Bend Students Teach Seniors Tech Skills

High school students from Cascade Academy of Central Oregon became teachers on Wednesday, when they helped a group of seniors learn about technology.

It was a chance for teens who grew up with the knowledge to help those who are still catching up on those skills. Many senior citizens came to the class to learn about cell phones, computers and Facebook.

“One of the questions was, how does she add someone to her contacts,” said sophomore Reid Weber. “And I showed her in a few seconds, and she said, ‘Oh, that’s so simple!'”

It’s those types of questions that seem simple to the students, but are still a mystery for the elderly. And for many, they wanted to learn how to work Facebook, to keep in touch with friends and family.

“I thought it was a great opportunity to have a young person help me learn how to do this,” said Stephen Day. “Because I know they’re very proficient at it.”

Day got his first lesson in Facebook privacy settings and wall posts, so he can keep in touch with his family, who lives on the East Coast.

“It’s cool making the other seniors happy,” said junior Niko Giannioses. “And let them keep in touch with their friends and family that they’ve been out of contact with for a while.”

Keeping relationships intact is the main reason why organizers put together the event.

“Council on Aging stated this because we realized that a lot of seniors were out of touch with family and friends that may have had to leave the community,” said Pamela Norr, CEO of Central Oregon Council on Aging. “And what this does is kind of give them a baseline of social networking.”

Whether it was text messaging, digital camera use or Facebook status updates, educators said teaching these skills also lets the students find something out about themselves.

“In that teacher position, it brings that out,” teacher Katie Lamarre said. “They’re so much more open, and open to speaking.”

Day, who used to be a physics teacher and saw the first computers built from the ground up, said he wants to stay connected.

“I mean ,it’s just absolutely unbelievable the things you can do now, that you just couldn’t do five or 10 years ago,” Day said.

The Central Oregon Council on Aging has organized the technology class for the past two years, and Norr said they’ve helped more than 250 seniors perfect their skills. They plan have one aimed at learning about laptops this summer.