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It’s a lesson on how to complete the questionnaire for the 15° Census of the Italian Population and Housing, but the grandparents will be the students, while the students will teach the elders to use PCs and the Internet.
The initiative is promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale to support the census campaign and help over-sixty-fives complete the questionnaire. In fact, this age group represents more than 20% of citizens resident in Italy. The initiative is manned by the protagonists of the Grandparents on the Internet Project, a digital literacy course that the Fondazione Mondo Digitale organizes throughout Italy to promote knowledge about how to use computers and the Internet to over-sixty-fives, whilst also treasuring the resources provided by the elderly and intergenerational exchange.
The initiative features a lesson to explain how to complete the 2011 Census Questionnaire on-line. The activity also involves students and teachers who will help the elders to perform the on-line operations.
The projects will be tested for two months in 50 schools in Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, the Marche, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia and Lazio.
According to Istat, 8.5% of citizens in this age bracket use a computer (4.3% daily, 3% once of twice a week and 0.8% a few times a month), while 7.3% goes on the Internet. Moreover, the percentage of those who use a PC and surf the web is higher amongst elders with a university degree, than those with a junior diploma: 46% for computers and 44.3% on-line vs. 11% PC use and 8.6% web use. In general, elder males are more interested in technology than women. PC and Internet use reaches respectively 14% and 12.3% amongst men vs. only 4.5% and 3.8% amongst women.
Young Census “Teachers”
22 November 2011 – The elders attend lessons on how to complete the on-line census questionnaire taught by their digitial grandchildren.
The Istat Press Release (in Italian)
