DAVAO CITY—Senior citizens in the interior province of Compostela Valley got a free mentoring at digital literacy in a special program by the provincial government intended solely for them.
The digital-literacy program for the elderly was coordinated with the senior high-school management in the province, which were sending senior high-school students on their work immersion to apply their different technical and vocational skills, including electronic and digital-communication skills.
Joyzel R. Odi, chief of the province’s Information Technology and Communication Development Division, said the learners were taught on how to use Facebook, Google, Youtube and electronic mails, or e-mails, using their laptop computers, or cellular or mobile phones.
She said the participants were senior citizens from Barangay Santa Maria, Nabunturan.
The provincial information office quoted a grandmother among the participants as saying in the dialect: “Many of us are happy that we learned how to use the Internet. We would like to have more trainings of this kind. In fact, our fellow participants are now chatting with their children abroad.”
Odi said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) chose the beneficiaries of the training, and further shouldered the food, venue and accommodation of the participants.
“We are the resource speakers. We are tasked to assist and orient the beneficiaries in basic computing concepts, internet use, applications, collaborations and productivity apps,” Odi added.
The DICT partnered with the provincial government of Compostela Valley to hold the three-day digital-literacy hands-on training for senior citizens from February 7 to 9 at the DICT training hub, Poblacion, Nabunturan, Compostela Valley.
The organizers assigned senior high-school students the digital-literacy training as part of their work immersion.
Odi added the assigned students expressed satisfaction, saying it was a different experience to teach the elderly. At the same time, many students were also introduced to the digital gadgets, such as laptop computers, and how to open softwares and applications.
“I am happy that I know how to operate a laptop, especially in the basic operations, how to open, encoding, surfing for FB, Google, Youtube and [how] to create an account,” said Christian Ybañez, a senior high-school student at Camanlangan National High School.
Another student, Rannie Lachica, said she expected only to help in the training, but found out they were also introduced to the gadgets, including installing cables for the Wi-fi connection.
The provincial information office said the digital-literacy program adopts the DICT Tech4Ed project for digital inclusion for special sectors, such as women, PWDs, senior citizens, overseas Filipino workers including their families and relatives, career shifters and teachers.