DISTANCE EDUCATION FOR ELDERLY
The Construction of a Pedagogic Architecture
Leticia Rocha Machado
1
, Patricia Alejandra Behar
1
and Johannes Doll
2
1
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Informática na Educação, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Porto Alegre, Brazil
2
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Keywords: Distance Education, Elderly, Pedagogic Architecture.
Abstract: The prospect of a long life for a large population poses new challenges for both public policy and to the
individuals themselves. In this context technological resources and the Internet represent an important
channel and conducive to a continuing education. The distance education in this scenario can become a form
of social inclusion for the many possibilities. But with new emerging paradigms there is a need to
investigate how planning should be done online courses for seniors. Thus the pedagogic architecture,
organizational structures and planning, can help in discussion and reflection on the subject. Therefore, the
objective of this research is to build pedagogic an architecture for distance education toward the elderly
population. The study will be from a qualitative and quantitative approach, consisting of three stages of
development. In the steps we aim to build arrays of pedagogic architecture and apply them. Data collection
will be held from participant observations, interviews, questionnaires and production technology of the
participants. With the study is to develop the awareness that the elderly have the potential to learn through
distance education, which will require cultural change through new learning.
1 INTRODUCTION
The elderly population is rising, mainly due to social
restructuring and attention in aging process. In
Brazil, this demographic transition will place the
country in the next 20 years as the sixth of the
world's elderly population, which represents, in
absolute numbers, about 33 million people aged 60
years or more (UN, 2001). Currently, according to
updated data by the IBGE (2011), the elderly
population in Brazil is 20.590.599.
In this process the search for quality of life was
highlighted. One way to provide the quality of life is
participation in activities that promote wellness,
including continuing education.
In recent years, offering courses in digital
inclusion facing the elderly has increased. Soon
more and more educational resources to be used by
the elderly on the computer have been developed to
be aggregated to learning processes, and can be
adapted to different needs of users. Learning
environments in recent decades, have suffered both
methodological and technological transformations.
With new paradigms, there emerges the need to
investigate the use of technology, particularly
Distance Education (DE) as an educational
opportunity that provides an effective participation
of the elderly with a potential for continuing
education.
Because it is a form of continuing education,
distance education can contribute greatly to a quality
of life for seniors. Since this form of education can
provide the elderly to update that so many seek to
join courses in digital inclusion, besides the
possibility of social interactions that are necessary at
this stage of life.
Unfortunately, there is little research about the
use of distance education with the elderly. There
were three publications of experiences outside the
country of study (Trentin, 2004); (Kimpeler et al.,
2007) and three in the country, Brazil (Pasqualotti,
2003); (Paulo and Tijiboy, 2005); (Reis, 2006).
However in this article we understand that the
DE may be a process that permits meet the diverse
demands of the public, from the targeted content,
time and specific pedagogic practice for the
elderly. From this perspective, the construction of a
pedagogical architecture (PA) will allow the
126
Rocha Machado L., Behar P. and Doll J..
DISTANCE EDUCATION FOR ELDERLY - The Construction of a Pedagogic Architecture.
DOI: 10.5220/0003923101260131
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2012), pages 126-131
ISBN: 978-989-8565-07-5
Copyright
c
2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
planning of enriching pedagogical space for the
elderly.
Therefore, we intend to present in this article an
array of pedagogical architecture in the DE to
encourage new teaching practices with this
audience. That is, to provide seniors the opportunity
to take courses online that threaten the emerging
needs of the same.
Thus, the objective is to highlight and publicize
the elderly as active, fighting erroneous prejudices
related to this age group, providing quality of
life. For this it is first necessary to understand what
is the scenario of the use of technologies by the
elderly.
2 GERONTOTECHNOLOGY:
THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY
WITH/FOR ELDERLY
With technological advancement comes the need for
studies on the use of technologies and the elderly. In
Europe and the United States a new area arises,
gerontotechnology. That is, the dynamic interaction
of two factors: population growth and technological
advancement. However the technology is studied
from the standpoint of its potential to improve the
quality of life of older people and facilitate
their participation as full citizens in society (Bouma,
Fozard, Bouwhuis, Taipale, 2007).
Besides the creation of technological resources,
in recent years a part of the elderly population was
interested to learn how to handle the technologies
that arise, and between them and the computer.
With the emergence of the first personal
computers in 1971 to the spread of these began a
process of digital exclusion. Training for use of
computer resources, mostly disregard the needs of
the elderly. The ideal would be to provide computer
use by the elderly critically, not only as a means of
technology, but as a form of social inclusion, thus
countering exclusion.
The Internet is one of the tools that fascinates the
elderly by the possibility of obtaining information
easily, fast and by an interactive way.
The information available on the Internet offer
the elderly the chance to experience now without the
need to abandon experiments already experienced
(Pasqualotti, 2003).
Besides the elderly public, the Internet provided
a new perspective to education. From a historical
process, distance education in recent years has
become more present in society through training
courses, training and instrumentation for digital
resources. With the popularization of the Internet in
recent years, DE initiated the use of online tools.
In this context, distance education stood out as a
possibility for the elderly, in society, struggle to be
an active citizen from continuing
education. Distance education can provide learning
without borders, where the educational institutions
may offer various courses with topics that may
interest the elderly, especially the possibility of
choice (utility) and applicability.
Therefore, using the DE with the elderly is the
ability to discern that they can continue to learn and
that their presence and opinion will make a
difference. This presence could lead to changes in
values and concepts, thus facilitating the life of near
elderly and improving their quality of life.
There is little research focused on a specific form
of education for the elderly (gerontogogy or
educational gerontology) on digital inclusion,
especially in distance education, which is still an
unexplored field.
As the authors Kimpeler et al., (2007) in a report
carried out in Germany, there is virtually none of
research group on e-learninng and elderly and those
which started are probably still in development with
no published results.
For Trentin (2004) and Reis (2006) the training
of professionals, both designs, as tutors and teachers
can be differentiated, based on gerontogogy or
andragogy. But an experiment conducted by Reis
(2006) in the training of professionals who acted
with the elderly in Distance Education showed low
demand and lack of interest in the topic. Alves and
Lopes (2008) suggest that for DE for the elderly:
offer continuing education for older people retired or
in the process; make the adoption of incentive
policies for entries in online courses for older
audiences; developing opportunities for socialization
of experiences and offering the democratization of
information; providing the link between education
institutions and create study groups on the subject.
To provide a quality in distance education more
accessible communications spaces are being created
for the elderly public. The use of virtual learning
environments (VLE) and learning objects (LO) will
address the personal needs present in this audience,
as well as the main characteristic that is respect for
the learning time of each senior.
In addition to digital resources, the VLE allow
exchanges of messages, information between people
of different cultures, which in the context of learning
facilitate the establishment of learning communities.
Reis (2006) highlights some elements necessary
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127
for working with older people in Distance
Education: Knowledge: issue to be worked in the
discipline or course; Time: refers to the time
required for the construction of knowledge;
Didactic-methodological procedures: the procedures
to enable the proposal.
The perception of time, ie, awareness of the
limited time frame of any individual life and their
educational implications, is a limiting factor of
personal expectations and, consequently, of certain
decisions. Especially decisions related to
participation in activities, cultural and educational
programs (Martín, 2007).
This time perception, consciousness of the
fleeting nature of life, is associated, inevitably, to
certain expectations about the possibilities of the
individual over the years.
As in this type of education there are several
factors that influence, it is up to us to reflect how to
think, plan and develop online courses for
seniors. How to build a pedagogical architecture for
elderly?
The construction of an array of pedagogical
architecture can help future online courses for the
elderly public. Below is listed each part of the
pedagogical architecture (Behar, 2009):
a) Organizational aspects: refer to pedagogical
planning from the definition of objectives,
organization of time and space and defining the
duties of each participant in the process (student,
teacher, tutor, etc.);
b) Content: discusses the materials and components
to be used during the course. These contents could
be constructed to meet the demands required in a
virtual course, making possible the development of
skills and abilities of students. Currently, there are
different ways of providing content, from simple
texts, to learning objects, HTML pages, videos and
presentations, among others, according to the
intended goals;
c) Methodological aspects: despite remit only the
"how" will be worked on the course content, can be
considered forms of connection, association of
technological resources and the procedures used, and
considering the objectives defined in educational
planning;
d) Technological aspects: the definition of a virtual
learning environment and what tools will be used, as
well as other technological resources, is essential in
distance education, especially when one considers
which one fits best to the proposal of the course and
to the students.
It is important to highlight that erroneously we
consider a pedagogical architecture as a rigid model
and that should be massively reproduced without
considering the elements involved (subject, time /
space).
The elements (Aspects of Management,
Methodology, Content and Technology), which
provide a pedagogical architecture interact. The
teacher in this process can balance, as the reality in
which it is included, which fits best to achieve their
goals. That is, the teacher is the one to adapt the
pedagogical architecture to the educational needs of
their students, thus enabling the construction of
knowledge. For an understanding of the topic will be
developed below each constituent element of an PA.
To construct the PA for online courses focused
on older people was necessary to follow some steps
to develop the research. Thus, the following will
address issues concerning the methodology used in
order to clarify certain questions that arise on the
subject.
3 METHODOLOGY
This article discusses the development of a research
project developed in a quantitative and qualitative
approach. This format was chosen to the viability of
complement the data, to assist the understanding the
object of study.
Related to the qualitative aspects an interpretive
approach was used to aid the process of
understanding the data that were collected during the
survey.
Data collection was conducted from participant
observations, questionnaires and interviews
performed during the course development. Data
were used in the steps suggested by Bardin (2004)
for the analysis of the content.
On the other hand, the quantitative aspects were
analyzed by frequency distribution represented in
percentages, mean and standard deviation.
Data analysis was during the implementation of a
pilot project, which occurred between 2009 and
2010. This project is part of a doctoral thesis that
aims to work with the resources of Distance
Education for the elderly.
Thus, the pilot project began with the release of
the extension course "Introduction to web resources
for distance education with the elderly".
Were randomly selected based on inclusion
criteria (age 60 years or more, be literate, have basic
knowledge of computers), 40 seniors from a list of
entries from 200 older people. This list was formed
from telephone calls made by seniors interested in
the ad linked to a Brazilian newspaper in the same
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year.
In order to answer the research question and
meet the objectives, this proposal has three stages in
its development: 1) PAA1, 2) Pilot Project, 3)
PAA2. The steps occur recursively, aiming the
construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of
the PA to DE with elderly public.
Steps 1 and 3 aim to build the Pedagogical
Architecture Array (PAA). These arrays were
implemented, evaluated and reevaluated constantly,
in a recursive motion. The step relates to the
development of the course and application of PAA1.
3.1 Step 1: The construction of
Pedagogical Architecture - PAA 1
The construction of the Array 1 of the Pedagogical
Architecture (PAA1) was performed in 2009,
from reports published in studies and found in the
literature, especially aspects of digital inclusion
of older people and the distance education.
The PAA1 was constructed from theoretical
reference about distance education, and
characteristic aspects of gerontology education and
gerontogogy. The gerontogogy or gerontology
education aims education for elderly according to
the specific needs of this audience (Both, 2001).
Regarding distance education was initially found
three studies that reported the use of this mode of
education for the elderly, but there was not a
deepening of possible methodological strategies for
its development.
The characteristics found were
categorized according to four aspects that make up a
PA: content, organizational aspects, methodological
aspects and technological aspects.
From the data in the literature and the
construction of a PAA 1 was possible to develop a
course for seniors, as will be seen below.
3.2 Step 2: Pilot Project - Choosing
Strategies
In 2009 the development of an extension
course "Introduction to web resources fordistance
education to the elderly" began in order to apply
the PAA 1 and identify possible strategies that meet
the constituent aspects of a PA in the DE for the
elderly.
The lessons were developed in three modules:
Module 1: presencial, Module 2: semi presencial and
Module 3: virtual. For the classes we used
the computer labs of the Federal University of
Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. Two groups were formed:
A and B, each consisting of 20 people.
Every elderly used a computer individualy with
access to broadband Internet. Classes lasted 2
hours, being developed once a week. During this
period, it was possible to apply the PAA 1 and
analyze possible changes in the PA.
During the development of the project it
was used web resource and tools of the virtual
learning environment Cooperative Network
Learning/ROODA (www.ead.ufrgs.br/rooda) as
support for course development.
Were also designed and used learning objects
(LO) to meet the demand for content that was being
worked on.
All learning objects have texts and challenges
which are proposed reflective activities, of
construction and interactive. The built Los were
available online on the course page so that
students could use it during and after completion of
activities.
3.3 Step 3: The Construction of
Pedagogical Architecture - PAA 2
Based on the application of the PAA 1 and
development of the pilot project, there was a
redesign of the course in order to build a PA in DE
with the elderly, where it was possible to rebuild the
array 1.
4 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
OF DATA – PAA 2
From the preliminary indications of the pilot project
and PAA 1 occurred a few modifications and some
adjustments that provided the construction of the
PAA 2. From the forty seniors selected at the
beginning of the course, only 16 finished (all 3
modules). The profile of these students shows a
mean age of 67 years, being 4 males. In relation to
education, predominates complete primary education
(44%), followed by secondary education (38%) and
complete higher education (6%), incomplete (6%)
and incomplete secondary education (6%).
During the project, were carried out data
collection and analysis through reports from users in
presencial and semipresential situations,
observations/interviews by the researcher and
records on the features of the environments (forum,
Webfolio).
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The classes were developed once a week, lasting
2 hours each. In Module I were conducted presencial
classes grading on computer skills. This first module
had longer duration than planned because many
elderly omitted, in the course registration, they
didn’t have computer knowledge.
After a short recess, Module II began and was
semi presencial. We began the use of VLE (Virtual
Learning Environment) ROODA as a platform for
teaching and learning. This VLE was chosen to
emphasize in its structure the development of
cooperation, interaction, autonomy and ability to
adapt to the needs of the teacher and student (Behar,
2005).
Module III was developed for the collection of
information regarding virtual learning and its
difficulties or facilities for the deconstruction and
reconstruction of methodological references of PAA.
Unfortunately, this step was not successful in
implementing the plan that provided full virtual
classes. There was resistance from the students,
especially for not carrying out the proposed
activities and no sufficient autonomy outside the
classroom. It is possible that one of the reasons for
this resistance is the fear still present in the
management of technology and lack of human
contact, affective contact with colleagues, teachers
and monitores.
Although it is not possible to implement fully
virtual classes, these were developed in a way that
was more virtual than presencial.
Based on preliminary indications of the pilot
project, it was possible to hold another course
planning to build an PA in DE with elderly. Thus
was built the PAA 2. For a better graphical display
PAA 2 was built in the form of a "map" of aspects of
the PA.
Thus was formed the following pedagogical
architecture:
Methodological aspects:
-Use of interactive materials;
-Provide critical reflection;
-Encourage the sharing of materials
(collaboration/cooperation);
-Activities that foster problem solving;
-Base on aspects of gerontogogy or gerontology
education;
-Materials built according to usability issues
necessary for the elderly (font size, color contrast);
-Repetition of content worked;
-Explanation in detail of the course plan.
Content:
-Useful subjects for elderly (over aging);
-Short subjects using references to past events
(crystallized intelligence);
-Issues that enable the self-knowledge;
-Themes preferably suggested by the elderly.
Organizational aspects - teacher/tutor:
-Build a flexible planning (meet the emerging needs
of students);
-Adequate training to work with elderly public;
-Mediating VLE interactions, encouraging more
communication between students;
-Set the time, in the plan, that will be necessary to
carry out the activities;
-Build point goals and which demonstrate the
usefulness of content for the elderly;
-Plan some presencial meetings.
Organizational aspects - student:
-Provide a greater autonomy;
-Hold basic computer knowledge;
-Be motivated to perform virtual courses;
-Be open-minded (DE);
-Be friendly to changes in time perception;
-Has optimistic attitudes towards life;
-Have a computer with internet access;
-Organize time for study.
Technological aspects:
-Use of LO as a way to meet individual needs;
-Utilize resources of simple use to enable meeting
all students' personalities;
- VLE featured with synchronous and asynchronous
communication resources (forum, chat and
message);
-VLE with virtual diary to give seniors the
expression of feelings.
It should be noted that there are many similarities
with the needs of any student in distance education,
but which differs this PA with the elderly is the
intensity of each item with the elderly public. The
most relevant changes of PAA 2, in particular the
essential elements of PA, are related to content (LO)
and technology. The use of LO stood out, because it
gave greater autonomy to students, especially by the
great difference of knowledge and learning pace of
the participants. This can be seen in the story of a
student "It is great doing work at home. We learn a
lot by searching".
The development of a page to guide the student
on the content worked in class provided, especially
in Module I, a security to the elderly who
unfortunately missed classes for different reasons.
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The VLE ROODA stood out as a great platform for
exchanges among participants, especially for the
communication tools.
These preliminary indications show that the
development of online courses for the elderly should
be differentiated. This preliminary analysis allowed
for the planning and development of extension
course "Introduction of distance education to the
elderly".
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the data collected in this pilot project it was
possible to build the array of pedagogical
architecture in Distance Education for the elderly.
The pedagogical architecture built enabled the
improvement and development of a new course for
other seniors who were interested in their
participation. It was verified during the construction
of the PAA2 that the planning of online courses for
the elderly should be differentiated from other
courses for younger audiences.
Distance education provides greater coverage of
the elderly public. Therefore, the aim is an
awareness of the society, family and elderly that
virtual learning is possible and implies cause cultural
changes through new learning.
Another relevant factor of this pedagogical
architecture is the possibility of amplification of the
project to other locations as it allows a greater scope
of the public studied. Multiplication is also possible
with training and qualification of teachers to
work with elderly public in Distance Education.
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