As the present time is facing an aging society, the silver generation can renew their social activities, which have been limited by physical, social, and perceptive limitations, by using computers, not being alienated from the fast paced information society. Also, the constant information technology education is necessary for them to participate in the society through the Internet ana voluntary social services, arid further to use the computer as a supplementary tool of their life.
Hereby, this thesis studied a method to reduce the information technology gap of the silver generation, resolve their social alienation, arid reduce the gap between generations by applying UCC, which has been regarded as a possession for the young generations, to them. Therefore, UCC creation education using a multimedia total management tool was conducted for the silver generation, and before and after the education, their sense of alienation, self-esteem, and change in satisfaction of life were examined and analyzed.
The learners were comprised of 22 persons in the silver generation over 60 years old, who received education about the basic course of Windows, a word-processor, and the Internet/homepage. They either completed education courses in the education center for elders in A University in Andong, or are active members of a computer club. Classes were taught to them for 6 weeks. As for statistical methods to analyze the data, frequency analysis arid paired samples T-test were used. The research results of this thesis are as follows.
UCC creation education using the multimedia total management tool showed to have no significant effect on their sense of alienation. However, the test of a sense of alienation showed a significant difference between married learners (living with a spouse) and single learners separated by death. According to this result, the single learners showed a significant reduction of a sense of alienation after UCC creation education compared to the married learners. Thus, it was found that UCC creation education resolved a substantial portion of suffering from separation by death.
After the UCC creation class, self-esteem of the learners appeared increased. The learners created UCC contents using their own electronic devices such as digital cameras arid posted those on their mini home-pages. In this process, they collected and used considerable information and learned functions of digital devices, which is determined to have increased their satisfaction.
The learners' satisfaction of their life before and after the UCC creation education showed no significant difference. This is probably because the learners had been active in their computer clubs or meetings, and their satisfaction degree was already high. To study change in satisfaction of their life, it is needed to select elders in various environments as study subjects.
Considering the major research results above, development of various educational courses for the silver generation is in demand. Particularly, in case of regions other than big cities, appropriate educational institutes, equipments, and facilities to meet the learning enthusiasm of the silver generation are insufficient. Constant expansion and provision of educational sites and courses, equipments, and facilities is needed. Also, at this point facing entrance to the super-aged society, the government's support in terms of policy is necessary to reuse various experiences and knowledge which the silver generation acquired through social activities and education.