First Day

March 27th-- First “official” day working with the residents at Kensington Gardens. I arrived about five minutes before my scheduled 2:30 start time which was great because I am never sure which of the two buildings I am supposed to be in. But once I went to the receptionist she called my contact Amy who showed up and took me to her back office for a brief chat. We talked for a little bit about a few of the residents that she was going to have me working with as well as what I was comfortable doing. After that we walked towards the elevator but while doing so we passed a resident that was making use of the computer lab that they have on location. Amy had a quick conversation with the resident and the resident made it clear that she would like a few lessons on computers as well. Now I have an appointment with her at 1:00 pm on Monday March 28th. After this we went upstairs and I was introduced to an elderly man who was in his late 80's. He was fortunate enough to have his own computer in his room and he was very aware of his surroundings. He was quite comfortable using his computer but wanted to expand his knowledge. He asked me to help him rename some of the folders he used to organize his emails with as well as how to search for sent emails in one of his email accounts. He actually had multiple email accounts set up with multiple folders in each one. After that we talked for a bit and he asked me a few more questions about how to increase the font size on emails that he was sending, and I taught him how to do that as well. All together I was very impressed with his skill level I was not too sure what to expect but he was quite competent using his computer. It surprised me just how comfortable he was actually, considering that the purpose of this service learning was to experience the “technical divide” between the younger and older populations.
    The next resident that I worked with was a much younger lady that was located on the same floor as the previous resident. Her particular problem was quite different than that of the other resident. She actually needed help using her new Ipad that her daughter had given her. This caught me even more off guard than the previous residents skill set. She was well aware of the capabilities of the Ipad but had not received any instructions or training yet. She was asking how to perform certain tasks and just needed some guidance to do so. She was able to send and receive emails but was uncertain how to re-size the screen and wanted to find an online English to Irish translator. So we spent the majority of our time together working on those skills. She was a fairly quick learner and it was a pleasure to work with her. Again, this resident surprised me because she seemed fairly comfortable with technology and she was asking how to use an Ipad and this shocked me more than anything else. The Ipad is a fairly new technology and even most students in universities do not have access to them. Yet, an elderly women in a retirement home not only has one, but is also increasing her comfort level every day.

Total time spent – 2 hours.