Please tell your Mom that she is welcome to stop by for assistance during our Computers for Seniors hours, 10am-12pm on Mondays.

She might also be interested in attending our next CCTV orientation on Tuesday, July 6. More information is here: http://cctvcambridge.org/node/40697

Cheers,
Colin

Scott – wow! Thank you for sharing all of this. You research with college students sounds really interesting and it definitely made me analyze myself (how would I respond? thoughts) as well. I really appreciate you including all of this here and wonder, like you, if a similar strategic approach could be applied in the scenario of teaching seniors. Please keep me and the other readers here posted on your research when it comes out!

Thank you for your comments, Scott.

It’s great to hear that our work at CCTV resonates with your research interests.

Good luck!

RT @amyrsward: Great ideas & insights in comments w/ interview from @colinrhinesmith of @cctvcambridge work w/ seniors & social media: h …

Colin- Thanks for sharing. Your project resonated with me on a lot of different levels. In particular, within the last two years I’ve conducted research that may be particularly relevant to your pursuits. I hope to have the research published shortly. Application of my research to learning among Seniors is one of the areas I defined as a “someday I think we need to do this” kind of a thing.

Specifically, I’ve conducted research about how principles of influence can be integrated as metaphors into computer interfaces to improve learning. I used Carol Dweck’s (Stanford University) “implicit theories of intelligence” about learning motivation and outcomes, which states that our own beliefs about our own intelligence (i.e., our capabilities to learn) are extremely predictive of our willingness to entertain new learning, master content, and ultimately improve our ability to learn. My premise for the research was that if I could metaphorically represent learning as “working out” (i.e., getting a stronger brain is like getting stronger muscles), learners would adopt the belief that their mind is a muscle that can improve with dedicated effort.

Lots of research has shown that when children and adults believe their intelligence is fixed (e.g., “I don’t have a brain for computers”, or “My mind doesn’t do numbers”), they tend to avoid learning situations that might “expose” them as inadequate, give up when confronted with learning challenges, and ultimately have poorer performance than others who have the other mindset–the growth mindset. When people have the growth mindset, they believe that their intelligence and ability to learn is a matter of effort.They accept new learning challenges, maintain motivation in the midst of learning challenges, and ultimately have better performance outcomes and scores than people with the fixed mindset.

My research was with non-math major undergrads (the people who tend to believe they “don’t have a brain for math.”). I developed a computer program in Flash that asked participants to respond to math questions, then changed the kind of feedback each participant received. In the experimental condition where I showed an avatar proceeding in a work-out and growing muscles when participants answered correctly, participants accepted more learning challenges and had better overall scores than when I didn’t include the “work-out” metaphor, or when I told them in literal terms to work harder. In other words, by introducing the metaphor of “working out,” and equating it to the learning environment, participants were more willing to accept new challenges and performed better than those who weren’t presented with the “working out” metaphor.

My sample population for the research was college students. I’ve wondered, however, how the “mind as muscle” metaphor might resonate with Seniors. I would guess that the majority of the people who sign up for your program already lean towards having the “growth mindset,” while a LOT of others don’t approach your program because they hold the “fixed mindset” relevant to their ability to learn computer skills. Social media can be a big scary world for a lot of seniors! If you can address the mindset, you may be able to encourage greater participation in your pursuits. Additionally, if you can integrate the metaphors into the process of instruction (e.g., “Today’s workout will be about status updates in Facebook”), as well as the computer interface, I would expect that you would see increased motivation and greater outcomes than what you might currently be seeing. Assessing the mindsets of your program participants is simple and consists of 3 questions, which I could get to you if interested.

In research down the road, it would be interesting to assess what Seniors think about their ability to not only LEARN new information about computers and new uses of technology, but to also RETAIN information. I wonder if some believe their ability to retain information is metaphorically equivalent to a sponge, a “steel trap”, a rock, or some other metaphor. The implications of the research on learning and memory retention are extremely pertinent to cognitive functioning in aging, quality of life issues, and relevant medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s and other conditions that may challenge learning. If these conditions have a natural (genetic) AND a nurturing (social interaction based) root cause, I hope we can at least do everything possible to maximize the nurturing/interaction based part.

Anyway, great interview. It struck a chord with me. I appreciate what you’re doing.

@amyrsward RT is my easy pleasure – thank YOU for sharing your great work and thoughts!