Empowerment through Service-Learning: Teaching Technology to Senior Citizens

This case study describes a two-year (five semester) analysis of service-learning lab reflections from 87 university students in a mid-sized private Midwest university. These students tutored senior citizens in computer and technology skills on a weekly basis, in order to empower seniors as digital citizens. Consequentially, the students themselves reported empowerment as participatory citizens in the larger campus community. Findings revealed that students held increased social competencies, strong levels of engagement in information technology (IT) literacy instruction, and positive values with an expressed desire to continue to volunteer in the future. Conclusions support service-learning pedagogy as a way to empower both students as participatory citizens and seniors as digital citizens.