How Education Level and Willingness to Learn Affect Older Adults in their use of Mobile Technology in Southwest Idaho

As a person’s age increases, their use of technology decreases (Casado- Muñoz, 2015), which can hinder their access to resources, such as medical care, online products and services, and basic communication. For 90% of American adults, the use of mobile technology is a part of daily life (Pew Research Center, 2014). Previous research shows that if seniors have higher education levels and willingness to learn, they are more likely to use technology (Bailey & Sheehan, 2009). This project will examine how education levels affect a senior’s use of technology, and how their willingness to learn affects their adoption of mobile technology. I will conduct interviews and surveys with 100 individuals, aged 65 years or older; 50 individuals enrolled currently in educational courses and 50 individuals who are not. This research gives a deeper understanding of the factors that influence technology use in seniors, and how to encourage such usage

Evolving modes of student use - whither the VLE?

We consider the issue of where physically Informatics students choose to work. Technological change now offers them a range of points of access, at the same time as institutions are exploiting these modes to the full. In the context of a new institutional VLE, we have conducted a preliminary study of modes of use: we learn, unsurprisingly, that use of central bulk laboratories is diminishing, but that there may be subtle patterns of behaviour evident among individuals. We note that these behaviours are driven by strong external forces and will not be countered, and further note that there may be cause to worry about students becoming ‘virtual’, both for their own academic benefit and their enculturation. We conjecture that conclusions for Informatics will be relevant to the whole academy as time passes, and propose work to monitor this issue