Abstract

Caitlin Geoghan

ENGL C0855: Teaching Adult Writers in Diverse Contexts

Professor Barbara Gleason

May 4, 2015

 

Crow, Angela. "What's Age Got to Do with It? Teaching Older Students in Computer-Aided Classrooms." Teaching English in the Two-Year College 27.4 (2000): 400-06. Print.

 

     This author examines the challenges faced by older and older-commuting students, because of the educational shift from traditional classrooms to classrooms that require increased interaction with technology as part of writing instruction.  A survey of research on the effects of aging in the fields of cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics establishes that older students struggle more with the educational shift. Decreases in cognitive ability and the deterioration of other mental processes “includ[ing] attentional processes, working memory capabilities, discourse comprehension, inference formation and interpretation, encoding and retrieval processes in memory, and information processing speed” (402) that occur naturally as we age complicate the transition between traditional and technology based writing programs for older students. In addition, a general lack familiarity with computer programs and platforms leads to difficulties in the development of the “multiliteracies” necessary for composition in the computer-aided classroom. Instructors can ease the transition of older students by enacting a scaffolded method that allows less proficient older students to encounter new technologies in increments. Successful methods for familiarizing older students with technology introduce and instruct learners in task-based applications, like using web browsers, composing on word processing programs and using e-mail, before moving to multiliterate integration of newly acquired skills in more complex technological applications, such as file sharing or building web pages. Different supplemental materials may also be required in a classroom for older students. Since older students are more comfortable with text-based resources, written instruction manuals often facilitate successful acquisition of technological skills. Despite the challenges they face, older students are as capable of acquiring increasingly critical technological skills as younger students are; given more time and repetition, older students can transition successfully into the computer-aided classroom.