Hi, my name is Kascha Cassaday, and I'm one of the founders of the Cyber-Seniors program. I'm excited to have this opportunity to introduce you to the Cyber-Seniors program and look forward to working together to make a difference in your community. Whether you're a young person, a senior, or something in between, we need your help. Now, what is the Cyber-Seniors program, and how did it get started? Cyber-Seniors is a worldwide movement whose goal is to bridge the digital divide and connect generations through technology. In 2009 my sister Macauley and I founded Cyber-Seniors as a community service project for school. We came up with the idea after my grandmother had commented on a picture I'd posted on Facebook. To be honest, I wasn't sure how I felt about my grandma being on Facebook and being able to see all my pictures but as my sister and I checked out my grandparents' Facebook profiles we started to realize how the internet really had changed their lives, and it had changed our relationship with them. They were always pretty cool, but now they were super cool and we had way more in common with them now that they're connected. We wanted to focus a program specifically on the internet because we believe the internet has the power to expand a senior's social and physical world. We knew from my grandparents that as seniors age, their social circles begin to shrink and their physical world becomes limited. We believe that the internet has the power to bring the world to them by providing them with a new way of connecting so we developed some training manuals and convinced several of our school friends to start visiting a local retirement home to teach seniors how to get online. The seniors loved seeing us and were so excited by the things we showed them on the internet. The only thing they love more than seeing their grandkids' pictures on Facebook was getting messages from their grandkids telling them how proud they were for them learning how to use the internet. So that's how the program got started. Once we saw how much joy it brought to people's lives we wanted to share our experience with other young people and encourage them to do the same. Now I'm going to leave the rest of the story up to my big sister Saffron, to tell. Hi guys, my name is Saffron. I'm Kascha and Macaulay's older sister. When my two younger sisters started the Cyber-Seniors program, they would come home and share all their wonderful stories with me. When they asked me if I would tag along and film some of their lessons for promo material for the program, I was more than happy to. From behind the camera. I began to see generation gaps narrow and friendships develop. I immediately knew that this is a story I wanted to tell, so I decided to make a documentary film on the topic. I've pieced together some clips from the film to share with you today. I hope you enjoy them. The first one is called "What is Facebook?" This was one of our first days on set when we were introducing the program to some seniors and trying to drum up some interest. I was immediately struck by the huge generation gap between these two groups and the humor that can arise from these differences. It's actually the future of communication, okay? If we use Skype, you know, we can communicate for free wherever and they make their money through advertisements and stuff so you don't have to pay for it. Could you explain a bit about this Face... Facebook Facebook, okay, and you having to be a friend? Okay, yeah, this is funny, um, okay, well first it was Friendster, then it was Myspace And then it was Facebook. There all these these websites that people designed that people can log on and they can join and add each other and, just Facebook called each other friends where other people call them profiles So you add a profile, add a friend, it's a simple form of social communication [two people speaking at the same time] Basically a real-life interaction, but put into a computer. I hope you guys all enjoyed that video clip. The next one is called "Meet the Seniors". This is footage from some of our initial meetings with the seniors, before they even took their first lessons. A lot of them were apprehensive about getting online. They didn't want to fail, especially not on camera. But they all had their reasons for giving it a shot, namely because they wanted to be able to communicate with family members who weren't always around. The lesson I learned from these seniors is, it takes a lot of courage to say yes and try something new. They all learned a lot along the way and had a great time. I cannot get over the fact that when you meet a child what they know about the computer and the speed and the way they go at it where we go like this, you know it's amazing, so there's a huge generation gap I think, because it's come so fast. I'm born 1923 What does that make me? 88 I'm 87 years of age. 79. I am 90, I think we talked about it. I don't know how interested I am really. I really don't believe I could learn, I don't know. I don't even know how to Google Technology incompetent I think I'm too old. My grandchildren are on Facebook, and my great-grandchildren. Sure enough, they're on Facebook. They live on the computer. I want to increase my way of getting in contact with them. Take a shot at it. I tell you I've learned more from the internet. I just well, it's opened a new life for me. And also corrects my spelling. About halfway through filming, we sat down with the teenaged mentors to ask them how they were enjoying the program. A lot of them had great things to say about their new-found friendships with the seniors but the humor really came from the common frustrations that they all had. In this video, they playfully vent about the seemingly simple computer-related tasks that the seniors still could not grasp. A lot of them don't understand where the address bar is, like, to type in the websites they haven't clicked, they start typing and, like, it's scrolling all over the place, because they haven't clicked the box No, no, no, you don't - When they right-click, it makes a menu and then it's blocking something they want. I have to make sure they click in blank space, so they don't click the links then takes them somewhere else. Stay still! There. Okay, oh They don't really understand what a website is versus, what an email is. Sorry, you typed in email.com? I typed in www dot email dot com Yeah, that's the problem. I sort of have to guide them where to click, a bit to the left, A bit to the right, no, gone too far, down, down. Click and then drag it down. Yes, no, click and drag it down. Click and drag. No, click and then drag it down. And then I click, and drag it down So it's kind of like walking a tightrope for them all the time oh boy, oh boy, um, oh This next video is my favorite. It's called "Hallelujah". During our first couple of lessons with the seniors, we witnessed a series of "aha" moments. The seniors' eyes would light up, and they'd lean in close to the computer screen as they discovered something new for the first time. The introduction of YouTube brought quite a few seniors out of their shells and we even witnessed a few sing-alongs. This video is a compilation of some of those initial "aha" moments where the seniors really recognized for the first time all the magic that the internet can bring. Have you ever heard of YouTube? Yes, I've heard of it, but I have no clue as to what it means. Well, look there it is! Press it. An internet website where there's videos. You can watch and- No!- Yes, it's wonderful. So what what what was the song that you wanted to hear? The- do you know the Hallelujah Chorus? No. Young lady, you are uneducated musically. Now let's see, how- oh This is the search bar This is where you write in what you're looking for from things more commonly of their pets, their friends TV shows to music Everything is here I hope you enjoyed watching those video clips and are looking forward to becoming a Cyber-Seniors Mentor. If you haven't yet watched the documentary film, I highly recommend you do so. It's very entertaining, with a great message that everyone can relate to no matter how old you are. I'm going to leave you now with the trailer but before I do, I want to remind you to take the lesson quiz once you're finished watching this video. Is there anything you would want to learn from the internet? Could you explain a bit about this face-? Facebook? Facebook, okay- and having to be a friend? I typed in www dot email dot com Yeah, that's the problem. Have you ever heard of YouTube? Yes I've heard of it, but I have no clue as to what it means. How many people here have used a computer? Well, we have some teenage volunteers who are willing to teach you how to use the internet. I think I'm too old. Hope you have lots of patience, Henry. Today we're going to go on Facebook. Do you remember how to get there? Well- I think I just, uh no. All these things that I never even dreamed about I love it. Welcome to a whole new world of information. Every time we're together Shura just wants to watch cooking tutorials on YouTube. There's a big game called Minecraft. Maybe we could cook something that looks like one of the characters in Minecraft Hi everybody on YouTube We should have you doing a music video My teeth are as fresh as hot popped corn, my O.G. Teeth All of the other seniors are so inspired so we're going to have a contest to see who gets the most views of their Youtube video. Hello YouTube- Hello YouTube- Hello YouTube- Today we are talking about travel- music- sisterhood- Lily and Evelyn's is beating mine. I need more hits on YouTube This is the big moment that you've all been waiting for, the first prize winners of the Cyber-Seniors competition goes to We all know how difficult it is to learn something new but we really do feel that it can change your life So you got a friend request from, Ellard Yeo, who's he? He's in the same program. Hold on a second, you got a message. Shura Eadie, hello Ellard Oh dear Look here, Ellard's typing. Oh, hello Ellard Hello Shura Megan said, thank the people who taught you You're welcome Love you. They see a program like this and they think it's an opportunity to get in touch with their grandkids and to communicate No matter how old we are we do need a purpose for getting up in the morning.