Abstract:

From a psycho-pedagogical point of view, entering the category of elderly people means having an age from 65 years onwards. The categories of seniors are different: the young elder from 65 to 74 years old, the elder from 75 to 84 years, the great elderly from 85 to 99 years old and the centenarians from 100 years upwards. Despite these categorizations, today being elderly is not just a matter of age. The medical development, the increase in the level of education and the progressive postponement of leaving the world of work have contributed to improve the quality of life of elderly people and, increase the survival rate.

At this historic moment, the health emergency caused by the uncontrolled spread of the Covid-19 virus has significantly reduced the quality of life of the whole population, from children to the elderly. Technologies, as never before, expand the possibilities of communication, sociality, information and access to services. First of all, they allow us to continue to participate and interact with people, trying to transform and allow the "normal" performance of some activities that normally are daily.

This paper aims to illustrate the qualitative research carried out with older people during the quarantine period for the Covid-19 emergency. This research stems from a question: How do older people manage to get out of the aloneness created by the Covid-19 emergency?

The researchers chose to carry out a qualitative research to answer this question. Participants will be 30 elderly people aged 65 or more, present in Italy. The research methodology has provided the realization of a semi-structured interview. The interview questions were also divided into three topics: daily life before and after Covid-19, ways of interacting with people during the emergency from Covid-19 and the use of technologies. This qualitative research is still in progress due to the prolongation of the Covid19 emergency and represents a starting point.

Knowing the ways in which older people have managed to get out of isolation from Covid-19 thanks to technologies, they help us to plan more concrete actions centered on this age group. The data of this research can be useful for the design of trainings for educators, social workers, family members who relate daily to older people, but at the same time they are used to be able to implement concrete actions with and for older people in order to help them improve the quality of life both in emergency and in "normal" contexts.

Keywords:

Elderly people, the Covid-19 emergency, ICT skill, Lifelong learning.