Cariñena - Spain

You Are Never Too Old to Learn IT

Tablet computing for elderly citizens in rural Spain - Classroom and e-learning combined

This is an initiative to help elderly students in rural Spain to overcome their fear of using digital tools. For, in order to be able to participate adequately in modern society, they need more competence to use contemporary ways of finding information, communicating and managing everyday life. Desktop PCs are outdated already; the tool of choice today are mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. In order to introduce this in our villages with elderly learners, we bought 40 simple tablet computers, trained our teachers, and offered tablet activities in 12 villages and townships of our region.

Peer learning of using a tablet - a group of elderly citizens in Carinena are engaged in the process.

See also the separate online presentation of this pilot

A full report on this experimental course is published in our book "New Ideas to Promote Literacy".

Who tested this?

The Adult Education Centre Ricardo Sola Almau has its headquarters in Cariñena, a town of 3000 inhabitants 50 kilometres south-west of Zaragoza (Aragón).

The educative district of CPEPA Ricardo Sola Almau includes two very different parts. First, there is the wider administrative unit Comarca Campo de Cariñena which is composed of 14 municipalities distributed over an area with a diameter of 30 kilometres and with a population of about 10 000. This is a rural region famous for its high quality wines. Second, there is the Bajo Huerva Community (Cadrete, María and Cuarte) which is close to Zaragoza and has many factories and services. The total population of the two areas is about 30 000. In total, the educational district if CPEPA Ricardo Sola Almau is about 60-70 kilometrers in diameter.

CPEPA Ricardo Sola Almau has its own educational facilities (called classrooms) in twelve villages and townships.

As a municipal education centre, CPEPA Ricardo Sola Almau tries to cover the educational needs of all groups of the adult population. Due to the demographic situation, one special focus is on working with the elderly. These often happen to not have had extensive schooling when they were children and youth.
The centre works with twelve salaried educators and three civil servants. In the 2015/2016 academic year, total enrolments were about 1000, of which 571 for formal education, and 360 for activities in the area of non-formal education.