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Despite the Internet being available to most people, the digital skills of the average adult are poor. Tiina Tambaum, a doctoral student and junior lecturer at the TU Estonian Institute for Population Studies finds that today it's the young who should tutor the old, especially when it comes to computer literacy.

Throughout the history of humanity, it has been the children who have studied from the adults. We have created an entire educational system, but as the African proverb hoes - it takes a village to raise the child.

The adult world nowadays has many situations in which the child has more skill than their parents do. The Internet is one such area. Public services and everyday information have been uploaded to the network, but nearly half of 50-64-year-olds and two thirds of pensioners get no use from this, for they do not use computers.

The senior adult Internet literacy in Estonia is no different from the rest of Europe. The adult education research done by Statistics Estonia shows that between 2007 and 2011 the percentage of adult computer users in the 50-64 age bracket went up by 7%, but that was not due to learning, but natural demographic processes.

Why is it important that retiring people keep up with the technological advances in the society? It has to do with our elongated life expectancy. A person celebrating their 65^th birthday will, on average, live for 18 years more.

A quarter of our adult population is digitally illiterate. Research shows that the problem is not related to having access to computers. The question is rather in who should teach the elderly. Surveys show that adults do not prefer computer courses or schools, but rather use “soft experts” as their mentors – that means their family, neighbours, friends and colleagues.

Educational scientists have started emphasising the role of informal education in the society. They believe that 80 per cent of an adult’s learning process during work and elsewhere happens without them noticing – by observation, listening, exchanging thoughts and explaining things to others. In this learning process we all are teachers to one another. Despite this, the technological competence of the elderly does not seem to develop.

The 21^st century gives the African proverb a new wording: it takes a village to teach the elderly. For the first time in human history the old have a reason to seek advice from the young and the young have a responsibility to mentor them.

In today’s society, young people find it hard to have a separate identity, as their childhood has been elongated. A purposeful role as the distributor of basic technological knowledge would solve the problems of both the old and the young.

For a young person to be an adequate mentor, the education system must teach didactic skills in addition to learning skills.

Tiina Tambaum is currently completing her PhD thesis called “Teaching methodology for young people to increase Internet literacy among the elderly” (title translated from Estonian original).