The Intergenerational Project: Preserving Heritage in a Technological Society
E. Aphek
David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem, Israel
For the last six years I have been implementing a program I initiated:
The Intergenerational Program: Preserving Heritage in a Technological
Environment. In this program young students, grades 5-11, tutor senior
citizens at computer and Internet skills and learn from their older
students, a chapter in the latter's personal history. Together they
write a digital version of the story, scan pictures, albums, and
documents, and search for information on the Net as well as in other
sources.
There is a saying that when an old person dies an entire library is set
on fire. In the intergenerational program whole libraries, treasured in
the minds of the elderly, are saved by the means of the new
technologies. The program has been implemented by now in more than 500
schools in Israel.
The paper describes the program , presents some of the digital
histories written by the youth and the elderly, and suggests ways to
expand the scope of the project.
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