They taught you your first words. They taught you to stand, walk and cycle.
The years piled on and you learnt to walk and much more just fine, but their knees got weaker.
While you continued to step ahead in life with the basic foundation of leaning set by them, they stepped back behind the scenes, just proud & happy to see you grow up and grow.
They are your parents and your grandparents. The people who grew up much before the age of technology and information at your finger tips that you grew up to or have adopted perfectly. It is time to gift them back.
And with that as the bedrock, was launched the "Internet loves the 50+" by Google - An initiative aimed at familiarizing the senior citizens with the world of the internet. To enable them to, if not master technology, to be comfortable enough with using simple features such as search, email, chat, online news & books etc. and stay connected with their loved ones as well as use the internet for simple tasks such as bill payments, reading news etc.
The pilot event saw a stupendous participation from 70+ senior citizens. A team of 20 volunteers led by Kirthika, planned, conceptualized and developed content for this event which saw its fruitation on Saturday. The enthusiastic but slightly apprehensive senior citizens walked into the Google campus, had lunch and proceeded to the training rooms where they were briefed about the session. Slowly but surely the event kicked into action & all the volunteer trainers got busy with a group of 2-3 participants each and sat with them with their laptops.
The trainers walked the participants through right from switching on the computer to using internet features like search, using email, reading news online. The event was not limited to Google products exclusively but also covered opening a facebook account and adding people.
The 'students' listened in rapt attention, worked their way around the laptops , asked questions and were enthusiastic children in a classroom again, talking with their 'classmates'. One student asked if it was possible to get free books online and was surprised when not only could he access and download free ebooks but free telugu books, just by running a simple search!
The highlight of the event was when one of the participants elaborated about Google+ to his trainer and astounded her with his knowledge!
The session was concluded by a live Google+ hangout involving a brief feedback clip of the participants, which was a huge hit with the participants, amazed by the possibility of multiple people video chatting with each other from different locations at the same time.
After a whole day of learning, sharing and interacting, the participants, left thanking us and blessing us as elders but it is the trainers that gained the most from the experience. To give back to the generation that has given us the most and yet is sometimes, pushed to the sidelines, was enriching and humbling. Truly you're never too old to learn or too young to teach was the theme of the day and it could not be more beautifully executed through the event.
We would consider this event a win every time a doting grandmother can see her newborn grandchild miles away, playing on video chat, the retired army colonel can pay his bills online & as Google's motto goes, information could universally be accessible- age no bar.
And here're a photo of the proud volunteers for the program who made this a roaring success
The years piled on and you learnt to walk and much more just fine, but their knees got weaker.
While you continued to step ahead in life with the basic foundation of leaning set by them, they stepped back behind the scenes, just proud & happy to see you grow up and grow.
They are your parents and your grandparents. The people who grew up much before the age of technology and information at your finger tips that you grew up to or have adopted perfectly. It is time to gift them back.
And with that as the bedrock, was launched the "Internet loves the 50+" by Google - An initiative aimed at familiarizing the senior citizens with the world of the internet. To enable them to, if not master technology, to be comfortable enough with using simple features such as search, email, chat, online news & books etc. and stay connected with their loved ones as well as use the internet for simple tasks such as bill payments, reading news etc.
The pilot event saw a stupendous participation from 70+ senior citizens. A team of 20 volunteers led by Kirthika, planned, conceptualized and developed content for this event which saw its fruitation on Saturday. The enthusiastic but slightly apprehensive senior citizens walked into the Google campus, had lunch and proceeded to the training rooms where they were briefed about the session. Slowly but surely the event kicked into action & all the volunteer trainers got busy with a group of 2-3 participants each and sat with them with their laptops.
The trainers walked the participants through right from switching on the computer to using internet features like search, using email, reading news online. The event was not limited to Google products exclusively but also covered opening a facebook account and adding people.
The 'students' listened in rapt attention, worked their way around the laptops , asked questions and were enthusiastic children in a classroom again, talking with their 'classmates'. One student asked if it was possible to get free books online and was surprised when not only could he access and download free ebooks but free telugu books, just by running a simple search!
The highlight of the event was when one of the participants elaborated about Google+ to his trainer and astounded her with his knowledge!
The session was concluded by a live Google+ hangout involving a brief feedback clip of the participants, which was a huge hit with the participants, amazed by the possibility of multiple people video chatting with each other from different locations at the same time.
After a whole day of learning, sharing and interacting, the participants, left thanking us and blessing us as elders but it is the trainers that gained the most from the experience. To give back to the generation that has given us the most and yet is sometimes, pushed to the sidelines, was enriching and humbling. Truly you're never too old to learn or too young to teach was the theme of the day and it could not be more beautifully executed through the event.
We would consider this event a win every time a doting grandmother can see her newborn grandchild miles away, playing on video chat, the retired army colonel can pay his bills online & as Google's motto goes, information could universally be accessible- age no bar.
And here're a photo of the proud volunteers for the program who made this a roaring success
1 comment:
Some dont have a clue about it and some are already using it. So its a mixed bag of senior citizens. But still its a joy when you see the surprise on their faces.
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