• 2-Link allows
residents in
some of Atlanta’s
retirement communities to
share schedules,
messages, and
photos.
July + August 2009
interactions
22
Community Messages
A New World War II movie is out.
Henry
Today 4.00 p.m.
The Museum has a new exhibition...
Today 3. 12 p.m.
Gertrude
Has anyone seen my cat Alice?
Annie
Today 2. 43 p.m.
view
In the ICTs domain, DATHA’s efforts have
already begun through courses educating students from industrial design, architecture,
applied psychology, and computer science to
focus their research on the needs of the aging
population. With support from Presbyterian
Homes of Georgia, earlier educational courses
concentrated on identifying the technological needs for Continuing Care Retirement
Communities (CCRCs) in the Atlanta area.
Students considered many aspects of the CCRCs,
including independent residents, assisted-living-facility residents, memory care residents, and
health and community management. They were
able to visit residents in the community and at
their homes to document observations of their
experience with ICTs to better design technological devices. Their process involved consulting
with experts to produce an informed outcome
resulted in 2-Link, a portable device focused
on connecting community residents through
scheduling, messaging, and photo sharing. The
uniqueness of the concept was based on advancing technological solutions while considering the
simplicity of the task. The concept offered the
sCoolumti mon unoif tyaMdeusaslasgceresen to physically represent
the split between the personal side and the community side.
In addition to a number of lessons learned, the
A New World War II movie is out.
earlier courses served as evidence for the need to
Henry
Today 4.00 p.m.
leverage the expertise available both at Georgia
The Museum has a new exhibition...
Tech and Emory University as well as within the
Gertrude
CCRC to educate students on the convergence
Today 3. 12 p.m.
of aging, technHaoslaongyoyn,edseeesnimgny c, aat Anlidce?community.
MoreoveArn,nieit represented the first steps toward
Today 2. 43 p.m.
developing a comprehensive multidisciplinavirewy
effort of transgenerational education focused on
responding to the real needs of older adults and a
humane and inclusive approach to design within
the technological realm.
An illustration of this concept is a recent project sponsored by the GVU Center and the Health
Systems Institute (HSI). The Sympathetic Devices
Project, a study of inclusion across housing
options, aims to identify communication needs of
older adults living independently across a range
of housing options. More important, it seeks to
design and develop inclusive communication
devices to help older adults maintain personal
and social connections. The project comprises an
iterative series of applied action research studies
to assess, inform, evaluate and implement the
design of communication technology devices—
sympathetic devices—for the aging population.
The most interesting aspect of the research was
how the students in the classroom and the aging
community were unified in the process of assessing the state of technologies and identifying current infrastructures for rapid implementation and
adoption of technologies. Through interviews and
focus groups with older adults, students were able
to understand: Specific needs related to isolation;
that successful communication patterns can be
defined by the amount and type of social activities; and the additional importance of intraper-sonal communication—that is, the effectiveness
of communicating with oneself.
Jitterbug cell phones, which are simple cell
phones specifically designed for older adults, were
one of the data-collection tools. Training sessions
were held prior to the data collection. The most
interesting finding over the course of the research
was that older adults stayed in touch with the
students after completing their research protocol.
There was a natural and mutual interest in aid-
