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1. Taking Stock of the Present and Future of Smart Technologies for Older Adults and Caregivers

   Harrington, Christina N; Jelen, Ben; Lazar, Amanda; Martin-Hammon, Aqueasha; Pradhan, Alisha; Reeder, Blaine; Siek, Katie (March 2021, A Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Quadrennial Paper)

   null (Ed.)

   Technology has the opportunity to assist older adults as they age in place, coordinate caregiving resources, and meet unmet needs through access to resources. Currently, older adults use consumer technologies to support everyday life, however these technologies are not always accessible or as useful as they can be. Indeed, industry has attempted to create smart home technologies (e.g., Microsoft HomeOS, Intel CareNet) with older adults as a target user group, however these solutions are oftenmore focused on the technical aspects and are short lived. In this paper, we advocate for older adults being involved in the design process - from initial ideation to product development to deployment. We encourage federally funded researchers and industry to create compensated, diverse older adult advisory boards to address stereotypes about aging while ensuring their needs are considered. We envision artificial intelligence (AI) systems that augment resources instead of replacing them - especially in under-resourced communities. Older adults rely on their caregiver networks and community organizations for social, emotional, and physical support; thus, AI should be used to coordinate resources better and lower the burden of connecting with these resources. Although sociotechnical smart systems can help identify needs of older adults, the lack of affordable research infrastructure and translation of findings into consumer technology perpetuates inequities in designing for diverse older adults. In addition, there is a disconnect between the creation of smart sensing systems and creating understandable, actionable data for older adults and caregivers to utilize. We ultimately advocate for a well-coordinated research effort across the United States that connects older adults, caregivers, community organizations, and researchers together to catalyze innovative and practical research for all stakeholders. 

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2. Towards Building Community Collective Efficacy for Managing Digital Privacy and Security within Older Adult Communities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3432954  

   Kropczynski, Jess; Aljallad, Zaina; Elrod, Nathan Jeffrey; Lipford, Heather; Wisniewski, Pamela J. (January 2021, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   null (Ed.)

   Older adults are increasingly becoming adopters of digital technologies, such as smartphones; however, this population remains particularly vulnerable to digital privacy and security threats. To date, most research on technology used among older adults focuses on helping individuals overcome their discomfort or lack of expertise with technology to protect them from such threats. Instead, we are interested in how communities of older adults work together to collectively manage their digital privacy and security. To do this, we surveyed 67 individuals across two older adult communities (59 older adults and eight employees or volunteers) and found that the community's collective efficacy for privacy and security was significantly correlated with the individuals' self-efficacy, power usage of technology, and their sense of community belonging. Community collective efficacy is a group's mutual belief in its ability to achieve a shared goal. Using social network analysis, we further unpacked these relationships to show that many older adults interact with others who have similar technological expertise, and closer-knit older adult communities that have low technology expertise (i.e., low power usage and self-efficacy) may increase their community collective efficacy for privacy and security by embedding facilitators (e.g., employees or volunteers) who have more technical expertise within their communities. Our work demonstrates how both peer influence and outside expertise can be leveraged to support older adults in managing their digital privacy and security. 

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3. Social Connectedness Resource Preferences of Older Adults in Assisted Living: A Scoping Review Based on the WHO-ICF Framework

   https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20230816-03  

   Pudur, Rekha; Mpofu, Elias; Prybutok, Gayle; Meier, Naomi; Ingman, Stan (September 2023, Journal of Gerontological Nursing)

   The current scoping review identified emerging evidence on social connectedness resource preferences of older adults in assisted living facilities (ALFs) and the community. A literature search was performed using several databases. We included review articles published between January 2000 and September 2022 in English and related to social connectedness resources in ALFs and the community. Of 134 titles and abstracts, eight studies were included. Study participants comprised 2,482 older adults from 233 ALFs in the United States. Themes were framed using the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. For social activities, older adults preferred facility-based recreation and leisure resources. For community social connectedness, residents preferred participation in civic life activities. Participants of older age preferred facility resources, whereas those of younger age preferred more demanding physical activities. Those from larger enrollment facilities preferred facility-based resources compared to community resources. For moderately and less active residents, participation was limited to less demanding activities. Older adults' preferences varied based on age, physical limitations, and size and location of the facility. Findings suggest opportunities for further research on developing ALF- and community-based resources for older adults' social well-being and quality of life. [ Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 49 (9), 35–42.] 

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4. “A Makerspace Is More Than Just a Room Full of Tools”: What Learning Looks Like for Female Students in Makerspaces

   https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2018-86276  

   Tomko, Megan; Schwartz, Amanda; Newstetter, Wendy; Alemán, Melissa; Nagel, Robert; Linsey, Julie (August 2018, : ASME 2018 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference)

   Postulating that the act of making stimulates learning, a widespread effort prompted the integration of makerspaces on college campuses. From community colleges to research-based higher education institutions, large investments were and still are being made to advance the making spirit and encourage non-traditional learning in academic settings. While optimistic that students are taking advantage of the makerspace resources and are in fact learning from their experiences, there needs to be a more direct effort to understand the learning, if any, that is occurring in the makerspace. The makerspace is labeled as an open, learning environment where students are able to design, create, innovate, and collaborate [1, 2]. In response, we investigate the claims of this statement through the research question: how is learning experienced by female students in an academic makerspace? Female students in STEM, especially those engaged in makerspaces, have unique and uncharacteristic experiences that can lend way to various learning and pedagogical implications. The purpose of this paper is to highlight our methodological process for incorporating in-depth phenomenologically based interviewing and for utilizing open and axial coding methods to establish grounded theory. We interview five female students through purposeful maximum variation sampling and snowball sampling. Through a rigorous and iterative data analysis process of the ten-percent of the overall, we created a preliminary coding scheme that articulates how learning is occurring, what design skills are being learned, and what life skills are being learned. These preliminary findings show that not only are these female students learning by doing and learning how to problem solve in design, but they are also overcoming fears, developing patience, and communicating ideas in these design-oriented makerspaces. 

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5. Speaking from Experience: Co-designing E-textile Projects with Older Adult Fiber Crafters

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.3572736  

   Jelen, Ben; Lazar, Amanda; Harrington, Christina; Pradhan, Alisha; Siek, Katie A. (February 2023, Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction)

   Researchers support race, gender, and age diverse groups of people to create with maker electronics. These groups include older adults, who are often overlooked as not interested or capable of learning new technologies due to ageist stereotypes. One approach, often involving e-textiles, leverages crafting as a bridge to broaden participation in making. We investigated ways to broaden participation in maker electronics for older adults by remotely co-designing e-textile projects with 6 older adult crafters over the course of 5 workshop sessions for a total of 45 hours. We developed a deeper understanding of their practices, identifying a Planner-Improviser Spectrum for how they approached their craft, and created medium fdelity prototypes. Our design implications draw on our participants’ crafting experience and their experience in the workshop to highlight what e-textile toolkit designers can learn from skilled older adult crafters, such as selecting familiar materials, supporting aesthetic goals, and making electronics more attainable. 

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