Eight apprentices from the Citizen School Program at the Rafael Hernandez School campus in Jamaica Plain were part of an exciting pilot program created to teach basic computer and Internet skills to interested senior citizens in the area. We meet for one hour for nine consecutive Monday afternoons at the Curtis Hall Community Center. There were multiple goals of this special class: a) for the participating seniors to become more computer/Internet literate, b) for the apprentices to exercise their teaching skills, and c) for all members of the intergenerational class to leave with a wealthier knowledge of their surrounding community through internet research.
Six senior citizens from Jamaica Plain and Dorchester took part in the class. Working with either one or two students, they quicly picked up the basic ways of the computer thanks to the eagerness of their young teachers. One of the most amazing achievements that took place was on the day of the very first computer session. By the end of the hour, every senior participant was set up with an email account - even those who had never used a computer before. The apprenticeship was off to an encouraging start.
Throughout the nine weeks, the apprentices helped introduce the seniors to solitaire, search engines, various websites of interest (such as www.travelocity.com), and the concept of online research. The kids used their own knowledge of the Internet to guide the seniors to websites containing information about Egleston Square, Jamaica Pond, and the Franklin Park Zoo. From that point on, all participants of the class were able to learn together some community highlights.
Participating in this class were apprentices Enrique, Fabian, Belgrave, Isable, Eric, Renata, Anavel, Aurora, and Joshua. The seniros from the community were Wilma, Delores, Barbara, Linda "Mary", Pat, and Xin. In addition to the online community research, three students conducted brief interviews with three seniors in the class to obtain perspective from a different generation. Reflections were also given when the students and seniors answered surveys at the end of the apprenticeship. This information was particularly valuable to the Citizen Teachers (Emily and Sarah of Generations Incorporated) in gauging the effectiveness of the class. The class participants also provided suggestions in regards to any class to be held in the future.
The group's "WOW" project demonstrates nine strong weeks of learning and teaching. In it, we share the seniors' stories and students' reflections of their work together. Thanks to the Hernandez School we also include digital pictues of the computer lab where the project took place and our community trip to Jamaica Pond. Also, thanks to Citizen School staff members Andrea and Ned for their support of our apprenticeship.
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