Laughter bounces off the tile floor in the Davis Senior Center as small groups of 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 students huddle with older adults around laptops. They are working together to price flights to visit family, write emails or buy medicine online.
鈥淟et鈥檚 see what happens when I do this,鈥 said Christine Adams, of Davis, as she pecks at a key on her laptop. 鈥淥K, now how do I pick an emoji using the keyboard?鈥
Empowering older adults
This is the scene of a new community-engaged learning course offered by 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 that is both teaching 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 students about intergenerational learning and communication, and helping combat age segregation and digital exclusion among older adults.
The course, 鈥淯ser-Centered Design and Technology Training of Older Adults in the Community,鈥 is led by Lisa M. Soederberg Miller, professor of human development, in partnership with the Davis Senior Center and Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance. It was made possible by the Community Engaged Learning Faculty Fellows program, or CELFF 鈥 one of several programs offered by 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 to promote community-engaged teaching and research.
鈥淭eaching older adults how to use technology is what we are doing, but it鈥檚 not why we are doing it,鈥 Miller said. 鈥淲e want to help these older adults feel connected and empowered to pursue more learning opportunities on their own in the future.鈥
![Faculty woman with blong hair in 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 classroom with students seated at computers in background](/sites/default/files/media/images/sized-faculty-SeniorCenterClass-17.jpg)
Service, teaching and research in one
Miller said the CELFF fellowship opened her eyes to the nuances of community-based learning and taught her the skills to share that knowledge and mindset with her students.
鈥淐ommunity-engaged learning is an entirely different way of approaching teaching,鈥 Miller said.
鈥淚t is not just service, or teaching, or research; to me, it鈥檚 service, teaching and research all in one.鈥 - Miller
The 2020-21 CELFF program allowed Miller to experiment with community engagement in an existing course in which students spoke with older adults about technology issues over the phone. In fall 2022, Miller created a two-credit first-year seminar in which students visited the Davis Senior Center and provided older adults from low-income communities with personalized instructions on computers and web-based technologies. The CELFF program helped Miller strengthen the curriculum and a partnership with the Davis Senior Center, which provided the space for the class, and the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance, or YHAA.
Together, Miller and YHAA also obtained Yolo County Recovery Act funds to support the project, which included a free laptop and two-year internet connection for all seniors in the class. At the end of the 10-week course, the students presented their senior partner with a personalized manual summarizing all the tutorials they covered in class.
Enriching for all
Older adults in the class, many of whom realized during the pandemic that they could no longer procrastinate on learning technology, said they were overjoyed to receive the one-on-one instruction.
鈥淚鈥檝e been begging my family to show me how to do things, but they never had the time. The students here are all so patient. I don鈥檛 remember being that patient when I was in college,鈥 said Davis resident Erica Crosby with a laugh. 鈥淣ow I can access the internet at my apartment. I couldn鈥檛 do that before.鈥
鈥淲hoever came up with this program deserves a lot of 鈥榯hank yous鈥 for their foresight and generosity with creating this program,鈥 said participant Adams, adding she is hopeful she will learn how to video chat with her daughter who is living in England.
The 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 students in the class said they found a lot of joy working with older citizens in the community, and appreciated the hands-on learning aspect of the class.
鈥淥ne of the main reasons I decided to come to 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 was because of the small town, community feel,鈥 said Carmen Flores, a transfer student majoring in design. 鈥淚 like that they are encouraging us to be with the community through this class. It makes me feel that I鈥檓 a part of the Davis community, not just the 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 community.鈥
Call for systemwide support
Community-engaged learning drives Miller鈥檚 work, but she said it also has challenges.
For example, Miller has 20 community partners with which to execute this course 鈥 the Davis Senior Center, Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance and 18 senior citizens 鈥 plus the 30-plus students who are taking the class. Miller chose to use sabbatical leave to better accommodate the extra time required to set up the pilot course.
Building community partnerships
Courses such as this break down misperceptions associated with ageism. While the older adults received assistance with the technology, Miller said she and her students also benefited because the course helped them truly understand what low-income older adults needed. And community partners involved with the project said the synergies Miller and her students created made the program more robust than they could have hoped.
鈥淭his program wouldn鈥檛 be possible without the students,鈥 said Nathan Reed who is an outreach worker for Yolo Health Aging Alliance.
鈥淭he collaboration has worked really well. Not only did it make it logistically possible, but it was great to have partners to problem-solve issues we encountered as we were building the program.鈥
Media Resources
Media Contact:
- Becky Oskin, Director of Communications and Marketing, 澳门六合彩开奖结果走势图 Public Scholarship and Engagement, 530-219-2763, bcoskin@ucdavis.edu