Edogawa University held a ``Smartphone Cafe'' on September 2023th and October 9th, 19, in which students from the Department of Information Culture, Faculty of Media Communication, interacted with local seniors and discussed how to use smartphones together.
"Smartphone Cafe" is an initiative run by students with the advice of Professor Kazue Tamada and Lecturer Yumi Matsuo from the Department of Information Culture.Edogawa University was commissioned by Pal System Chiba and NPO Merrill to conduct this event with the aim of improving the digital literacy of local seniors and allowing participating students to learn through interaction between people of different ages.
On September 9th, students served as instructors and held a course on how to use LINE. On October 19th, we interviewed seniors about the actual situation of smartphone use, what they are having trouble with, and what they would like to try, in order to use it as a reference for future planning and operations. We also held a consultation session where students answered questions they had.On both days, seniors and university students of different generations were seen deepening their interactions and having fun chatting.
The seniors who participated gave great feedback, saying, ``It was fun,'' ``The students were all good,'' and ``I want to continue participating in the future.''A student in the Department of Information Culture said, ``I didn't have the opportunity to meet elderly people other than my grandparents, so I was nervous at first, but everyone was so kind and fun.'' ``All the seniors were very cheerful and actively asked questions.'' It was a great pleasure for me to be able to help seniors.''They enjoyed the interaction and seemed to have strengthened their desire to help seniors.The company plans to continue holding this activity about once a month.
