Life-long Learner While Being Tech Slow

I am returning to post secondary education at the age of 60 after taking early retirement from my career. My employer has offered an attractive early retirement package which afforded me to pursue a graduate program. My goal was to be a life-long learner and study subject areas that are of interest to me; i.e., organizational learning and culture change.

I found myself among students that are much younger who use their electronic devices with a high level of proficiency. Most students in my classes were about the age of my children.

I also found that, as an older adult, my biological needs were also different than other students. For example, my hearing and sight were not as sharp as they were when I was younger. My studying habits were also different than younger students; i.e., I took notes using a note book and pen, not using on-line tools such as Evernote.

At work I was accustomed to calling the help desk when I ran into problems with technology. There was instant help available to resolve the problem most of the time, and on a rare occasion, tech help came to my office to resolve the problem I was experiencing. This sort of service was not available to me at university.

My computer skills were limited to email and Microsoft Word. Occasionally, I used PowerPoint to develop presentations. I was not familiar with such e-tools as Google Docs, Survey Monkey, Eventbrite, or the Adobe Suite apps. These were commonly used apps. Other students “wizzed by” in the use of such technological tools, while I often found them very frustrating parts of reentry into academic life. I found that it took me much longer to complete assignments and prepare for classes. This was a major source of frustration for me and much more challenging than completing course work and assignments. I often asked my professors to grant me extensions to hand in my assignments or projects.

To add to the frustration, I was using a new computer with operating system I was not familiar with: a Macbook. This was a mistake. My home computer was old and was the size of a Buick. I had been using the Microsoft operating system.

I also found that the university IT department was not helpful. They often didn’t help to resolve the problem I experienced. They closed the “ticket” before the problem was addressed. I found the school administrators treated a mature student just like any other seventeen year old student, sometimes with a condescending tone.