ICT Skill Building of Elderly: A Key to Combat Digital Divide

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) exemplifies today’s society. The senior citizens represent the non-adopter group in the digital divide realm. As the numbers and proportion of elderly are on an increase, thus stimulating the positive effects of their embracing of ICT skills become vital tasks for today. More and more technologies are envisaged as a means to “empower” the elderly. Appropriate need based programs should be planned and implemented to give opportunities to senior citizens to develop and maintain these ICT skills. This paper explores theoretically the need of ICT skill building programs. This paper will also highlight few case studies and programs where ICT skill development programs have been initiated for elderly in various countries and also the efforts made in India. The paper will put light on the approach for such programs, older people’s learning needs and the barriers to learning they come up against – considerations on how to plan such learning.

  Keywords: ICT, elderly, digital divide