Scams through the use of technological resources are becoming more widespread and almost daily bank fraud by hacking accounts and passwords, cloning social networks or transmitting sensitive data in response to requests from alleged banking services or official organizations make news. , The most common.
And although they do not have exclusivity, the victims are generally people in the age segment known as ‘elderly adults’, retirees and many of them with little or little knowledge of the technologies that move practically everyone’s lives and allow precisely those scams.
There is a wide range of institutions on the market that offer courses and workshops on technological knowledge. One in particular, the Center for the Promotion of the Elderly (Cepram) is dedicated precisely to that age group and opened the registration for its school year that includes, among its areas, knowledge and learning of the use of technology.
in dialogue with CORDOBA PROFILEDaniela Buyatti, a professor in the Computer Science and Technology area at Cepram, clarifies it: “This is not something subjective to the culture of the elderly, because technologies advance and now other types of scams appear. It is not good to tell people that nothing will happen to them, when we know that with a call they hack into the home banking account, they steal the data. That is why these courses, learning all that, is also empowering oneself, being more secure in the use of technology, but also knowing more and avoiding scams, or at least reducing the risk, because it can happen to anyone, but much more to someone who does not know how technologies work. How is a link; how an official page; when they can ask you for data and when not; what data can be requested and given, etc.”
Technology rules our lives.
-Yeah. All this has to do with the historical transition from analog to digital and from paper to virtual. And that runs through our entire lives today. Just as it becomes impossible to think regarding our lives without electricity, for example, it won’t be long before we can’t think regarding our lives without the internet or without digital technologies. It also involves recognizing the advantages that these technologies have, but the problem is that not everyone can enjoy these advantages and others who, because they do not know how to use them, not only cannot take advantage of them but also do not have access to a lot of rights; that is why we also evaluate it from a rights perspective. And we are not only talking regarding older adults, but there are also young people who have never touched a computer or a smartphone.
Not everyone has the right tools.
–If we talk regarding devices, they have to offer the possibility of supporting everything that happens today through a cell phone (internet, social networks, applications, etc.) and then access to the network: there are many people who can have a phone smart but no wifi and has to do everything with a mobile data connection, which is much more expensive and inefficient.
Then there is a much more cultural, symbolic, educational issue: you can have the internet, but if you don’t know how to use it, it won’t work for you either, you can’t access all its advantages, you feel insecure outside of all this. There is a whole cultural construction that transcends the mere device and that has to do with another system of thought, a computational thought that has other characteristics.
That is why our courses have that intention: to bring these tools closer to the elderly and in this the main task is to remove their fear. What we try is to start from the basics, that first they learn to know the system and the technological language; how is the storage; what does ‘googling’ mean; how to use an email; what they are for and the importance of the keys, always with a practical orientation.
But it must be clarified that this does not only happen to the elderly, but many times the life trajectory of a person did not imply an approach or learning of these technologies.
–How long are the courses?
–They are four-month courses, two a year, from March to June and from August to November, once a week for two hours. The semester ends and we renew the proposal so that the group maintains itself and sustains the bonding relationship and reaffirms knowledge. The courses have around 15 to 20 students, because we believe that it is the number that allows the teacher to monitor the individual process that each student makes. In general it is people over 60, but younger people who have problems knowing and understanding technology also come.
Finally, Ms. Buyatti pointed out: “I have been teaching technology since 2017, but since the pandemic everyone has become aware of the need to be able to use technology so as not to be left out of almost everything, from Netflix to WhatsApp.”
Other courses and workshops.
For her part, Carla Arónica, director of Cepram, specified that different computer courses are taught: those on cell phones, which have an initial and a refresher; technology to simplify life, which ranges from home banking to specific topics that are necessary for procedures or specific topics; computing, initial and review, which is done with a notebook, either the students’ own or those provided by the center; there is another program that is individual, by a teacher with a student and on special topics such as how to buy trips online, and Photoshop –photographic resources– which is regarding how to intervene in photographs.
The Cepram proposal includes more than 90 courses, which are in charge of a staff of more than 80 professors. There are seven areas of interest that include psychological well-being courses and workshops; physical well-being; technologies; cognition; artistic expression; languages, and culture and artistic appreciation.
Registration is open until March 2 and can be done in person at the headquarters of David Luque 430, General Paz neighborhood, or via WhatsApp at 3518183922.
Talk regarding cyber scams
Within the framework of the open days ‘I lived the Cepram’, which will take place on March 1 and 2, on Wednesday 1 at 10 a.m. there will be a talk on cyber-scams: ‘Virtual scams: How to protect ourselves?’, by the Technology with Purpose Foundation.
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