Children Teach Elderly How to Use Computers

Some strange names (for us) are mentioned in the report below, but it is an interesting concept.

Seventh graders (12-year-olds) from Breidagerdisskóli elementary school in Reykjavík teach senior citizens how to use computers two times a week for up to two hours at a time in the community center Haedargardur. The students take turns in being teachers.

“It takes longer for me to learn than for these youngsters, but I’m getting the hang of it,” senior citizen Ólöf Pétursdóttir told Morgunbladid, who bought a computer a year ago but only recently began using it.

“I mainly bought the computer so that I could enter Íslendingabók [an online genealogy database] and make genealogy research. I’m mostly excited about that. And the young people are good teachers,” Pétursdóttir added.

One of the student teachers, Andrés Lars Kristjánsson, said teaching the elderly how to use computers is great fun. “I’m teaching them how to read news stories on the internet and how to put websites into favorites and stuff like that. Some want to do other things, like read their emails.”

The course is supervised by psychologist Líney Úlfarsdóttir. -- www.icelandreview.com