8th November 2011

Christmas came early for the residents of Great Northern Haven this year, with the delivery of an iPad 2 to each resident in September. So why did everyone get an iPad?

Part of our research at CASALA is to provide information and feedback to the residents of Great Northern Haven on their home environment (home security, energy usage), their health, their community and local services. The iPad seemed an ideal device, not only for its small size, weight and touch screen interface, but also for the multitude of free apps available that could be of benefit to older adults. To help the residents understand and engage with their iPads, I began to run a weekly class, each week focusing on a new topic of interest to the class participants.

The first couple of classes started with the basics of turning the iPad on/off, charging it, how to check it was connected to the Internet etc.  We also focused on using the Internet – explaining Google, how to search for information and what exactly could be found on the Internet. By the time the second class came around I was amazed at how well the residents were able to use the iPad for searching and for zooming in and out of webpages. Topics of interest focused on local history, particularly viewing old photographic archives of Dundalk, hobbies (such as finding out football scores) and searches related to past employment. The residents had obviously been actively ‘playing around with’ their iPads outside of class and figuring out what’s possible with them as many discovered YouTube – an app that comes preloaded onto the iPad. YouTube is definitely a favourite amongst the residents and is used for looking up favourite singers, bands, songs and even old movies.

Our third class focused on setting up an email account and how to check, reply to and send a mail. During classes 4 and 5 the residents set up iTunes accounts (the free type where no credit card details are necessary) and got acquainted with the app store, browsing for apps of interest – including news apps, weather, recipes, ancestry, iBooks. The most recent class focused on learning to use Skype, which the residents found to be great fun and definitely one of the most beneficial uses of the iPad so far - one of the residents successfully had a video call with his daughter abroad during the class, introducing her to the other people in the class. Other residents have started to use FaceTime, as they have children or grandchildren with iPhones and iPads, some abroad, who they want to video chat with.

The residents have been actively helping each other in learning, both during and outside of class – helping each other with problems, sharing interesting sites they had found, or old movies they had watched on YouTube. This has played a huge part in bringing the residents together and enhancing relationships.

Now we’re 6 weeks into the classes and its time for a review of what’s been done to date. I’ve been amazed at how eager the residents are to learn this new technology and hope they will continue to show such interest. For me, the classes are fun and also a learning experience as on more than one occasion I have been taught a thing or two from the residents regarding what’s possible on the iPad. What’s more, as a Human Computer Interaction researcher, there’s no better way to understand the interaction between people and computers than directly helping people to learn on a regular basis and observing how these interactions play out.

In terms of choosing the iPad for our research purposes, it is simply the means of delivery of information to the residents of GNH, and a device to test our research hypotheses. Such information can in theory be delivered to any PC or tablet device. While the iPad 2 may seem expensive, starting at €479, the cheapest laptop available from Dell is €359. Given the usability advantages of the iPad over a regular laptop, and it’s smaller, lightweight packaging, I think if we are to support older people in getting online, then the iPad is an obvious choice. They are not without their problems however, requiring access to another computer to set them up and to update music and photos. This issue aside, the iPad appears to be very successful in engaging older people with technology.