APRIL-MAY 2000

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

JOHN AND BETH PECK

By Dana Peck
Special to the Florida State Times

Last Christmas John and Beth Peck's children gave their parents a computer so they could exchange e-mails and explore the Internet.

What makes the Pecks' experience different from most of the other computer gifts over the holiday is that John is 85 years old and Beth is 79. At their age, the newfangled contraption seemed a bit overwhelming.

"It's like anything new, you don't know what you're doing, and, like anything, you want to be sure of yourself," said Beth Peck.

But in a matter of days, she was whizzing e-mails to her family, and in weeks, she was deep into mapping her ancestors on the Internet.

In the meantime, John Peck was getting used to cyberspace enjoyment by reading what he calls "letters" from his grandchildren.

The Pecks' reservations in entering the world of computers are exactly what FSU is targeting in a five-year study of older adults and computer technology.

The project, based at the University of Miami, joins the Georgia Institutute of Technology and FSU's Neil Charness, professor of psychology, to study the way older people may use computers.

Charness has launched his multi-million dollar research project by comparing how older adults adapt to a computer mouse with the way they use a light pen to make computer commands.

The study is geared to predict which device would be better, Charness said.
After that phase of research, Charness plans to look at the way older adults use voice commands on the computer.

In future projects, the FSU researchers will focus on older adults using their gaze to control computer functions - a blessing for those who suffer from afflictions, such as palsy, that make hand controls difficult.

Ultimately, the FSU team will study desk-top video conferencing, to determine if older adults can extract information from the computer when voice and sound are as dominant as sight.

"We want to make sure that older people aren't shut out of the technological revolution or aren't inadvertently handicapped by poor design," Charness said.

Send a letter to the Editor:fstimes@unicomm.fsu.edu

Copyright ©2000 Florida State Times