With so many schools and educational programs moving into the virtual world, parents and kids have had to navigate learning with a mouse and keyboard. While introducing those technological elements isn’t a major hurdle for some, they can be impediments for people who aren’t familiar with the technology.
It’s more of a challenge for seniors – not the high school teens but those older folks who aren’t digital natives and may be easily perplexed by a smartphone or laptop. In the pandemic world where keeping in touch may mean being entirely online, not being able to figure out Zoom or texting can create communication breakdowns.
Malcolm Wills and his team at BH Tech Group are working to keep those breakdowns from happening. Through classes, workshops and tutorials aimed at the AARP crowd, the nonprofit has been working for eight years to keep seniors up-to-date and in touch. In fact, when it was first launched, the “BH” stood for “Blue Hair.”
“It was a catchy name when it first came out, but we found a lot of men didn’t want to attend anything with the image of little old ladies sitting around struggling,” said Willis. “So about two years ago we changed to ‘Brain Health,’ and now it’s just BH. We also refined our mission: We’re making sure seniors understand how to gain access to and use technology effectively.”
The remote team of teachers is based largely in Johns Creek, but have fanned out to conduct classes at libraries in Fulton, Cobb and Forsyth counties; senior centers across the northside; and various churches and adult communities. The four-, six- and eight-week sessions cover a range of issues, from the basics of iPhones, Androids, tablets, iPads and computers to how to manage online banking and entertainment streaming.
Those in-person sessions disappeared with the arrival of COVID-19, and as of March, the group found itself moving entirely online.
“It pushed us out of our comfort zone,” said Wills. “We were forced to move to the virtual environment, which was a new way of communicating with the demographic we serve. But the good news is we’re now getting requests for classes from as far away as California. Two weeks ago, we were asked to lead a group in New Zealand. So the word is getting out.”
That word is that it’s now more important than ever for seniors to stay connected.
“One of the greatest negative impacts of the technological age is that seniors are left behind,” said Wills. “Studies have been done on the ability of seniors to stay current and how that avoids a sense of social isolation, especially now when seniors need to stay engaged with families and friends.”
But the group’s classes aren’t limited just to those over 55. “That’s how we define our target, but we’ve had some as young as 39 attend,” said Wills. “The oldest was 101.”
Decatur resident Ronnie Mitzner learned about the group’s classes through her daughter.
“I first took classes at OLLI (the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at Emory to learn about photography with iPhones,” said the 77-year-old. “I also learned how to handle notifications, search through messages by name and to do Zoom.”
As many older adults maintain shelter-at-home lifestyles, Wills has expanded the group’s offerings to include one-on-one sessions online or at home.
“We just started that about two months ago,” he said. “We wear masks and gloves if we need to touch equipment. We can also do sessions over Zoom, and we’ll work on just about any issue. We still have a lot of people asking why the Wi-Fi router keeps going down or why the printer doesn’t work.”
Information about BH Technology Group is online at BHTechGroup.org.
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