Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges of adopting behavioural change and action research approaches to the design and development of technology to support the self-management practices of chronically ill individuals.

Paper long abstract:

Emphasis on hardware design, ability to remote monitor and collection of system analytic data has meant scarce research into the determinates required to motivate chronically ill individuals to sustain long-term engagement with self-management and rehabilitation technologies. This approach has created an 'Iceberg Effect' to technology design in chronic illness, highlighting a need to further research the underlying social, cultural and psychological factors crucial to developing a symbiotic relationship between patient, carer, health professional and technology. There is need to improve the user experience to facilitate societal adoption in self-management practice and ultimately improve patient quality of life, while reducing burden to health services and carers. This paper provides an overview of current behavioural change models developed in tele-healthcare and discusses the benefits of integrating existing and newly developing behavioural change research into the design of content material and patient relationship with the user interface (UI). Uniquely integrating behavioural change and action research approaches in chronic illness self-management presents an opportunity to shape the content from the patient's perspective to induce healthy lifestyle modification by blending knowledge, learning and implementation strategies to increase user engagement while reducing the learning curve effect. Issues that may stifle a behavioural change approach are also discussed. New psychological design approaches alone are not sufficient and changes to health service provision for adoption of technology and incorporation of training for patients, carers and health professionals is also necessary to improve the role of technology in self-management strategies for chronic conditions.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will review research regarding the use of social media for civic engagement by older adults.

Paper long abstract:

Much of the research into the use of social media platforms by older adults focuses on the creation and maintenance of virtual communities that serve personal needs and desires for social interaction with family and friends. As is clear from watching worldwide political events, however, social media play an increasingly significant role in civic engagement. Older people have traditionally assumed predominant roles in multiple political realms, but are underrepresented as users of social media. It is worth asking whether gerontocratic influences have waned as a consequence of their lagging behind youthful users and, secondarily, whether there are technological or social trends at work to counter such a diminishment of influence.

The WHO Age-Friendly Cities worldwide initiative counts civic participation as a key indicator of "age-friendliness." This paper will address the uses of social media by older people for purposes of civic engagement.It will then introduce and describe multiple leading edge examples of the use of social media for civic engagement by and with older adults.

In a review of the uses of social media for civic engagement by older adults, the author will discuss the challenges encountered in getting older adults on line as well as strategies employed to successfully increase those numbers. Current research conducted by the author indicates that, to be successful, on- line civic engagement needs to be embedded within a broader and wholistic community participation strategy that meets multiple social needs. It will be noted that older adults use of social media is rapidly increasing without any intervention as broadband becomes available.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation is based on a recently completed study of how older people's engagement with new technologies is affected by the context of learning informally alongside others in a sociable environment. The work was funded by the European Union (Grundtvig) as a life-long learning project.

Paper long abstract:

Recent years have seen a proliferation of technologies aimed at improving the independence and benefitting the well-being of older people (e.g. assistive technologies; monitoring devices) and an increased attention being paid to age- and disability-friendliness within design. Despite this, it is still the case that older people on the whole are less likely than the general population to use non-specialised new technologies such as smart phones and tablets. The reasons are many, complex, and subject to shifts in salience as both technologies and the socio-economic environments change. Prominent among these reasons are the cost of technologies and of up-dating them, access to information about what is available and what might be useful, and opportunities to try things out.

This presentation is based on a recently completed study of how older people's engagement with new technologies is affected by the context of learning informally alongside others in a sociable environment. The work was funded by EU (Grundtvig) as a life-long learning project. Groups of older people resident in five locations (Scotland, England, Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia) took part in both local workshops and visits between countries to learn about different kinds of ICT including desk-based (e.g. internet, Skype); handheld (e.g. iPad, smartphones, Kindle); gaming technologies (Wii, Kinect, DS) and a wide range of assistive technologies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores an emerging transnational mobility of Japanese retirees and its implication with respect to transforming life course of the elderly. Through the ethnographic lends, this paper examines how retirement migrants create a community by utilizing online social networking services, which is the very process of creating new ways of life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores an emerging transnational mobility of Japanese retirees and its implication with respect to transforming life course of the elderly. Within Japan's current situation of a rapidly aging and declining birthrate, namely in the stage of the super aged society, increasing numbers of Japanese pensioners are interested in retiring abroad. Their motivation for moving abroad is to make their post-retirement life more meaningful and financially sustainable within the range of their retirement pension while they were still active and healthy. The everyday life of Japanese elderly, which has conventionally been understood as static and in-place, is in its transition and becomes more dynamic.

Since the late 1990s, Japanese international retirement migration (IRM) to Southeast Asian countries where retirement programs for foreign retirees are available has been increasing. The government of Malaysia, the country which has been recognized as the most desirable destination among the Japanese, has implemented a tourism policy, the "Malaysia My Second Home Programme", which attracts affluent foreign retirees in order to stimulate the economy. Although Japanese IRM is mostly conducted by healthy retirees, it consequently has created a new stream of people leaving Japan who determined to settle down in Malaysia permanently despite their visa not guaranteeing their status as permanent residents.

This paper further examines how elderly people relate to each other through migration and how they recreate a community after their retirement by utilizing online social networking services, which is the very process of creating new ways of life through the ethnographic lends.

Paper short abstract:

As technology adoption increases across the lifespan, the question of what happens to the resulting digital content at the end of life is increasingly topical. This paper draws explores issues surrounding ownership of digital content across multiple lifespans, and the ways in which digital content lives on after its creator dies.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on a combination of field studies and systematic review to explore issues surrounding ownership of digital content across multiple lifespans, and the ways in which digital content lives on after its creator dies.

As technology adoption continues to increase across the lifespan, we embrace opportunities to create and share digital content with personal significance: photos, emails, blogs, videos and more. This content is superseding the boxes of memory-laden letters and photos previously stored in our homes. Digital content has the advantage that it can be created, accessed and shared anywhere, at any time. However, it cannot easily be inherited when its creator dies - especially if stored in online accounts. Facilities for users to nominate an inheritor for their digital content are largely absent, and (with few exceptions) lack support in law. Inheritors struggle to identify and access online accounts and their content, a problem compounded when Internet Service Providers' conditions of use stipulate that accounts terminate on death. Processes of bequest and inheritance are further clouded by the asynchronous nature of virtual and physical death. Users may linger on in a virtual world long after physical death.

If inheritors do gain access to digital content, they are repurposing it. Digital content may be used to evoke the life of the deceased, providing opportunities for shared grieving and the maintenance of continuing bonds with the dead.