The warm expert perspective to activate educational media processes in old age
Carenzio, A., Ferrari, S.
What posture can we adopt to work on the theme of digital – and digital skills – in relation to the over-65 audience? This is the question that guides the contribution, starting from a research conducted with students of the master’s degree course in media education, who played the role of warm expert (i.e. the one who mediates between the technology, the contingent situation and the needs of the novice user) during the interviews.
There were two research questions: under what conditions is the role of the warm expert activated in the interview to promote the participation of the elderly person and the communicative exchange on digital issues? How was the role played in the interview perceived as a learning experience? We tried to answer this question by means of a post-interview questionnaire, addressed to the students to reflect on the experience, and through the analysis of the transcripts of the 24 interviews.
Alessandra Carenzio
Simona Ferrari
Alessandra Carenzio, researcher in Didactics at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, and member of the CREMIT research centre, deals with media education in schools and informal contexts and with digital media as a cultural and not only instrumental issue.
Simona Ferrari, Associate Professor of Didactics at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, and coordinator of the CREMIT research centre. She is involved in educational design and peer and media education.