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► Journal BrowserSpecial Issue "Sustainable Technology and Elderly Life"
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Geography and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: accessible technology; human-machine interaction; advanced databases; data integration and big data; data extraction
Interests: big data; knowledge information system; web design; e-learning
Interests: natural language processing (NLP); knowledge organization systems; information retrieval; digital literacy; e-learning
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nowadays, managing the ageing population in a sustainable world is a major challenge. The world population is getting older, due to increasing life expectancy, but also a lower fertility rate. In 2000, the global average age was 25.6. In 2020, it is 30.5. Other areas have a more marked evolution; southern Europe has, in 2020, an average age of 45.9, which is predicted to become 51.3 by 2050. In Japan, the averge age in 2020 is 48.5, and this is predicted to become 53.3 by 2050. According to the WHO, the number of people aged over 60 will increase from the current 600 million in 2020 to over two billion in 2050.
Social and personal challenges arise. Social challenges are related to the maintenance of health care, pensions or social security systems, for example. Personal challenges are related to older people’s feeling of loneliness or social isolation, for instance, when they are living alone.
The use of sustainable technology has been shown to be very useful in later life (wearable devices for health, sensors to track the senior’s activity, socially assistive robots in residential homes, etc.). Moreover, as we are currently immersed in the worldwide pandemic known as COVID-19, special care is required when it comes to the elderly. However, many elderly people are reluctant to use it, due to fears related to technology, lack of resources and access, low interest, lack of familiarity or security concerns. Fortunately, this trend is changing, and many people over 60 (also called “silvers”) are demanding more apps for leisure and free time.
In this Special Issue, to be published in Sustainability, we want to provide a forum that collects current proposals that address these challenges, and to aspire to a future where healthy ageing with sustainable technology is possible.
Sustainability is an international open access journal that provides an advanced forum for research findings in areas related to sustainability and sustainable development.
In particular, the main topics in this Special Issue should cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Sustainable and accessible technology for elderly life
- Model-driven technologies for elderly people
- Senior friendly interfaces in robotics, wearables devices and/or computers
- eHealth, eEducation and/or eCare for elderly life
- Sensor technologies for elderly life
- Sustainable technology for the social needs of elderly people
- Data science and/or artificial intelligence IA applications to process data collected by sensors aiming to improve healthy ageing in elderly life
- Leisure apps and long-life e-learning platforms for seniors
- Applications that support the evolution of technologies for seniors, that cover topics such as standards, interoperability and re-use
This Special Issue aims to collect contributions to cover the research gaps in sustainable technology for elderly life, providing a reference resource to the scientific community working in this area.
Research papers, concept papers, communications, comprehensive reviews and empirical applications are welcome to submit to this special cause issue.
Prof. Dr. Ana Iglesias
Prof. Dr. Jorge Morato
Prof. Dr. Sonia Sanchez-Cuadrado
Prof. Dr. María Carmen Fernández Panadero
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- sustainable technology
- technology and elderly life
- accessible technology
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
title: Efficacy Evaluation of a Test Designed to Stimulate Selective And Sustained Attention Processes in Senior Citizens.
Authors: Claudia I Rojas R
Author Affiliations: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
Abstract: This article presents the findings issued from the implementation, in laboratory conditions, of the analog and digital prototypes of a cognitive training test of the elderly. The study assessed the effectiveness of the designed contents, in purpose to stimulate the cognitive process of sustained and selective attention problem resolution. Since some studies have shown that interactive processes are better when there is a correspondence between people’s capabilities and task requirements, the review of emerging differentiating data during the interaction with the digital device in comparison with the analogical test has been considered very important to the test design. Considering that attention, as a mental process, involves a large number of objective biological indicators as well as complex measurement indicators; a quasi-experimental and exploratory study is proposed. This study is only interested in the measurable indicators, using quantifiable data reports from specialized equipment to apply the findings in the redesign of the test and, mainly, to support the theoretical proposals issued from the research process. The above, taking into account the statement by Sevaldson (2010), that most of the important theoretical issues arise from the experimental design, because it requires the designer to move between creative action processes and critical reflection, while both are fed back. From this perspective, design is a phenomenon that tries to understand the action with the aim to find patterns that could be generalized from a descriptive point of view.
title: The redundancy as a compositional and communicative figure of design, for the learning of interaction of the elderly. Design for aging.
Authors: Claudia I Rojas R Daniel Felipe Jiménez r
Author Affiliations: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
Abstract: The absence of previous interactive experiences and, consequently, the inexistence of intuitive processes of execution with some technologies, has led to marginalization and loss of opportunities for the elderly. At present, there is a large number of researches whose purpose is to generate recommendations of inclusive design for this field of knowledge from diverse theoretical assumptions of the design, perhaps for the significant increase in the life expectancy of the human being worldwide. >From the theoretical discourses of the visual communication it have been generated diverse contributions referring to the way the information must be presented and organized, as well as the use of the different principles of the visual composition that facilitate the access and favor the interactive execution of people.. This paper presents the results of an experiment carried out with the objective of objectively establishing the validity of using the compositional principle of redundancy for the design of interactive interfaces specifically in learning scenarios with older adults. The study was particularly interested in this characteristic, in reason that several contradictory statements and positions are found, in relation to its usefulness and convenience for the creation of interactive proposals. Some authors insist on the benefit of graphically or audibly reinforcing the information already offered in a descriptive way, and others, advocate that the development of multimedia is directed to supply only the concrete information to stimulate the precise interpretation and to avoid the mental overload and the divergence of the attentional processes of the person who develops the task.