Some seniors living at a South Surrey retirement home are going back to school.
And teenagers will be their teachers.
The Brookswood Secondary senior Leadership Team has taken on the role of instructing residents from the Peninsula Retirement Residence on how to use the internet, iPad cameras, and other technology.
The Cyber Seniors course runs almost the full school year, requiring seniors to attend eight to nine classes a month.
The course consists of monthly lessons that will run until April 2018. Once they’re finished, the senior residents will have their own graduation ceremony from the program, with certificates and write-ups done by their student instructors.
The leadership students have each been assigned a resident to instruct. They construct the lesson, build handouts, and teach. They are expected to adjust their lessons to meet the cyber literacy level of the resident and have to learn to make adjustments to their lessons on the fly.
During their second session, students were teaching the residents how to search with Google and use email. Though, some residents were learning how to use the features of the iPad, including the camera.
For one Portuguese-speaking senior, the time she spends with the leadership students is highly valued, said a Langley School District representative.
Since she speaks only Portuguese, she doesn’t often have many people to talk with. She was paired with a student who shares her language, allowing the two of them to converse in Portuguese.