Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter XI
S3: Senior Surf School -
A Special Graduate
Information Systems
Course
Georg Disterer
University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hannover, Germany
ABSTRACT
Many elderly people (age of 60+) are keen on getting familiar with the Internet. At the same
time, end-user training gets more and more important for IT management. Therefore, we
implemented a graduate Information Systems course, where students have to design,
organize, manage, and run a training session, where elderly people can see and try using
the Internet. The students learned to design a teaching curriculum and teaching materials,
to set up and maintain the technical infrastructure, to organize end-user training, and, most
importantly, to teach and to train end-users.
INTRODUCTION
Internet Needs of Older People
In the countries of the western hemisphere, we observe a growing elderly population
(60+), where many older people are smart and clever enough to focus their attention on
management of productive elder years. They are keen to get to know and to use modern tools
and techniques, but some circumstances and barriers hinder them in reaching a promising
starting point. For example, within the population of the users of the Internet, elderly people
