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Scotsman, The

By SUSAN MANSFIELD

Picture: Colin Hattersley

MID-MORNING, and the Cyber Cafe at Dundee University's School of Computing is in full swing. One user is checking her e-mail, another is surfing the world on Google Earth. A third is checking out prices for DVD players.

What's unusual about these surfers is that their average age falls somewhere between 70 and 80. They are part of the country's growing wave of silver surfers who are overcoming their fears about technology to become a vital section of the online community.

Researchers here at the Applied Computing Division have been working on the area of technology and older people for eight years. Spearheaded by division head Peter Gregor, Professor Alan Newell and senior lecturer Dr Norman Alm, the department runs a variety of projects, from informal computing classes for senior citizens to cutting-edge research on how technology can help and support the infirm.

One of the first projects the department assisted with was the launch of a cyber cafe in the Angus village of Airlie. Mamie Bruce- Gardyne, now 72, was one of the first to realise the benefits the Internet could bring to a comparatively isolated rural community.

She says: "In 2000, one of the farmers in the area committed suicide and others were very upset about the state of farming. I thought if only they could get involved in computers, they might be diverted, and they might be able to diversify and find other ways of earning money."

The cyber cafe started in Mamie's kitchen, with teaching support from Dundee University's Norman Alm, before moving to the Village Hall. Six years on it is flourishing, and has had more than 3,000 people through its doors.

Jean Turner, now 76, is another early member. She became interested in computers when her grandchildren left home. "I thought I would lose touch with them, so I got an old computer and played around with it. Then my family bought me a new computer and I decided to go to college." Jean is now studying for the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), the first pan-European qualification in personal computing skills [overseen by the ECDL Foundation Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation founded by members of the world's leading computer societies]. She also has her own website and uses a webcam to talk to family online.

Alm says: "I've been surprised by the way people have wanted to explore new things. I assumed they would want to do a couple of things and leave it at that, but they want to do more. The Airlie ladies are well into digital photography, which is quite technically demanding. The main problem - and the only problem really - is confidence."

The enthusiasm shown by these silver surfers is not unusual. Recent research by Internet survey firm Nielsen Netratings found that the over-50s make up 24 per cent of Internet users, the same proportion as for the under 20s. Internet use in the 55-plus age- group almost doubled last year, to 2.7million. Today's granny, it seems, is using Skype to chat to her friends and relatives for free, playing bingo online and selling her vintage handbags on eBay. All they need is a little encouragement.

"I just wanted to know 'www.com' meant, I saw it so many times on the telly!" says Cathie Munro, 70. "I said: 'Well, dammit, I'm going to go somewhere and learn'." She went along to the Airlie cyber cafe and soon bought her own computer. "The other day I got a lovely photograph from my granddaughter in York. She and seven friends hired a stretch limo to go to the May Ball at school."

A straw poll of the Dundee surfers reveals that they put their computers to a variety of uses. Keeping in touch with family is a big one, but others include booking cheap holidays, making hand- made cards, downloading recipes from TV cookery shows, storing digital photographs and playing card games. Jean Hoare, 80, from Broughty Ferry, likes to shop online on Amazon and eBay. "I bought a book on ebay once for a penny," she chuckles. "And then I had to pay GBP 2.99 for the postage!" Jean Turner says her computer enabled her to find her godson, with whom she lost touch 25 years ago and who now lives in Nairobi. "I fostered him, but lost touch with him when he was 12. I'd been hunting for him for 25 years. I knew he'd moved to Kenya, and through a couple who visited Angus, I got an address for his father who sent me his e-mail address; now we chat on the webcam."

Norman Alm says: "The desire for older people to keep in touch and the ability to keep connected through technology is a natural match. We have a researcher who is working on developing simplified e-mail systems for older people. Outlook Express, for example, has 256 functions you can launch from the front page, although most of us need only a few of them."

But, though shopping from home and finding new hobbies at the touch of a button sound like a godsend for an older person, Alm is cautious. "Home shopping is a double-edged sword. I think if you can get out you should, and older people like to get out and meet others. It's important to use technology in ways that help people become more connected to others, not less. One thing we're hoping to look at in the future is web-conferencing. What would it look like if it was designed for a virtual coffee morning rather than a business meeting?"

Other spheres of research in the Applied Computing Division involve looking at how technology can be used to help elderly people who are less able: interactive television to prompt a failing memory; digital sensors to detect abnormal behaviour in the home - such as a fall - and alert a carer.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is to develop technology which can help those with dementia. CIRCA is a touch-screen multi-media reminiscence package which uses old photographs, music, film and radio clips to trigger long-term memories. It has been developed over three years in collaboration with psychologists at St Andrews University and artists at Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and is now ready to be marketed.

"People with dementia might have almost no short-term memory but they can remember things that happened many years ago," says Alm. "We've found they can respond to this and this can lead to meaningful conversations with their families."

Next up is an even tougher challenge, Living In The Moment (LIM), a touch-screen interactive entertainment system which a person with dementia can use alone. "This is about having fun with no memory," says Alm. "Someone with dementia can't watch television or listen to the radio because they have no short-term memory. The idea is that with LIM they will be able to walk in a virtual garden, plant some seeds and watch them grow or kick a virtual football. We've found that people with dementia can make sense of the touch panel, can enjoy it and get stimulated by it."

(c) 2006 Scotsman, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.