How Mrs Seiler discovers the digital world

Shortly after snack time, the little experts from the CompiSternli association are already eagerly waiting for their pupils. Over the past few months, the junior teachers have undergone extensive training; now they are eagerly stretching their self-made name tags over their heads. They are looking for: Mrs Seiler, Mrs Stanger and all the others.
Everything takes a little longer with her pupils. The senior citizens arrive in the classroom shortly after 10 a.m., some of them leaning on walking sticks. They look sceptically at the tablets laid out for them. But the light-heartedness of the children is quickly transferred to the senior citizens.

Experts without technical jargon

Instead of throwing around technical terms, Alina discreetly pushes the tablet over to Verena Seiler. «Look here, there on the side,» says Alina and watches as her pupil turns the tablet in circles twice until she realises that she has overlooked a tiny button. «To switch it on and off,» explains Alina, beaming as Mrs Seiler watches curiously as the familiar apple symbol slowly appears on the display. She didn't actually want to do the course, she says quietly when Alina isn't listening. She only came for the sake of her niece, who - like the seven other children - volunteered for the project. Only children with a social streak, who can empathise with others and are still doing well at school, are allowed to take part in the project, explains Vera Metzler, the handicraft and specialist teacher who supervises the project.

The children at Lufingen primary school who are allowed to take on the role of teachers today are between ten and twelve years old. According to the representative media usage study MIKE, this is precisely the age phase in which the use of smartphones and the like increases dramatically. While only 32 per cent of eight to nine-year-olds state that they use mobile phones at least once a week, the figure for 12 to 13-year-olds is already 69 per cent. No wonder: these days, devices are present in almost every household with children (98 per cent) and exert a strong fascination even on younger children.

CompiSternli is currently being organised at eight schools on behalf of the association of the same name. The programme is designed to be very different from the numerous commercial tablet courses: «We promote intergenerational exchange,» explains association director Ronnie Fink. The first course was held over ten years ago. Back then, laptops were still used for learning, but the lightweight tablets with touchscreens seem to be particularly suitable for senior citizens.

The pace at which the senior citizens learn is very different: while one table is still explaining how to enter the PIN, «Vier gewinnt» is already being played diagonally opposite. Somewhere Wencke Myhre is singing about her «bright red rubber boat». The unexpected sound makes Christiana Stanger flinch. Where was the button that controls the volume? Noemi had only just explained it to her. She frantically fiddles with the tablet, which suddenly falls over. Nothing happened, Noemi reassures her. If tablets had been around ten years ago, she would have bought one straight away, the senior citizen summarises.

The participant is particularly interested in the SRF news app so that she can quickly find out what is happening at home while on holiday. She has always had a great desire to learn something new, but had never had the opportunity to get into such a technical field. But better late than never.

The senior citizen is not alone in this, as a study published by Pro Senectute in 2015 shows. While only 38 per cent of over-65s used the internet in 2010, five years later it was already 56 per cent. The 65 to 69-year-olds use the internet to almost the same extent as the population as a whole, i.e. almost 80 per cent. However, the older the respondent, the lower the usage. Only one in ten of those over 85 regularly use the Internet.

The so-called Jööh effect helps senior citizens to understand how a tablet works.

With the patience of angels, the children explain again and again what they take for granted. They clearly enjoy sharing their knowledge. After all, they are familiar with the questions asked by the older generation of grandmothers and grandfathers. Over the years, the association has found out what the senior citizens want to learn in various courses: Some want to buy tickets for trams and trains or quickly find a bus connection, others, like Christiana Stanger, want to read and listen to the news, some want to write emails, for example to their grandchildren.

Based on the CompiSternli project, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZAHW) has published a study for which all participants were surveyed. According to the study, it helps senior citizens to learn on the computer when their grandchildren explain it «so sweetly». The so-called «Jööh effect». It becomes a little more difficult during puberty, as children then no longer explain things so easily and informally. While 89 per cent of the children came to the project through school, half of the senior citizens found out about it through a newspaper report, the others through acquaintances or an advert.

Over the past few months, the children have also learnt through play how to react when someone can no longer hear so well or can only walk very slowly. And if they perhaps no longer understand new things quite so quickly. For example, the complexity of social media. While there are hardly any Swiss teenagers on Facebook, the number of over-50s is constantly growing. According to the latest Facebook statistics from March 2016, there were even 9 per cent more senior citizens online than teenagers (19 per cent). This is in line with another finding of the Pro Senectute study: although very few seniors fear social exclusion without the internet, they see great potential in social media to maintain old contacts or make new ones.

The pitfalls of touchscreens

«It's important that the children don't touch the tablets. They should actually sit on their hands,» explains Metzler. However, the children don't quite stick to the instructions, occasionally turning the tablets in the right direction and explaining the touchscreen. Heidi Morf keeps putting her finger on the screen, but nothing happens. Only when Sarina types in the PIN herself does it work. Her «teacher» quickly fetches a special pen so that her pupil can do it herself. It works with the soft rubber side on the glass.

Verena Seiler sits behind a screen on the other side of the table. After an hour or so of lessons, she still has no desire to use the tablet. Even less than before. «I'd actually much rather practise using the phone,» she says and has already taken her iPhone out of her bag. Alina quickly switches from her tablet to her smartphone and explains what the green receiver is all about, which has to be pressed to call someone. The course wasn't actually planned like this. «We're not IT support,» says the teacher. But Alina would like to explain and the teacher has no objections. According to ZAHW, the main intention for the senior citizens to take part in the course is to improve their computer skills, followed by the desire not to lose touch with society. Both can be done with a tablet as well as a smartphone.

Then Matteo stands in front of Vera Metzler. «I'm done,» he says, even though the course was supposed to last another 45 minutes. While Alina whizzes around the room and calls herself on her smartphone, the teacher asks Matteo about the individual items on the programme. He sheepishly admits that he skipped a few pages in the course booklet. Explaining the buttons and interfaces was too boring for him. «Then catch up now,» says Vera Metzler gently but firmly. And while Matteo pushes the tablet towards his pupil once again, Wencke Myhre starts singing about the bright red rubber boat at the other end of the classroom.

CompiSternli

New teachers, i.e. children and trained teachers, are always welcome to join the organisation to offer further projects. If school iPads are not available, they will be provided for the duration of the project. Information and registration via www.compisternli.ch.