Acting Minister, Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth and Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Mr Lawrence Wong speaking at Silver Infocomm Day.

Two new Silver Infocomm Junctions (SIJs) have opened at Woodlands Regional Library and Kampong Kembangan Community Club, providing senior citizens with more places to learn infocomm skills and to access computers and Internet services. This brings the total number of SIJs island-wide to 14.

The opening of the facility at Woodlands Regional Library also marked the first time the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) collaborates with the National Library Board to set up an SIJ.

At the same time, the number of Silver Infocomm Hotspots, which provides senior citizens with connectivity and access to computing resources, has more than doubled to 100 island-wide, compared with 44 a year ago.

“This means that seniors now have more places to access computers and Internet services free-of-charge at convenient places such as community centres, Senior Citizen Connect areas or clans and society buildings,” said Acting Minister, Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth and Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Mr Lawrence Wong.

Mr Wong was speaking at the launch of the sixth Silver Infocomm Day (SID), which was held at Nanyang Polytechnic on 29 September 2012.

The Silver Infocomm Day is part of IDA's Silver Infocomm Initiative (SII) which aims to promote IT awareness and literacy among senior citizens so that they can be actively engaged in the digital age. It comprises a series of hands-on training workshops, an exhibition and talks educating senior citizens on the latest in infocomm lifestyle trends and products.

Providing words of encouragement to his fellow senior citizens at this year’s event, Mr Sam Liu, Silver Infocomm Champion of 2009, said, “Nobody is born in this world to know IT. Learning is not easy, but it can be done.”

To reach out to more senior citizens, this year's IT workshops were conducted over the period of one month and at eight locations - Nanyang Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, the Institute of Technical Education, and five Silver Infocomm Junctions - CARE, RSVP Singapore, iClickz, Paya Lebar Kovan Community Club and the Chinese Development Assistance Council. The workshops were conducted in English, Mandarin, Malay or Tamil.

Ms Betty Tee, 61, who went for the Digital Photo Management, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Social Networking courses at SIJ@ RSVP during Silver Infocomm Day, found the sessions useful and relevant. She said seniors should continually upgrade themselves and knowing how to surf the Internet helped her in this by enabling her to look for information independently. “For example, I like beading and I usually look for online videos on how to do nice beading. I’ve found courses that are taught by seniors at a slower pace, so it is easier for us to learn.”

Silver Infocomm Day comprises a series of hands-on training workshops, talks and an exhibition.

Another SID participant, retired nursing officer Madam Patricia Tan Puay Chew, 73, attended courses on basic computer skills, e-Transactions and Infocomm Security, e-Travel, Microsoft Word and Excel. She said, “During our time, we did not have the chance to learn IT, so now’s the chance to pick it up.”

This year's Silver Infocomm Day also saw the appointment of 30 IT-savvy seniors as Silver Infocomm Wellness Ambassadors. The Silver Infocomm Wellness Ambassador programme is a collaboration between People's Association’s Active Aging Council and IDA to promote active aging and lifelong learning in the community.

Among the newly-appointed ambassadors was Mr Raymond Gan Kee Chwee, 84, who was first introduced to the use of a laptop at the age of 80 by his daughter. An excellent ballroom dancer who also teaches, Mr Gan surfs the Internet and YouTube for videos on ballroom dancing. As an ambassador, he plans to work with other like-minded seniors to start computer classes and get more people to join them in learning IT.

Another Silver Infocomm Wellness Ambassador was Madam Irene Boey, 52, who donated 10 computers to start a computer lab in the Cheng San Community Club so that no one would miss out on the benefits of ICT. “I wanted to do something to narrow the digital divide,” she said.

In 2009, she helped develop the curriculum for a basic computer course and worked with a group of volunteers to conduct the training, which has reached out to over 200 participants to date. Among them was a lady who sold fruits in market. “She didn’t know anything about computers. She came and joined our course and was so touched by the passion of the volunteer trainers. Now she comes back and is a tutor for one of the classes,” said Madam Boey.