Continuing Education Technology For Seniors Nancy Fletcher

Continuing Education & Technology For Seniors Nancy Fletcher PR/Special Needs Librarian Waukesha County Federated Library System

Today’s Agenda Speaker Background Audience Poll (show of hands) Devices that keep you healthy Devices that keep you safe Technology that makes modern gadgets easier to use Fun Technology

Speaker Background Nancy Fletcher • B. A. at U of Colorado-Denver • MLIS at U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Waukesha County Federated Library System • Work with the 16 public libraries in Waukesha County • 18 years • Special Needs, Web Master, Outreach, speaker on Library Services to Older Citizens Senior Citizen Youngest of 4: 71, 68, 67 95 -year-old mother

Audience Poll How many have computers? How many are on the Internet daily? How many have used a WII?

Emerging Technology Emerging aging-services products fall into three categories. • devices that help keep you healthy • technology that promotes safety • technology that makes modern gadgets easier to use .

Devices that help keep you healthy Devices that help keep you healthy. • Automated medicine dispensers, which dispense exactly the pills you need when you need them,

Devices that help keep you healthy Telehealth systems Sensors that automatically transmit key measures such as your blood pressure and glucose level to your doctor

Technology Promoting Safety Second, technology that promotes safety. • wearable devices Example, AT&T’s smart slippers automatically detect falls and send alerts. “Smart slippers, ” have pressure sensors embedded in soles to transmit foot movement data over AT&T’s network. will alert a doctor via e-mail or text message when gait indicates there is something wrong.

Technology Promoting Safety • Motion and floor-vibration sensors in-home, notice if you fall, walk abnormally or can't get out of bed.

Electronic Eyeglasses Pixel. Optics em. Power!™ “If you wear bifocals or progressive lenses, this technology will revolutionize the way you see and use your eyeglasses. ”

Electronic Eyeglasses em. Power!™ will: Focus as fast as you can blink your eye Provide an invisible electronic near focus zone when desired Offer three modes of operation: automatic, manual on, manual off Provide wider fields of view compared to a progressive addition lens Allow for less distortion than a progressive addition lens Provide vision correction for all ranges of sight: far, near, and in between Allow you to turn near reading power off when desired Rechargeable hidden battery

Research The National Institute on Aging research five-year study in Oregon (2006). • Wireless sensors (less than $200 each) keep an eye on the test subjects in their homes and transmit continuous data streams over the Internet. • Ex: Sensors show a patient with congestive heart failure continuously getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, creating a serious risk of falling. In such a case, it may be a good idea to cut the dosage of the patient's diuretic. NY Times 11/7/09

Reaction to Technology Is this monitoring disturbingly intrusive? • The answer seems to be: not compared with the alternatives. • According to a 2008 study by AARP, seniors are generally willing to try remote monitors, even those they hadn't previously been aware of.

Adaptive Equipment A third kind of senior tech makes modern gadgets easier to use. • Cell phones with large buttons and bright screens. • Assistive hearing devices • Visual devices • Software that stimulates your brain with games.

Larger Screen Cell Phones Smart phones such as the Palm. One Treo 650 and the Siemens SX 66 sport some of the largest displays but pricey.

Larger Screen Cell Phones Sprint's LG MM-535 and the Sony Ericsson S 710 a for Cingular have multimedia features and generous screens

Larger Screen Cell Phones Nextel i 605 offers an eye-popping LCD that's a big improvement over previous Nextels. Big-screen phones tend to be bulky, but get colorful, crisp displays that show off text, photos, and graphics.

Adaptive Equipment • Bluetooth Neckloop Amplifier • Williams Sound is wireless link to telecoil-enabled hearing aids. • The CM-BT provides everything you need to listen to your mobile phone, computer or other Bluetoothenabled device with your hearing aid. • Convenience is key: with a push of a button, calls via a mobile phone on a belt clip, in a pocket or in a purse can be answered/terminated via the CM-BT. • Also can be used to listen to music stored on a Bluetooth-enabled device such as an Apple i. Phone®.

Online Benefits Seniors reap real benefits from being online • Regular Internet use reduces the rate of depression among elderly Americans by 20 percent, according to a 2009 study by the Phoenix Center, a Washington, D. C. , think tank.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love A smart phone—i. Phone, Droid, Palm Pre, or Black. Berry—a computer, only smaller. Is it big enough for you? Consider your own hardware and software: your body and brain.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Your Body How's your eyesight? Your manual dexterity? For all their ability to zoom in, smart-phone screens measure no more than 4 inches—the long way. Peering into one, touching tiny buttons or icons, and executing a finicky finger dance of swipes and taps could frustrate anyone.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Your Brain Are you primarily a communicator, a consumer, or a creator? That will help determine the right device for you. A communicator could be content with "just" a smart phone. An avid consumer of visual media might crave a bigger screen (and, to make calls with Apple's tablet-size i. Pad, would need a voice-over-Internet service such as Skype or Vonage). But a creator will need a full-fledged computer to display, manipulate, and store files.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Do you text? • A Nationwide Insurance DWD survey 20 percent of drivers with cell phones say they text while driving 47 percent for drivers under the age of 35. Of those who admit to texting behind the wheel, 40 percent say they do it less often than they did last year. http: //technorati. com/lifestyle/autos May 28, 2010

Social networking is where it's at among boomers. • People over 50 are the fastest-growing group visiting online dating sites. • Not all networking leads to romance. • But—romantic or otherwise—about half of boomers who go online maintain a profile on at least one social network. from: AARP The Magazine | September/October 2010 issue

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love E-Readers Apple's successful introduction of the i. Pad tablet computer— 3 million sold in the first 80 days—that got Barnes & Noble to cut the price of its standard Nook ereader from $259 to $199 on June 21. Hours later, Amazon's Kindle went from $259 to $189.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love The i. Pad, which can do much more than provide reading material, sells for $499 and up. Those prices, too, may drop as other tablets emerge.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Meanwhile, if all you really want to do is read on the beach, consider that in bright sun e-readers' E Ink displays are easier to see than the backlit LCD screens featured on i. Pads.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Logitech Revue Brings the Internet—You. Tube videos, Web browsing, video calling, as well as all your current TV channels—to any set sporting an HDMI port. Launch-date and pricing announcements should be this fall.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love 3 -D Cameras 3 -D cameras, coming from Sony in September, are described as the smallest ever made. The take panoramas by sweeping a lens across a scene, then stitching 15 separate shots together digitally into one smooth 3 -D image. WX 5: $300; TX 9: $400.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Google Goggles is a free app that allows you to take a picture of a building, a work of art, a menu in Rome, and after a bit of processing, Goggles returns a Google search-result page Use your Droid phone to take a photo of a book, a business card, a painting or landmark, and Google will retrieve search engine results about it.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Echo Smartpen With a tiny video camera in the tip of the pen and a microphone on the side, it records your jottings as you write, along with whatever you say, turning your notes into a digital movie. $170 with 4 GB storage; $200 with 8 GB.

AARP’s Technology You’ll Love Ford's My. Ford Touch Ford has revamped its voice-activated and touch-screen controls this fall in models such as the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX. You can change the radio, make a phone call, or hear the latest Twitter tweets by using your voice and a button on the steering wheel.

Perhaps the greatest fear related to aging is loss of cognitive abilities. Studies suggest that seniors who consistently participate in mentally stimulating leisure activities maintain higher levels of intellectual ability and significantly reduce the risk of dementia.

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