A FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING ASSESSMENT AND LEARNING TOOLS FOR DIGITAL SKILLS

Technology continues to intertwine with aspects of our everyday lives, requiring a new set of skills in exploring and experimenting with user interfaces. For those who grow up and keep up with technology, these skills are second nature. But for those who do not, such as older adults, these skills can be hard to master. User interfaces are changing regularly, and it is no longer suffices to teach older adults how to solve a specific problem on a specific interface. The knowledge they gain is insubstantial because it does not help when the technology changes. They no longer understand how to solve the problem when it does not appear in the exact context. This technique also does not teach them how to communicate their technical problems effectively. Older adults may also lack the confidence needed to explore and experiment, since they fear they could do permanent damage to their devices. Therefore, it is critical that older adults develop digital competency and confidence, as these skills are a necessity for navigating the everchanging world of technology today. The Digital Skills Framework project seeks to understand the skills older adults may already have in exploring and experimenting with an interface. This provides a baseline that can help others teach them the skills that they lack. The project also seeks to teach older adults how to perform common user interface interactions, since this fundamental knowledge can help them approach technical problems they face in the future. Finally, the project provides older adults with a simple language they can use to communicate their technical problems. By building these skills, older adults can increase their confidence in using technology and solving technical problems. This report details the design and development of the Digital Skills Framework. It begins by introducing the project and its goals. Then the process for choosing and evaluating the set of common user interface interactions is discussed. This is followed by explaining the design of the application and concludes with a discussion of future work

Between Fear and Trust: Factors Influencing Older Adults' Evaluation of Socially Assistive Robots

Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are expected to support autonomy, aging in place, and wellbeing in later life. For successful assimilation, it is necessary to understand factors affecting older adults Quality Evaluations (QEs) of SARs, including the pragmatic and hedonic evaluations and overall attractiveness. Previous studies showed that trust in robots significantly enhances QE, while technophobia considerably decreases it. The current study aimed to examine the relative impact of these two factors on older persons QE of SARs. The study was based on an online survey of 384 individuals aged 65 and above. Respondents were presented with a video of a robotic system for physical and cognitive training and filled out a questionnaire relating to that system. The results indicated a positive association between trust and QE and a negative association between technophobia and QE. A simultaneous exploration demonstrated that the relative impact of technophobia is significantly more substantial than that of trust. In addition, the pragmatic qualities of the robot were found to be more crucial to its QE than the social aspects of use. The findings suggest that implementing robotics technology in later life strongly depends on reducing older adults technophobia regarding the convenience of using SARs and highlight the importance of simultaneous explorations of facilitators and inhibitors

Identifying and mitigating technology-related anxiety

© 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Our experience with digital literacy tutoring for older adults confirms other research that identifies technology-related anx-iety as a significant barrier for this constituency. Based on established theories of instructional design, we hypothesize that anxiety impairs the development of digital literacy skills by consuming critical cognitive resources. Our research with experienced tutors reveals numerous strategies for mitigat-ing anxiety and motivates the development of anxiety-aware instructional and design frameworks, and new anxiety scales that better reflect current devices, services, and threats