Users and Non-users: The Digital Divide among Senior Citizens

Professor Birgit JægerDep. of Society and Globalisation

Roskilde University

Learning Environment

• Pedagogic of understanding• Taking point of departure in the old

participants• Equality• Helping teachers• Repetition and speed• Workshops• Support

Non- and ex-users

Non-users Ex-users

Voluntary situation

Resisters Rejecters

Forced situation Excluded Expelled

Resisters

• Have never learned how to utilize IT – and do not want to

• Barriers:• Personal attitudes • Identity• Lack of education and knowledge skills

Yes – it doesn’t interest me in the least… there is no way that I feel like it… that’s just the way it is – and I don’t have any use for it, so it would just be for the sake of entertainment. Interviewer: Well, you could easily manage your daily routine without it and…- I have been able to do so all my life.

Excluded

• Would like to learn how to utilize IT but feel excluded

• Barriers:• Social structures• Lack of suitable teaching• Lack of knowledge about how to

compensate for disability

Rejecters

• Have learned how to utilize IT but do not want to

• Barriers:• Interpretation of technology• Lack of rules• Identity

Yes – I have tried it, and I was also easily able to figure it out. But I must admit that I prefer human contact. I just don’t feel like sitting there and staring into a screen…I don’t really have any use for e-mail – we don’t know anyone … in Timbuktu. And so – I would rather talk with the people I am communicating with than sit there and write on a computer…What I use it for – have just used it for – is that I study history and have to make a presentation about King Frederik VI. So I write on the computer, but that is just like writing on a typewriter. I mean – it isn’t really very computer-like.

Expelled

• Have learned how to utilize IT but have no longer access

• Barriers:• Illness• Economy• Space

Conclusion

• It is possible to overcome the digital divide based on age

• However, it requires the establishment of some learning environments where the training is tailored to aging people

• This requires resources. Hence, the government has to take responsibility and support with resources to the establishment of telecentres across the country

• Finally, the question of how to motivate the people who resist using ICT needs further investigation

Thank you for your attention!