

After all, some of GoodLife’s participants were in their 30s when America Online brought the internet to the attention of the general public, so it’s not as if computers are a foreign concept to them. But learning and then discarding how to cope with technical change after technical change can get exhausting – all those tips you mastered to operate Windows 95 or the VCR are useless now – and assistance might be required to keep up.

“There’s always a need for talks about cellphones, tablets, the internet, emails, posting photos on social media, whatever it might be,” said Mckinney.

The most recent example was last Tuesday, when Breezline, the telephone/internet company, held a seminar on email basics.  They followed it up with one at a Rochester community center, in partnership with the non-profit Cyber-Seniors, an organization that provides training and digital mentoring.

Mckinney said the pandemic showed the most technologically reluctant of seniors the value of being online, making such assistance even more important.

“We had some folks that for a long time didn’t want anything to do with any of that stuff. But especially during and after COVID they realized it’s a way to keep in touch with family and friends … and to do things,” she said.  “It’s another tool that we can use to help engage people.”

GoodLife will be celebrating its years of helping with an open house on Wednesday from 3 to 5 p.m. at its offices at 254 N. State St. More than 150 people have registered for the free event. 

GoodLife evolved from the closing of the Centennial Home for the Aged, what is now the Centennial Hotel, in the 1990s. It became the Centennial Senior Center but changed to GoodLife when it moved to the Smokestack Center 10 years ago.

Breezeline Provides Digital Training to Empower Older Adults in New Hampshire

Breezeline partners with Cyber-Seniors to teach essential skills

December 07, 2023 16:45 ET| Source: Breezeline

CONCORD, NH, Dec. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Breezeline, the nation’s eighth-largest cable operator, hosted two digital literacy seminars this week to empower older adults in New Hampshire with the knowledge and skills to effectively navigate the digital world.

On Tuesday, a seminar focusing on email basics was held at GoodLife Programs and Activities in Concord. This seminar served as an introduction to creating and sending email. On Wednesday, a seminar was held at the James W. Foley Memorial Community Center in Rochester. Breezeline held these seminars in partnership with the non-profit Cyber-Seniors, an organization that provides tech training and digital mentoring to seniors.

“Knowing how to effectively and confidently use email opens doors for many in our community,” said Susan Greenbolt, executive director of GoodLife Programs and Activities. “The skills that Breezeline and Cyber-Seniors teach will help older adults in New Hampshire stay connected to the people and things they love.”

According to a study published by the National Institute of Health, a majority of older adults have positive attitudes toward technology, believing that it saves time, is easy to use, and helps with communication. The study also found that those who used technology had an overall higher level of life satisfaction, in part, because they felt more connected and less lonely than those who did not use technology. Researchers noted that older adults often do not use technology because they find it too complicated or difficult to learn. 

“Using technology is an essential part of staying connected in today’s world,” said Brenda Rusnak, co-founder and president of Cyber-Seniors. “We are proud to partner with Breezeline to teach important skills and empower older adults in New Hampshire.”

To further make the online experience more comfortable, Breezeline provided attendees with blue light glasses that prevent eye strain while looking at screens.

This event is one of several steps Breezeline is taking to foster digital literacy and the responsible use of technology in New Hampshire. Over the summer, Breezeline made a donation to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programming at Children’s Museum of New Hampshire every time a New Hampshire Fisher Cats baseball player hit a ball over 100MPH.

To learn more about Breezeline’s commitment to digital literacy, please visit www.cyberseniors.org/breezeline.

Calvert Hall students help seniors navigate new technology

October 19, 2023
By Kurt Jensen

Lesson number one about helping senior citizens navigate technology, mostly laptops and phones: Lean into the generation gap. Accept it. Revel in it. Stumble through it. And always speak slowly.

That’s what one current Calvert Hall College High School student and one former student learned over the summer in the Cyber-Senior program administered by the Baltimore County 4-H extension.

Logan Moon, a Calvert Hall sophomore, is a member of St. Joseph Parish in Cockeysville. Isaac Hawkins is now a sophomore at Georgetown University.

Cyber-Seniors is a nonprofit organization founded in 2015, the outgrowth of a documentary on volunteers who help senior citizens cope with rapidly changing technology.

The Baltimore County program launched in 2020, partnered with the Baltimore County Department of Aging.

From July through August, high school and college students worked with their eager new pupils – 96 in all – at senior centers in Towson, Parkville, Reisterstown, Randallstown, Dundalk and Monkton, with an additional class taught in Hereford for the agricultural community.

The program created videos on YouTube to support long-term learning, and also a four-part podcast series for the Maryland Agriculture Law Education Initiative on topics related to farming. Moon and Hawkins were two of seven digital mentors for the seniors. As is typical in tutoring relationships, they learned as much as they taught, and the first thing they learned was that technology skills are not intuitive.

“For me, personally, patience,” Moon said. “Some are hard of hearing, so you have to speak slowly and ask if they learned anything.”

For Hawkins, it was finding out that “maybe farmers are not well-versed with technology, even though my own grandparents had to use it.”

There were the inevitable cell-phone anecdotes, too.

They encountered one man with 50 apps on his phone that he thought were intended to speed it up. “It did the opposite,” Isaac observed. The learning curve involved explaining the difference between real, functioning apps and fake ones.

And there were small moments of joy, including the man who texted his son for the first time – he was greatly impressed – and a woman they described as “very, very shy” who gained self-confidence with her new communication skills.

Older technology was a big hit as well. The Hereford senior center group appeared resistant to new forms. Not a problem – there was the classic Nintendo Wii.

Seven seniors learned how to operate Wii Sports – still a popular group activity – and Just Dance. To them, it was entirely new; to the students, ancient electronics from 2006.

“We had to tell them that Wii stopped being popular 12 years ago,” Hawkins said.

“From a larger standpoint, this is about providing … an intergenerational service,” said Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins, Isaac’s mother, who works for the University of Maryland 4-H Extension.

“They got as much out of it as the seniors. To see something bigger than themselves is valuable.”

Lighthouse Guild’s Innovative Tech Pals Program Receives $10,000 Grant

The grant supports intergenerational mentorships and continues an established partnership

NEW YORK – In recognition of World Sight Day, Lighthouse Guild has received a $10,000 grant from Iveric Bio, an Astellas Company, to support its innovative Tech Pals program.

This new program is an intergenerational technology training program where tech savvy young adults (aged 18-24) who are blind or visually impaired, serve as mentors to older adults (aged 55+) who are also visually impaired and want to become proficient in the use of their mobile phones and tablets. The mentors receive extensive training on techniques for teaching as well as on-going support through a collaboration with Cyber-Seniors, a non-profit organization based out of Canada that provides virtual intergenerational technology training to typically sighted seniors. 

Piloted with support from the Readers Digest Partners for Sight Foundation, this grant will help this new program to expand and improve.

“The Tech Pals program not only provides participants with skills and support, but also meaningful connections,” said Calvin W. Roberts, MD, President & CEO of Lighthouse Guild. “We thank Iveric Bio for their generous gift to support this new initiative, and we are pleased to partner with them in celebrating World Sight Day.”

Iveric Bio has previously supported Lighthouse Guild through employee volunteerism with clients focused on career and job skills as well as engaging in the GuildCare program.

City of Niagara Falls launches ‘Cyber Seniors’ technology training program

by Nick Redekop

October 10, 2023 

As the world enters the second generation of personal computing and internet-based technology, the need to help elderly citizens utilise these powerful tools is growing. That is why this fall, the Municipality of Niagara Falls will launch its inaugural technology training program for seniors. 

The class, which will be run in six-week intervals of two-hour sessions (one hour of instruction and one hour of discussion), is slated to take place at the MacBain Community Centre at 7150 Montrose Rd. 

DJ Brooks currently serves as Community Development Coordinator in the Recreation and Culture Department at the City of Niagara Falls. 

“We already do a lot of older adult programming through the City,” Brooks shared in a recent interview with The Niagara Independent. “And we have a digital media group (to help) with their technology needs,” he added. “The group is great but informal. We wanted to try and get a more structured opportunity together.” 

The program will be made possible by a variety of types of labour. “Cyber Seniors is our main contact,” Brooks said. “We also will have volunteers to help run the program, plus our Brock Recreation Intern, myself and the Manager of Older Adults and Aquatics Hanya Nagy.”

With original offerings that span the coming fall and winter, the City hopes that the training classes will become a permanent way to support the community. “We are committed to running the program through March 2024,” Brooks explained. “If we see active participation in the program, we would continue it indefinitely,” he furthered. “If the need is still there, we will absolutely continue to run it.” 

As internet, phone and messaging scams continue to target seniors, cyber-safety will be a key component of the program. “Cyber-safety is only one aspect of the program, but it is part of it,” Brooks said. “Each week will be a different topic – cyber-safety is one of those topics.” 

“We are using the Cyber Seniors expertise in program design and digital knowledge to help with lesson planning and then we, with our volunteers, will deliver the program to the community.” 

When asked what would make the program a resounding success, Brooks had some notable thoughts to share. “Anytime we can help people connect socially we find it a success,” he related. “One of our goals is to help older adults maintain health – physically, socially and mentally – and this program can help in some of these areas.”

“Many older adults in our community are intimidated by technology – we just want to help them ease that anxiety and be able to use the technology to better their lives.” 

The City is actively looking for Tech Mentors to help run Cyber Seniors classes. Those interested in learning more or applying can do so at the following links: Cyber Seniors and Application Form.

Niagara Falls offering new technology training program for older adults

Cyber Seniors is a six-week, hands-on program at MacBain Community Centre

By The Niagara Falls Review

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

The City of Niagara Falls, in collaboration with the provincial government, is offering a new technology training program targeted toward older adults.

Cyber Seniors is a six-week, hands-on program to be delivered at MacBain Community Centre this fall.

Classes will cover topics such as cyber safety, email tips, navigating smartphones and tablets, and a beginner’s guide to social media.

The City is looking for volunteer tech mentors to facilitate the classes, acting as a resource on all things technology for older adults.

The city encourages local youths to become a tech mentor as it will help to build their resumes or complete high school community service hours while honing leadership, communication, time management and decision-making skills.

Individuals interested in becoming mentors, or looking to enrol in classes, can visit https://niagarafalls.ca/living/community-facilities/macbain-centre/older-adult-program/cyber-seniors.aspx.

Meet 7 of Canada’s Brightest Change Makers

Across business, science and technology—they’re paving the way for a better future one great idea at a time.

BY : EMILY TAMFO– SEP 6TH, 2023

THE SISTERS TEACHING SENIORS

It all started in 2009, when Kascha and Macaulee Cassaday had to do some volunteering to graduate high school. They, like all kids that age, just wanted to get their hours in, but when they noticed how much they used tech to stay close with their grandparents, a light bulb went on. The Toronto-based siblings realized that by teaching older generations how to use modern tech, they could bridge the digital divide between young and old. They started by touring local retirement communities to tutor seniors on how to use popular apps like Skype and Facebook. Their experience was captured in the critically acclaimed 2014 documentary Cyber-Seniors (directed by their sister, Saffron Cassaday). Fourteen years later, they’ve built a non-profit with reach across North America and a mission to create digital equality and connect generations through technology. “During the pandemic, we all learned how social isolation can negatively impact us, and older adults are at a higher risk of social isolation as they age,” says Kascha. “Our organization is powered by youth volunteers who are in high school or university. All the older adults we work with are lifelong learners who are dedicated to keeping their minds sharp. As much as they are learning from us, they are giving back by guiding us to be better teachers and leaders.” If you’ve ever needed a reminder to call your grandparents, this is it.

cyberseniors.org