The increased access and use of digital technology have reduced social interaction in adults because of the potential reduction in face-to-face contact that it affords [6]. However, digital technologies provide different mechanisms to enhance social inclusion and improve quality of life in older adults [7]. In the case of limited mobility, older adults use digital technology to maintain their social networks [8] and facilitate their well-being [9]. Use of technology also allows older adults to enhance their knowledge of health issues [10], reduce feelings of loneliness [11] and prevent cognitive decline [12]. Nevertheless, despite these potential affordances, older adults have the lowest computer ownership and Internet use for any age group [13].
While some older people may be well supported by younger members of their family network to help develop their skills, others may be more dependent on community-based support projects and peer to peer learning to take their first successful steps.
Although some older adults have actively embraced digital technology use, others have been more reluctant resulting in an increased digital divide [14]. In some cases, limited ICT use is associated with age-related declines in motor, sensory, and cognitive skills [15]. Nevertheless, more recent research identifies negative attitudes stemming from fear, anxiety, and lack of motivation as the main barriers to ICT adoption [16, 17]. As a matter of fact, the difference in ICT performance between older and younger users was not caused by the difference in computer knowledge, but by the tendency of older adults to underestimate their knowledge and abilities [18]. Lack of familiarity and exposure to technology is a plausible reason for this occurrence because their past employment, and education occurred before the pervasive presence of technology [19].
Having access to technology does not necessarily lead to actual technology adoption, which requires the acquirement of specific skills. Since many older adults did not use ICT in their workplace before retiring, these skills are often limited [20]. When it comes to older adults, the availability of help and support is an important factor in acceptance and use of a technology [21]. Additionally, the usability of a technology also has an impact on older adults’ decision to use a technology. The growing popularity of a touch-based devices is changing perceptions of ICT usefulness and ease of usage [22]. In a recent study on tablet computer adoption, Hur, Kim and Kim [23] discovered that perceived usefulness and enjoyment are positively related to attitudes toward tablet computers, while attitudes and social influence affect the intention to use tablet computers. Finally, related to this concept, self-efficacy and expected outcomes of using a certain technology are important to older adults when deciding to engage with a specific technology [24]. Considering that their decision to use technology is intentional, where interest and motivation takes primacy over perceived skill-capacity, a person-focused approach is critical for ICT introduction and training [25]. The ‘drill and practice’ approach to learning has for some time been considered inappropriate in the HCI literature [26]. Minimal instruction in support of exploratory learning is seen as a more effective approach to learning for most users. Therefore ‘instruction’ is minimised and introduced only in support of active learning.
Gameplay is seen as suitable for this purpose as it has certain key elements of task-orientated interaction whilst having the resonance of pleasant, appealing nonthreatening social activity. Gameplay has a strong goal-directed structure where players map intentions onto system objects and actions. In this sense it has an ‘orthodox’ interaction structure, reflecting established descriptions of display-led goal directed action, the cycle of display-based action, and learning through generalisation from examples [27]. Therefore, games encourage learners to engage in exploratory learning, encountering the basic principles of digital interaction.
The use of direct touch-based interaction facilitates a rapid and natural mapping between intentions and actions, even in initial exploratory action phases. Mihajlov, Law and Springett [28] suggest that older learners can rapidly acquire drag and rotate skills in early game-based interaction. We anticipated that similar rapid learning of a variety of drag/relate/tap actions would be achieved by participants.
Our work aims to use social games to address the problem of reluctance and the tendency to withdraw from technology. The environment has a key persuasive role. It is known that many older citizens hold negative attitudes towards technology [29], part of which is a perceived inability to learn and master the technology. The weakening of such attitudes is part of the mission, as is the generation of new positive attitudes and re-enactment/reinforcement of positive attitudes. Therefore, our approach facilitates a rapid sense of mastery using reality-based interaction [30] and providing scaffolding [31] to provide pathways for accelerated mastery and positive attitudes.
Attitudes may be influenced by events and interventions within interaction. Potential reinforcers of negative attitudes may, for example, be repeated failed actions, erratic and unexplainable system action, or uncomfortable reactions in the social setting. In these situations, the scaffolding approach may involve an intervention to weaken the negative consequences of such problems during exploratory interaction.
Positive self-efficacy may be engendered, for example, through appraising achievements through comparison with others [32]. This adds value to the more instrumental benefits of joint problem-solving and co-learning through action, such as learning of basic manipulations and interaction principles. Bandura [33] cites three sources of self-efficacy beliefs that relate to elements of our approach, namely enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences (comparisons), and verbal persuasions (or similar social influences). Enactive mastery experiences are supported with gameplay. The intrinsic appeal of games associated help to hide the learning aspect and lessen anticipation of difficulty. Playful fascination can motivate users to repeatedly try actions until mastered through practice. Also, where there is an electronic version of a familiar game it may be that positive self-efficacy regarding that game may override negativity towards technology.
Vicarious experience and verbal persuasion are designed to emanate from peer interaction and from mentor support [34]. Playing games where there is discreet turn-taking allows users to witness and be witnessed. Where the game is also competitive there is heightened motivation for peer comparison. This is coupled with the instrumental goal of reinforcing learning of skills and principles through observation of others and feedback on one’s own action. Where a game involves close-coupled cooperative action, observation of action and witnessed action become interleaved. This also facilitates synchronous action where body moves coordinate both in performances of action and in conveying to partners. This type of body movement has been cited as a key dynamic of co-performance and in expert-learner dialogues [35].
Gaining vicarious experiences is only one advantage of using a design that allows peer interaction. Peer interactions can lead to ‘peer learning’ which ‘should be mutually beneficial and involve the sharing of knowledge, ideas and experience between the participants’. Peers are basically ‘other people in similar situation to each other’ and ‘do not have power over each other by virtue of their position or responsibility’ [36].
Bandura [37] cites evaluative feedback highlighting personal capabilities as significant in raising efficacy beliefs. Positive feedback referring to ability in early stages has a particularly notable positive effect. The advantage of games, freehand drawing and a reality-based interaction platform is that rapid evidence of ability may be manifest in early performance and available for self-evaluation, peer evaluation and verbal endorsement by mentors. Reality-based interaction allows new users to recruit physical interaction skills that they possess and use in the non-digital world rather than having to learn a set of new skills [38]. The facilitation of existing skills such as drawing or expertise in a specific game also facilitates rapid exhibition of skilled performance where peer and mentor can provide positive feedback.
The need for evaluative feedback and verbal persuasion makes it necessary to think about how a mentor should act. Additionally, the mentor behaviour is important for encouraging mastery experience: Although the use of games supports enactive mastery experiences, occurring problems while playing make additional support by a mentor crucial for avoiding negative attitudes. Scaffolding as support method allows giving minimal instructions which are adapted to learner needs in exploratory learning approaches.
Wood et al. [39] used the term ‘scaffolding’ for describing a tutorial process where more experienced people help learners to ‘achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted efforts’. It is crucial that learners act independently as much as possible and make their own experiences. However, the learners should reach higher goals than they would be able to achieve alone. Hence, the learners’ ‘success or failure at any point in time’ should determine the next instructions [40]. There are clearly common characteristics in different scaffolding approaches that are appropriate for cognitive and emotional support, contingency, fading and transfer of responsibility [41]. Contingency describes that the support needs to be adapted to the needs and learning conditions of each learner. Fading means that ‘the level and/or the amount of support is decreased over time’. This aspect is strongly related to the third aspect: While the support is decreased over time, the learner control should be increased which should gain to a transfer of responsibility. Hence, scaffolding as a truly dynamic process and as temporary learner-centred support method [42] can provide appropriate support in a gameplay-based exploratory learning approach.