Bengkel Teknologi Senior: Connecting generations through learning technology

By Nisya Salsabila Putri

In this digital day and age, almost everything we do requires technology.

From ordering food, commuting daily, to finishing work and assignments. It is easy even for youngsters to be overwhelmed with all the advancements made in technology, not to mention the older generation.

The Senior Technology workshop, a two-day program containing 8 modules on the basic technology-related skills, is being offered to help senior citizens in Malaysia cope with this technology.

Organised by Bengkel Senior Teknologi, it covers topics like how to order food, hailing online transportations, online navigation system, and other beneficial technological skills. This workshop is open to people aged 55-75 years old, free of charge.

Peggy Lam sharing her thoughts on the function of technology among the older generation.

(Source: The Star)

In an interview with The Star, Peggy Lam, one of the participants of the workshop said, “We as old folks, can’t really connect with the youngsters.”

Meanwhile, Song Choo Yong, another participant, mentioned that she joined the program in her effort “to cope with the society.”

These responses are exactly the reason why Dr Tan Yun Yi first established Bengkel Senior Teknologi.

Dr Tan mentioned during our interview how there is not much attention put to how older people cope with the developments made in technology.

The Senior Technology workshop held in Kelantan on 27 and 28 September 2020.

(Source: Bengkel Teknologi Senior/Facebook)

Dr Tan first recognised the detachment that is felt by the workshop participants, in a senior she met during her regular visit to a nursing home in Hong Kong for her PhD studies.

Bound to a wheelchair, the senior hardly felt any excitement in her daily life, as she relied a lot on the help of the workers at the nursing home to do her already limited daily activities.

“Then I started sharing about the convenience of digital services and how they could help her regain her independence at her fingertips,” Dr Tan said.

But her idea was only met with the senior’s concern on something so foreign and the doubt that anyone would ever have the patience to help her.

Upon coming back to Malaysia in 2018, Dr Tan’s idea was further reinforced by the scamming that a lot of Malaysia’s senior citizens were experiencing

Though initially funding was difficult to get, the constant effort from Dr Tan and her team resulted in the Bengkel Teknologi Senior being established in 2019, with funding from Amanz Media Sdn Bhd. Since then, this community project founded in Universiti Sains Malaysia has won The Star’s Golden Heart Awards in 2020 for the impact the team has made on the society.

Dr Tan Yun Yi at Bengkel Teknologi Senior’s new designated place in

Universiti Sains Malaysia.

(Source: Bengkel Senior Teknologi/Facebook)

Despite the regulations implemented due to COVID-19 that restricted their movement, Bengkel Senior Teknologi still aims to travel to each state in Malaysia, to help the seniors gain back their independence through connecting them back to the world with technology.

Today the team still continues their effort to raise awareness on the importance of education, even at a late stage of life. Dr Tan says, “If education is crucial for our first 20 years, what makes it less important in our final 20 years?”