DIGITAL INCLUSION UNATI – UNESP/MARÍLIA STUDENTS

Abstract

Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) created the university extension project called UNATI – Universidade Aberta à Terceira Idade (Open University to Senior Citizen) that offers activities and classes to elderly people with the proposal of making social inclusion environment by sharing experiences and knowledge. It highlights the computer classes offered by UNATI – UNESP that provided Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) education as a proposal of inclusion for elderly students on the Information Society. Those classes have the objective to include the students in the digital world by using the technology and accessing the relevant information according to their actual needs as well the participative construction of digital informational environment. In order to make the research real we used the technique of action research that provides researchers and participants the identification of the problems and research’s objectives as well the actions planning and execution to solve it. In order to perform those actions focal groups were used mainly. The classes have promoted the elders digital inclusion step by step besides discussions between researchers and participants that helps knowledge creation for both sides as well scientific knowledge demonstrating the importance of the tripod teachingresearch-extension at university. Those discussions also helped the specific digital informational environment planning and development for the elderly by allowing the comprehension of student’s perceptions about the access and use of information on those environments and how they can contribute to their digital and social inclusion. The classes also allowed the intergeneration integration between UNATI students and graduation and post-graduation students from the Librarianship degree, the Post-graduate Program of Science Information and the Research Group – Novas Tecnologias em Informação GPNTI (New Technologies on Information).