DCU Intergenerational Learning Project School of Education Studies Trudy Corrigan Carmel Conroy Paddy Redmond Dr Joe O’Hara Professor Gerry McNamara.

DCU Intergenerational Learning Project

School of Education Studies

Trudy Corrigan Carmel Conroy

Paddy Redmond Dr Joe O’Hara

Professor Gerry McNamara

Going Local 2 Digital Inclusion

DCU Intergenerational Learning Project.

Teaching and Learning between generations.

24th October 2011.

DCU Intergenerational Learning Project

Funded by:

Age and Opportunity.

Department of Communications,Energy and Natural Resources.

Learning Innovation Unit DCU.

Older people who have participated in the study.

All older people who are interested in participating in new teaching and learning opportunities at third level.

Average ages range from aged 60 to 85 plus years of age.

Both older men and women have participated.

DCU Intergenerational Learning Project:

Identifying the need for this project at third level.

Ageing population at both national and international levels increasing across all demographics worldwide.

Need to engage older people in the knowledge society through digital inclusion.

Through digital inclusion, this project…..

Embraces wisdom and tacit knowledge of older people in third level learning.

Values the exchange of knowledge and learning between generations.

New technology in collaboration with more traditional ways of learning

ICT skills

Peer learning for ICT modules

Emergent Themes:

Benefits for older people.

Benefits for DCU students.

Benefits for third level learning.

Benefits for society.

Benefits for older people.

B Theme 1.Participation in third level learning:

I am seventy years of age and I have seen this university grow. I always dreamed that I would enter DCU. I always had that dream so now when I enter the gates for my computer class with the younger students…I often have to pinch myself that I am still learning.Patrick older student.

Benefits for older people:

Theme 2: Learning as a pedagogy that breaks down the digital divide:

It (the project) has opened a window for us older learners to the world of the internet, emails, skype and blogging. It is a wonderful feeling. We are not going to stop now. Gretta Older student.

Benefits for older people:

Theme 3: Learning that facilitates mental stimulation and so contributes to overall well-being for older people:

…I really do appreciate the friendship and mental stimulation. The classes do for my mind what regular exercise does for my body. What a long way Ireland has come in the last eighty one years.Frances older student.

Benefits for DCU students who participated in the study.

Theme 1: Supports the development of critical thinking and reflection for third level learning.

Theme 2: Contributes to both the professional and personal development of third level students.

Theme 3: Facilitates the development of self-esteem and confidence of third level students.

Benefits for DCU students:

Theme 2: Contributes to both the personal and professional development of the third level students . I think the sharing of knowledge aspect of the course is hugely important…often I find that the exchange of knowledge is not tangible but instead comes in the form of self-development for myself personally. I have found this to be very valuable both in my academic and workplace environments.

Deborah DCU student

Benefits for DCU students:

Theme 3: Facilitates the self-esteem and confidence of third level students:Personally the project has helped me grow in confidence and greatly enhanced my knowledge of what it means to both learn and teach. I have stood in front of a class for the first time and taught a subject I am passionate about. I have spoken at a conference in front of a scarily large audience. I have grown to become comfortable with situations which I would have gone to the ends of the earth to avoid before I joined the project over a year ago. Mark DCU student.

Benefits for third level learning:

Theme 2: Facilitates the university to be socially engaged:

By bringing together younger students with older learners, the project is not only building up basic online skills, showing how useful the internet can be and encouraging ongoing online participation but it is also facilitating a dual-exchange of knowledge and skills between generations. …but by also bridging the generational gap this project opens up many other avenues of opportunity beneficial to younger and older participants. Nicola Donnelly Centre for Ageing and Research Development in Ireland.

Benefits for society:

Theme 1: Global Engagement through Intergenerational Learning. This facilitates Intercultural understanding between generations.Theme 2: Bridging and bonding relationships between generations.Theme 3: Breaks down perceptions of stereotyping associated with ageing.

Molly’s reflection:

We are older and isn’t it great to celebrate being older. I like the term elder because in tribes, elders were treated with great respect and listened to. I think that is one of the things we older people might contribute to a learning centre here in DCU. Molly older student.

Martin’s quotation:

The DCU Intergenerational Learning Project is an imaginative and bold initiative and it is one that I feel will have positive consequences in the future. Great rivers flow from tiny springs…Age does not dull your appetite for knowledge, it merely refines the palate. Martin older student.

Potential for Digital Inclusion Learning at third level for the future.

Scholarship of Eldership embraced in third level learning.

New pedagogy emerging out of the transfer of IT knowledge skills into the wider field of third level learning.

Potential for digital inclusion of older people in third level learning.

Potential to develop the notion of a stimulated mind in ageing.

Potentially this has major implications for independent living and overall health benefits in ageing.

Potentially facilitates social cohesion between generations.