Education: a possibility for empowering older adults

Attitudes Towards and Limitations to ICT Use in Assisted and Independent Living Communities: Findings from a Specially-Designed Technological Intervention

“…While a great deal of gerontological literature has been devoted to the process of learning in late life and how older adults may benefit from continued education (see for example Boulton-Lewis et al, 2006; Cusack, 1999; Kump & Krašovec, 2007), less has focused specifically on AIC populations, particularly with regard to ICT education. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if a specially-designed ICT training protocol conducted in AICs resulted in more positive attitudes towards computers and the Internet and a decrease in perceived factors that limit or prevent computer/Internet use.…”

“…For many older adults, continuing education provides a means to promote successful aging, as the process of learning contributes to better outcomes by “keeping the mind active” (Boulton-Lewis et al, 2006, p. 278), by empowering the individual with the development of new skills and abilities (Cusack, 1999), and by reducing social exclusion (Kump & Krašovec, 2007). One particular topic that is growing increasingly popular among older adult learners is learning to use ICTs.…”

Education and Older Adults at the University of the Third Age

“…In the light of such practices, educators have increasingly rebuked the tacit assumption that UTAs automatically empower and emancipate older adults by reducing their perceived social exclusion and improving their quality of life (Kump & Kra s sovec, 2007). Inspired by the analytical and empirical travails of critical educational gerontology, fieldwork was geared to uncover the role of the U3E in contributing towards any intersecting and interlocking lines of inequality in later life.…”

International Perspectives on Older Adult Education

“…Though the offer of education for older adults has improved in the last decades, the participation has not increased and remains at approximately 10 % (Kump and Jelenc Krašovec 2007 ). The data shows that the more organised and long-term forms of education are primarily attended by women and older people with higher degrees of education (at least secondary school and more), aged from 50 to 65 years Jelenc Krašovec 2012 , 2014 ).…”

“…Research in Slovenia shows that there is an important difference between the level of education of the current generation of older adults and the adults who are about to enter this period (Kump and Jelenc Krašovec 2007 ;Jelenc Krašovec and Kump 2014 ). Available data for the past and present (SURS 2012b ) shows that the educational level of older people is increasing; the future generations of older adults in Slovenia will be better educated, more demanding regarding the educational offer and will also probably have a higher degree of motivation for education in later years.…”