Bed-Stuy's Seniors Learn to Dance 'The Technology Shuffle'

Can you do the Technology Shuffle?

It's the latest trend-- a highly coordinated and fast-paced dance whereby a person keeps beat with the newest gadgets, latest computer programs, slickest apps and most active social media outlets. Everyone's doing it!

Well, almost everyone. Unfortunately, if you are a senior or a person born before 1960, today's world of technology can feel like a confusing and overwhelming place.

But Andrea Lawrence, founder of Mazii, a not-for-profit digital literacy company, believes no one should get lost in the technology shuffle. In fact, she is proving that with a little patience and with the right partners, you can dance at any age.

Mazii – which means “together” in Greek – was founded in 2007 to provide technical skills training for entrepreneurs, local businesses and other non-profit organizations, including the Brooklyn Public Library.

But since its inception, Lawrence has grown the organization to include a component that meets the needs of seniors—a segment of the population in the digital universe that is oft forgotten. 

And so far, Mazii’s senior computer training program has become a big hit amongst seniors. This is due in large part to its unique structure: It is co-collaborative with many other organizations; and it is intergenerational.

Mazii’s INTECHY (intergenerational technology interns) program collaborates with other local, youth outreach programs to provide its instructors, ages 16-24, the skills to teach computer literacy to the seniors of their own community. Lawrence likens her INTECHies to Apple Inc.’s “Geniuses."  

During the first cycle of the program, INTECHies have a 10-week internship requirement where they learn basic skills training. If they stay on for the second cycle (6 weeks), they become paid instructors and are placed in senior centers within their immediate areas to teach 1-2 times a week.

“I always loved working with the youth,” said Lawrence. “So I decided to train the young people how to teach, because they already have the technology part down-pat. It gives them an advanced skill, teaches them responsibility and also boosts their self-esteem to be able to give a service in their own community.” 

Lawrence said the seniors at St. Philips this cycle are learning how to cut, copy and paste formats, add pictures and by the end of eight weeks will have a booklet. 

“I had one senior, 95 years old, say to me, ‘Oh my god, I never thought I would do this because no one would take the time and sit with me and teach me how to do this,” said Lawrence. “Then she said, ‘So you mean to tell me all the time I’ve been paying someone to type these documents, I could have done it myself?’”

Mazii is collaborating with centers all around Brooklyn, including in Park Slope, East New York and Sheepshead Bay. Lawrence hopes to secure more partnerships and, over the next few years, have most of the seniors in Brooklyn dancing the Technology Shuffle with ease.

“We’re open to whoever wants to partner with us,” said Lawrence, who recently has secured a partnership with Bed-Stuy’s Business Improvement Group (B.I.G.) and Telikin, a company that makes computers specifically designed for seniors.