DIGITAL INCLUSION
REPORTING A DESIGN APPROACH TO ADULT ICT LEARNING
CLAIRE ENGLAND
Fo r e w o r d In 2011 more British people bought goods from services online than in any other major economy 1. Increasing numbers of companies in the private sector are now adopting a digital service delivery, to ensure competitiveness in this market, and in an attempt to be in line with the Government’s recent strategy to make all their own services online. With the outcome of digital by default by 2014, we are currently facing a changing approach to the way we interact, communicate and transact through service. However there is also a growing danger of future digital exclusion amongst many UK citizens; particularly amongst those who have not had the chance to learn digital skills in their formal education, and who will subsequently be disenfranchised in the face of a digital-only society, due to their lack of digital literacy. These citizens who are unable to access online services, or use them comfortably, are going to find themselves becoming increasingly excluded and marginalised in Britain, as the digital service economy expands, and the delivery of more and more basic public services goes online, to support a future digital by default Britain and cut costs in other areas of service. This problem of digital exclusion is a social concern as well as being an economic issue. As we enter an age of self-service in the digital environment, even though 9.2 million adults in the UK are not online, and with the large digital skills gap across generations, it is becoming increasingly important that ICT education services are provided for the adult citizens who have so far missed opportunities for learning in the digital age, to help build the knowledge and skills they need to operate online with confidence. The purpose of this report is to present the findings and recommendations from a research study into service for digital inclusion. Exploring a potential alternative approach for the delivery of digital learning to older adults, it proposes an opportunity to improve the execution of adult ICT education, through the consideration of the learners’ preferences; and also through the use of practical design methods, which reframe ICT learning for adult students, in a more positive and social context. The overall aim of this is to help improve the motivation and confidence of an adult learner, and encourage more future take-up of technology and ICT learning amongst lessconfident digital users, in line with Government aims, to make the UK and all of its citizens more digitally capable. 2
Contents
Claire England, Master of Design for Services, University of Dundee. July 2013
Introduction. 6 Research Context. 7 Methods. 9 Discussion. 15 Conclusion.16 Recommendation.17 References.19 Acknowledgements.20
Introduction The aim of this research study was to seek recommendations for alternative approaches to adult ICT education, through participatory workshops that tested a starting hypothesis that analogue tools and physical learning processes could help to improve the confidence and self belief of an older adult ICT learner when interacting with their digital technology for points of online service. It looked towards testing learning methods that could develop motivation, and provoke a sustainable spirit for practice amongst the participant learners, rather than through the format of a teacher-led digital skill learning session. The research study was conducted in an informal format, and used design methods for learning, such as object deconstructions and visual journeymapping to help reframe the specialist knowledge, facilitate discussion and provide extra information processing time for the learners. The five participants ranged from the ages of 50 to 75. All were familiar with digital technology, however considered themselves to be “learning the ropes” and some, were “reluctantly online” 2. It is also important to note that the participants all lived alone and are therefore isolated from support when they become stuck during online explorations and transactions.
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Context i. academic studies:
Since the Government released its intention to make their service strategy digital by default by 2014, partnerships have been co-ordinated to help reach the UK citizens who do not have basic digital skills, to encourage them to operate online. Go ON UK, chaired by Martha Lane Fox, the UK’s digital champion, aims to teach skills and knowledge to those who are not currently online, to ensure they get online and to help make the UK become more digitally capable 3. However the problem with measures such as these, which aim to quickly teach adult learners the digital skills they need, is that they are working towards a constantly moving target, and there is no quick and cheap solution for digital inclusion. It will require sustained support to teach older adults ICT skills, especially as technology and digital services continue to evolve, alongside the decreasing nature of ability in cognitive processing when learning within the elderly population itself 4. Furthermore when the elderly are so often objects of other people’s preconceptions regarding their needs and capabilities, 5 it is important that efforts to educate older adult learners and set up provision for digital education, take into consideration the terms on which older adults are prepared to seek and receive support, and find out what goals are significant to them when learning to go online. In addition to this, when it comes to education formats which help the learning process of an older adult who is interacting with digital technology, research has shown that older adults respond slower on tasks that assess cognitive speed 6, and for this reason recommendations against the traditional format of teaching, have been made for teachers of ICT, in order to maximise the learning capacity of an older adult learner. Measures such as incorporating periods for class discussion within a lesson, have been shown to create extra time for the information processing of an older learner, and ensure that the processing is deeper and therefore easier for the learner to retrieve later 7. Adding illustrations to instructions has also been shown to help decrease the processing demands on the working memory of an adult learner 8. The implication of this is that using design methods, to discuss ICT with adult learners may potentially be an area for development, due to their visual and intuitive appeal.
Recent research has also shown that relating new information to an older learner’s existing knowledge base can be an effective way to explain new concepts; this is because people refer to, and use, prior knowledge when learning and recalling new skills 9. By taking into consideration the older adult learner’s own historical frames of reference when they are learning a recent generation skill 10, and tailoring the teaching language and content accordingly, it could help to minimise wrong connotations and inferences which an older adult can make when learning the new computer skill 11. The question here is, that could teaching in informal environments, to encourage group dialogue amongst older learners, help to strengthen the quality of ICT learning taking place, through the relevancy provided to learners, as their knowledge is disseminated and broken down according to the understanding of their same generation peers? This academic research would suggest that there is more need for considered and tailored education provision from Government digital team partnerships such as the example of Go ON UK, who aim to teach older adults digital skills, but, so far, have only used measures which are reactive and taught from the point of view of a “digitally-savvy” ideal. A potential new approach for the design and delivery of adult ICT education service which provides peerdirected and informal learning, could strengthen the cognitive processing of an older adult learner, through the discussion and exchange of digital skills amongst peers with similar generation modes of interaction. The implication from these studies, became the starting point for the design workshop research: to test an alternative approach to ICT learning, in contrast to what is currently offered. The approach is practical, visual and informal, and is a potential new and unexplored avenue for assisted ICT service, as part of the evidence base for digital inclusion within the Governments service solution.
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Methods ii. the workshop:
The workshop program was created to test the developing hypothesis that analogue tools and physical learning processes could help to improve the confidence and self-belief of older adult learners, when using their own digital technology, through an alternative ICT education service approach to learning.
Method 1: Object Deconstruction The object deconstruction method was tested in the workshop environment. The task of deconstructing a technology keyboard was designed to encourage a practical learning process to take place. (Fig.1) Going through a physical process such as an object deconstruction, gives a participant opportunity to be thoughtful, and allows for feelings and ideas to manifest and become tangible 12. With this in mind, the activity of deconstructing keyboards was intended to facilitate and encourage a deeper ICT dialogue, based on the hands-on practical explorations of the adult learners 13, and cues which the informal process presented, to allow the learners to expand their ICT understanding, based on their thoughtful explorations, and participatory group knowledge exchanges. The process was also designed to help break down barriers of fear, and transform the participants’ confidence, due to the significance of what the deconstructed keyboards represented to the older adult learners. All were unfamiliar with the inner workings of modern digital objects, but could recall from previous generations, a DIY approach to learning, which meant they could in the past master, engage and control material objects in their own home by tinkering with them and disassembling them.
Results: The method of deconstructing technological objects within the workshop allowed for informal learning opportunities to arise through group dialogue and sharing. The learning was not pre-planned, but was guided through the object cues and current knowledge base of each individual participant sharing.
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Fig. 1
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This is a process of constructivist learning 14 and draws on the active integration of knowledge, drawn through experiences of thinking and feeling. It is the intuitive process of learning which professional experts in all fields use, and is in contrast to the process of concept formation, which novices 15 rely heavily on through the transfer application of learnt rules. The value of using this method to test whether physical learning processes could help to improve the confidence and self-belief of the participants, is that it allowed the participants to create their own knowledge; it also enabled them to gain deeper levels of meaning for this new knowledge, based on the similar historical frames of reference which all the group were familiar with, therefore allowing everyone the ability to engage, explore and investigate the subject of technology on their own terms.
Method 2: Visual Journey Mapping The second method, visual journey mapping, was used in the workshop environment to test whether analogue tools could be an alternative approach to teaching ICT concepts, with the projected outcome of improving an older ICT learner’s confidence, through improved recall, aided by the visual tools 16. The activity focused on learning how to ‘explore the internet’. The topic focus was suggested by some of the participants, who could not grasp the concept of the Google search engine through verbal dialogue alone. The visual journey maps (Fig. 2) drew on the metaphorical names companies give to web-browsers such as Internet Explorer (Windows) and Safari (Apple), and were illustrated using low-fi tools made out of materials such as cardboard and acetate. The named web-browser metaphors for exploring the internet, were re-enforced through the visual and physical nature of acting out the metaphors. Participants were presented with a tool kit that depicted a visual scenario to build, which centered around a participatory story; in these they became explorers of the internet network and used their paper web browser as a vehicle and key for travelling and unlocking webpages on the internet. The tool kit invited them to build their own safari journey of the internet, showing the top three websites they visited most when exploring online at home.(Fig.3)
Results: The success of this activity as a potential effective education tool was found to be hard to measure in the group setting. Participants responses to the exercise, suggested that this approach to teaching is better on a one-to-one basis, and the visual tool did not fit the required level of ability of all the 11
Fig. 2
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Fig. 3
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group members; thus some found the approach much more beneficial than others. However, this approach did help to highlight how the participants used the internet, through the visual re-framing of the topic. This then helped all the participants to understand their individual motivations for going online, through the requirement of self-reflection which was needed to complete the exercise. By comparing their results to each other’s in a gallery viewing, more discussion was allowed to develop, which encouraged a developing awareness for each participant’s own online activity, especially through comparison to other participants within the group. The pride induced through the sharing of a created design takeaway, created a positive learning environment, which focused and showcased the adult learners current digital explorations, rather than highlighting a lack of other digital skills. In this way the participants were encouraged to share more and become more confident, in the relaxed and enthusiastic environment in which none were passive, and all were equal learners.
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Discussion iii. implications:
A growth in confidence regarding the participants’ perceived online technological interactions was kick-started through the social focus of the workshop program and methods. This focus encouraged autonomy and exploratory learning, because of the safety-net the workshop group environment provided. This sense of security was mentioned in feedback during follow up sessions with the individual workshop participants, and it suggests that the establishment of bottoms-up ICT education services amongst communities and neighbours, could help to promote community resilience in the face of a digital by default future. This is because it stimulates learning in groups, and allows for positive friendships to form which are centered around the learning of new digital skills on a part time and informal exchange basis. The implication is that applications within the delivery of ICT learning services for older adult learners, that are informal, social and participant-led in approach, could offer huge value to the future growth of adult learning education. This is particularly important as it becomes a growing area for Government investment in light of the digital by default service standard 17. When asked what services participants would like to help tackle digital exclusion and promote digital skills, all agreed that there is a need for informal information swap programs [like the workshop design they experienced] which are proactive in their approach towards digital engagement learning, and focus on the personal growth of older adults, rather than through a reactive and rushed traditional, educational approach to ICT and digital skills which is driven by a target culture, and which is therefore less considerate to the motivations and habits of the attending learners.
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Conclusion For technology to become a regular integrated practice in daily life it must become invisible, as well as moulded to the habits, routines and behaviours of an accepting adult learner 18. It is clear now that research into formats for learning which are of practical, social and symbolic significance to an adult learner, and which aim to help encourage their internal motivation towards developing new digital skills, is an area in which there is still much exciting and innovative development work to be done. This report highlights one example of a designer’s exploratory approach to an informal ICT learning service, tested and reviewed amongst isolated older participants in a community who are not, at present, part of any ICT education measure to help improve their digital skills. We have seen how an approach to adult education, which focuses on encouraging confidence and enquiry for further learning, can have a value beyond its capabilities to teach digital skills. The participants from this research study were able to share the experience of learning with each other, through the workshop environment, which acted as educational ‘inspiration rather than instruction’ 19. Discussion and new friendship networks were developed ensuring that, although the workshop study is now over, participants can still call one another for peer support when they meet technological problems in the future, therefore helping to strengthen community bonds and promote civic participation.
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Recommendation: In a recent HM Treasury report delivered by George Osborne to Parliament, the need for strategic, long-term plans to build and renew key infrastructures such as digital capability within the UK was addressed. “For centuries we have been pioneers in infrastructure......But in recent years, we have let this proud record slip....It’s been the result of a collective national mindset that has privileged the short term over the long term, and has postponed difficult decisions.” In closing this report, I would like to propose a suggestion for consideration: With regards to the future of digital exclusion in this country, and given the severity of the generation gap for digital skills between older and younger citizens, it is my opinion and based on the results of this research, that if the Government are going to invest in measures to address the education of those with limited digital knowledge or skills, then more needs to be done to provide long term encouragement and the engaging of services which focus on meeting the needs of these citizens. Some citizens will always be ‘making-do’ in a future digital system which is not of their choosing 20; it is therefore imperative that attention and care should be given to ensure that future assisted digital services provide quality, and tailored learning, for older ICT learners. The approach to adult ICT education service should not be reactive, short-term and designed only to measure the numbers of learners being helped, but should instead seek to implement infrastructure, networks and a long term plan to provide sustained support approaches for those UK citizens who will always just be “reluctantly online”. Providing assistive service in the form of informal adult education should focus on encouraging self-strategies amongst older adults. It should aim to provide a safe and relaxed environment, for the development of trust and understanding that will eventually lead to digital autonomy amongst older explorers of the internet who lack confidence. If their aim is to adapt behaviour for a digital by default future, they should ensure that their approaches to service are sensitive in their delivery, and are adapted in order to be as positive as possible to an older adult learner. 21 17
References
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14. Daley, B.J. Novice to Expert: An Exploration of How Professionals Learn. Adult Education Quarterly 1999; 49(4): 133-147. http:// aeq.sagepub.com/content/49/4/133.full.pdf+html (accessed April 2013). 15. Dreyfus, E.S., Dreyfus, L.H. A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. University of California, Berkeley. 1980 16. Park, D.C, Puglisisi, J.T, Sovacool, M. Memory for pictures, words and spatial location on older adults: Evidence for pictorial superiority. Journal of Gerontology 1983; 38: 582-588. 17. Osborne, G., Alexander, D. Investing in Britain’s Future. HM Treasury. Report number:06/13,2013. 18. Silverstone, R., Hirsch, E. (eds). Consuming Technologies, Media and Information in Domestic Spaces. London: Routhledge; 1992. 19. Busch, O. The Dale Sko Hack. 2005. http://www/kulturservern.se/ wronsov/selfpassage/daleSkoHack/re-form_KIT.pdf (accessed April 2013): 20. Gauntlett, D. Making is Connecting. Cambridge: Polity Press: 2011. 21. Ostlund, B. Social Science Research on Technology and the Elderly-Does it Exist? Science Studies 2004; 17(2):44-62.
Acknowledgments Special thanks to the participants who took part in this study and also to Dr Jen Ballie, for her help and guidance throughout as project supervisor. 20