Seniors and technology: overcoming the barriers of the digital world

The demographic changes that began in the last century are reflected by an increasingly aging population and are an unavoidable reality. Following the current paradigm of aging (active aging), technologies are expected to be important to minimize the impact of the aging process, promoting quality of life, both to combat loneliness and also to ensure safety and the health of the elderly. From the bibliographic research that studies and documents the relationship of the older with technology and the personal experience of teaching Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to seniors, we present methodologies and tools that can provide the elderly with the skills to take advantage of technology potential and exercise easy and efficiently full citizenship. Developing new learning opportunities and activities as well as providing information about them is important as it enables the elderly to be motivated to participate in a new type of useful learning for both seniors and society.