Social Workers’ Digital Competencies as a Prerequisite of their Readyness for Education of Elderly People

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the level of readiness of social workers to teach digital technologies to the elderly in universities of the third age, which operate based on territorial centres of social services. The study was conducted in the Poltava region from June 2020 - October 2020. The sample was social workers who provide educational services to students of the University of the Third Age. The total number of respondents was 73 people. The digital literacy analysis of social workers providing geronto-education services was conducted according to five main parameters: information literacy, computer literacy, communication and media literacy, and technology literacy. The results of the digital literacy assessment show that two-thirds of social worker-teachers have enough knowledge, skills and follow the right attitudes. At the same time, digital skills received an average of 3.2 points (3.4 urban and 3.0 rural) out of 5 possible. The majority of social workers (66 people, 90%) have been actively using digital technologies in the geronto-educational process of the Third Age University for less than ten years. The study found out that 96% of social workers-gerorogists desire to move to online learning in the current situation, of which 78% expressed a desire to undergo professional retraining in online learning. As the main obstacles to mastering and developing gerorogical technologies-innovations, social workers named: insufficient awareness of digital innovations, lack of scientific and methodological literature on social technologies for teaching elderly people; lack of logistics for the application of gerorogical digital innovations; lack of material incentives. The results of the study indicate the need to develop social workers-gerorogists: knowledge in the field of modern computer technology and software, as well as the principles of their work; skills of using modern technologies (gadgets and applications); installations in the field of verification of information from the Internet and mass media; attitudes about the benefits of modern gadgets for the daily life of a professional.