The Carillon Senior Living center recently hosted digital literacy workshops for residents over 60, led by Merve Basdogan, an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Texas Tech University’s College of Education. Basdogan specializes in technology-enhanced learning and aims to make online and digital education more engaging for adults.
Basdogan, who came to the United States from Turkey in 2015 for doctoral studies, has long been involved in helping older individuals navigate technology. She noted her personal experiences assisting her parents with tech issues remotely and how this shaped her community outreach at Texas Tech.
“It was so frustrating,” she said. “Here I am teaching people, training people, but I couldn’t teach technology to my own parents.”
Her recent work focuses on building digital confidence among older adults and teaching them about online safety. After joining Texas Tech two years ago, Basdogan learned of a $25,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation aimed at promoting digital literacy and safety. She used these funds in 2024 to conduct research that paired teacher candidates with people over 65 for intergenerational mentoring.
“Actually, it sounded very exciting because intergenerational learning is a component I believe is so valuable in that project,” Basdogan said. “My idea was the teacher candidates are digital natives. They are going to teach a lot of kids, but at the same time the world is aging; they are going to work with older teacher colleagues or deal with parents or grandparents of their students. So maybe if I connected them, the teaching candidates would help the elders with technology and the elders would share life lessons and their own experiences.”
Following initial success, Basdogan received an additional $50,000 grant from AT&T to create workshops focused on digital trust. In August and October 2025, she and her team—including doctoral students Deniz Unal, Ibrahim Akdilek, Ceren Gokmen and Shehnaz Mohammed—organized two sessions at Carillon Senior Living attended by 46 seniors.
The instructional technologists acted as facilitators during these sessions while collecting demographic information and feedback about participants’ challenges and successes with technology use. This data informs future instructional design strategies tailored to this age group’s needs.
Helen Musiak participated in both mentoring sessions last year and this year’s workshop alongside her husband Tom Musiak, a retired Texas Tech professor. Helen said: “When I retired in 2000…I did a great deal with a computer…But I had forgotten so much; this was an opportunity to bring something back in my life that I could use again.”
Basdogan observed that internal motivation plays a significant role in seniors’ willingness to learn new technologies: “They have to find a reason to learn. If they don’t see the connection or meaning for their daily life, they are not going to learn,” she said. “I also discovered they actually like the group work more than the individual learning. When you include a few more people, they are more eager, more talkative. They encourage each other.”
The workshops also address accessibility challenges related to aging such as vision or hearing loss and anxiety around new devices. The program aims not only at technical skills but also at increasing awareness about misinformation online as well as safe internet practices.
With support from AT&T grants—and through collaboration—participants were provided tablets during workshops which they could keep afterwards for continued practice.
“But with the tablet they can read even while lying down…And the permanency is so important,” Basdogan said.“We gave them as a gift…so they can keep learning and exploring by themselves.Our purpose is to help close the digital and technological gap for them.”
Topics covered included identifying phishing attempts,safe browsing practices,fact-checking techniques,and recognizing AI-generated content.Helen Musiak found lessons on artificial intelligence particularly relevant:“There’s going to be a number of people that want this kind of thing because we’re not dead yet.We may not use everything they gave us in this course,but if we gained just two things out of it,I think that’s an improvement for this stage of our life.”
Basdogan stressed ongoing education’s importance given increased longevity:“We have lots of reasons to be a lifelong learner.I hope this work sparks curiosity and confidence,and maybe even inspires a broader awareness of what older adults can achieve with technology.”
Workshops have proven popular among residents like Helen Musiak:“I admire these people for doing this,” she said.“They’re looking at research,but they are also helping us ‘seasoned people.’”
Learn more about initiatives from Texas Tech’s College of Education.
