Intergenerational Digital Activity: A Good Mixture of Education and Welfare

Abstract

The context of this presentation is the ITAC research project [1], a scientific collaboration between the ICAR and the ELICO research teams and Lyon's Public Library (BML). Its aim is to study the intergenerational use of digital artifacts at the BML. ITAC focuses on the relational, linguistic, and educational aspects resulting from the interactions. Our study centers on the interactions between a grandmother and her grandson discovering together the games provided on an interactive table. It is also a question of studying the way in which the grandmother transmits to her grandson the manipulative knowledge of communication with the screen. Through a methodological framework inspired by comprehensive ethology (Cosnier, 2001), the analysis will show how both participants benefit from such an activity when it is properly lead by a mediator. In terms of education, the results show that both participants enhanced their digital literacy. In terms of welfare, the senior gets involved in the digital entertainment environment at the same time as she plays with her grandson. It informs us of her degree of appropriation of digital uses. This ease of communication with the screens limits the speeches constantly highlighting the difficulties of seniors to be comfortable with these new technologies.