Seniors – Connecting in a digital age
Seniors Well-being & Engagement Program
The most popular workshop run by the Seniors Well-being and Engagement Program is its three-time award-winning Computer Literacy Classes.
From September to June, digital skills courses are filled to capacity with 75 participants split into groups of 15 students.
These classes are held Monday through Thursday and range from “basic digital skills for seniors with language barriers” to the basics of computers and intermediate computer classes. The ability to understand and use technology has proved to be empowering for seniors attending these courses.
Success has been reflected in poets being able to dictate their prose to the computer, emerging authors writing about their childhood community with the help of ChatGPT and grandmothers using technology to videochat with friends and family abroad. Making it no surprise that the Computer Literacy Class has won the International Literacy Day Award three years in a row.
“They always want to come back,” says Uarsama, referring to her senior students. “There is something to do every day.”
Grace Akumu Okech is among the many life-long learners who attend these digital classes year after year. Arriving in Canada in November of 2021, there was a lot Okech needed to learn after moving to a new country in her late-sixties.
“I had learned how to maneuver the buses,” shares Okech. “They taught us how to read Google Maps. I’ve really benefited from reading Google Maps, from knowing where you are going, because before I used to take a bus in the opposite direction. You feel like screaming to the bus driver, ‘Ah, let me out!’”
Navigating Edmonton’s transit system on her smart phone is just one of the many things Okech has learned during her time attending programs offered by Africa Centre.
From using Microsoft programs to counting in Canadian currency, from reading utility bills to completing a CPR course, the wealth of information seniors are able to access through the Seniors Well-being and Engagement Program is life-altering.
“These days I’m an expert,” Okech laughs. “We show up all the time and they see the interest we have in learning, and we ask questions where we don’t understand, and the teacher is so patient with each and every person who is there. It’s so amazing. It’s so good – and that’s why we are still there.”