‘A whole new world’ - Seniors unlock the power of AI as Excelsior Community College helps them bridge the digital divide

Forget the stereotype that artificial intelligence is only for the young.

Inside a classroom at Excelsior Community College last week, nearly 20 retirees were creating posters, restoring decades-old photographs, planning vegan menus and even giving AI instructions to remove a husband’s beard – all part of a programme designed to help senior citizens confidently navigate the digital age.

John Falconer arrived on the first day curious about artificial intelligence. Three days later, he was convinced it had opened “a horizon” of possibilities.

Noting that learning was a lifelong activity and that age was not a barrier to grasping new information, Falconer said the knowledge he has received on AI now allows him to apply it to many aspects of his personal life.

“Whenever you learn something new, it opens your intellect and provides insights into what was hidden from you, and so it is like a horizon that is open before you,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Falconer said his appetite for gaining increased knowledge about AI has been stimulated and, from now on, the sky is the limit in terms of his interaction with the technology.

Yvette Smith, a former senior educator, said, when a friend she worked with at the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) called and informed her about the AI training, she made contact and got registered promptly.

Having very little knowledge about AI prior to starting the course, Smith said the training has been very rewarding.

“I have learned so much. I have made posters and changed images. I am ready and raring to go home and to do many things. I have also done invitations,” she said.

As someone with a special touch in the kitchen, Smith said she is now using her knowledge of AI to create new menus for vegans and people who eat meat.

“It has opened a new world,” she quipped.

“The retirees who have participated in this programme are doing all kinds of things and showing off on each other and putting colour on a black photograph that they have had for 50 years. All of that is exciting,” she added.

On the lighter side, Smith said, she took a picture of her husband and used AI to remove his beard and sent it to him.

“I prefer him with his beard,” she chuckled.

As a former educator, Smith said she empathised with the Caribbean Examinations Council with its recent decision to discontinue some school-based assessments as it moves to strengthen the integrity of its grading system.

“You can get AI to do just about anything, but what I had learnt before is that what you put in is what you are going to get out, and so, when a student uses artificial intelligence, they have to have a basic knowledge of what they want AI to do before they can have it done,” she said.

Dr Zaria Malcolm, vice principal of academic affairs and institutional advancement at the Excelsior Community College, said the programme was in keeping with the institution’s thrust to provide lifelong learning from the cradle to maturity.

Lifelong-learning component

“At times, we don’t give much attention to the lifelong-learning component of it and, in particular, what the needs of our senior citizens may be. They are still often very active and involved in a range of activities and following up on social media spanning the various platforms,” she said.

“We often tend to think that because people have reached a certain age, that they don’t have an interest in those things, and I don’t find that to be the case,” Malcolm added.

With retirees from diverse backgrounds such as accountants, teachers and entrepreneurs, among others, who participated in the training, Malcolm said the cost was affordable and the programme was organised within a manageable time frame in the day, to ensure that the seniors remain focused.

One of the instructors of the AI programme, Suzette Morrison Curtis, who is an AI specialist at the college, said the enthusiasm and interest shown by the seniors has left the institution with no option but to contemplate rolling out another training exercise for the elderly.

She told The Sunday Gleaner that the participants all had different contexts in terms of how they relate to technology and, as such, there was the need to break down the training to make AI relatable to what they do in everyday life.

After two days, she said, the seniors were able to create posters, enhance old photos, and prepare summaries and reports by using one or two tools to get the job done.

Morrison Curtis said she had to employ practical methods to demonstrate how AI can benefit each individual by getting the participants to take items from their homes to the sessions.

She further explained that, in one instance, they used the AI tool to take a picture of a bottle with fine print that could not be read easily and asked AI to explain the small prints in relatable English. “That’s breaking down using the tool to produce information that they could not see to what they can now see and understand.”

First day of the training

On the first day of the training, Morrison Curtis said she got the seniors to have a conversation with the AI tools by exposing them to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.

“I provide them with what I call ‘little everyday prompts’ and broke them down into useful, understandable, beginner-friendly prompts, so that they could be able to apply them in various ways.”

This new learning empowered the retirees to create flyers for their community, churches, and events like fish fries.

This training offered by Excelsior Community College to the seniors has opened a new horizon for many of them who are now eager to demonstrate their newfound knowledge in a myriad of ways, using artificial intelligence.

“We will teach you at your own pace, as slow as you wish, and no question is silly because everyone in this space is here to learn,” Morrison Curtis said.

“There is a request for a second cohort of seniors and Excelsior Community College is going to take on that challenge because it is a niche that most training entities were shying away from because they don’t know how seniors would be able to dissect the content,” she said.

Morrison Curtis also explained that the retirees who completed the course were also armed with the knowledge of how to identify and guard against scamming and other cyberthreats.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com