Media Contact:
Anna Turnage, College of Education, 919/515-7017

Dec. 5, 2003

Education Students Create Computer Tutorial for Senior Citizens

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bob Bandsuch evaluates a computer tutorial designed by NC State students.

Two years ago, 65-year-old Bob Bandsuch stared fear in the face when he first sat before a computer. Now he takes every opportunity to learn more.

Students in the Educational Psychology 304 class in North Carolina State University’s College of Education presented a perfect opportunity when they asked Bandsuch to participate in a usability test of their new computer tutorial for senior citizens.

The students were challenged to find a project that would help the community while applying what they were learning in a real-world setting. They decided to create a tutorial that will allow seniors to learn on their own or with an instructor in a group setting. The class plans to release the tutorial at the beginning of the year for senior centers across Wake County. Bandsuch says allowing seniors to learn computers on their own time may take some of the intimidation out of the process.

“A lot of people my age are afraid of computers,” Bandsuch says. “This is technology that happened so late in our lives. They don’t realize what they’re missing. It’s so much fun.”

The tutorial contains 11 lesson plans organized by level: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The beginning lessons are paper-based, since they teach very basic things like turning on a computer, using graphical interfaces and understanding the parts of a computer. The intermediate lessons discuss e-mail and using the Internet. The advanced lessons teach participants to send e-cards, manage files and use a scanner. The intermediate and advanced tutorials will be put on a CD-ROM.

The project is a unique learning tool for the students and provides a free service to a group not often reached, says Rachelle Ornan, an NC State doctoral student and the teaching assistant leading the class.

“This project helps the students apply their teaching skills to a different kind of group,” she says. “The biggest challenge is trying to teach them to think outside themselves and build the lesson plans from the ground up. They have to think like someone who has never used a computer before.”

That’s harder than it sounds, says NC State junior Kirk Chitkhin, who is so familiar with computers that he regularly helps his friends and family with problems.

“It was difficult at first to get both mindsets going,” he says. “I really had to think about what I was doing and how to present the material in a way that beginners can understand.”

Even though Bandsuch already knows the basics of how to use a computer, the tutorial helped him learn new things.

“It’s amazing the things you can do,” he says. “I can look up old friends and make contact with them again. I can look up things I’ve always wanted to learn about, but never had time to read the book. To me, it’s more interesting than a telephone. My generation always wrote letters. Now I have a faster way to do that.”

Chitkhin says it’s important for senior citizens to learn how to use a computer now, since technology progresses at such a fast pace. “Almost everything now is being run using computers,” he says. “If they don’t start learning now, they’re going to get further and further behind as technology continues to move forward.”

Ornan says working with senior citizens has given the students a different perspective on teaching and learning.

“Here you have a bunch of 19- and 20-year-olds who are reaching out across two generations to apply their skills and, at the same time, they’re doing something to help the community,” Ornan says.

The students revised the first version of the tutorial based on feedback from the usability test last month. And although the class ends this semester, some of the students are going to spend next semester reworking and improving the lessons based on the feedback they got from more pilot tests with the seniors.

“This is a really great bunch of students,” Ornan says. “They’re very motivated.”

- turnage -