Guardians encouraged to engage online

Yan Huining, a middle school English teacher in Wuhan, Hubei province

Older guardians are struggling to keep in touch with schools as the internet has become a significant platform connecting students' families and teachers.

As the head teacher, I have created a chat group on QQ, the popular messaging app, for students' parents. I alert group members about the daily assignments, so they can keep an eye on their children. I also discuss with them some of the problems shared by many in the hope that guardians can help correct their children's small errors before they morph into bigger problems. I also leave messages for individual parents about their children's recent performance.

Given their limited digital literacy, some older guardians, however, cannot join the group. So I have to call them separately on the phone. Since this is time consuming, it is unlikely to be regular. Due to the lack of regular teacher-parent communication, some of the children's minor study issues could snowball into huge problems, which could lead to their failure in exams.

Digital literacy is important. But I believe some guardians don't have the right attitude and are unwilling to embrace technology. Because they think learning new skills is very problematic.

Yan Huining spoke with Li Lei.

Zhou Xianghong, a professor at Tongji University's school of public administration

Senior citizens have become the "silent majority" among digital illiterates because of their inability to use electronic devices such as smartphones, which is essential for collecting and processing user data. As a result, data on senior citizens' behaviors usually cannot be collected and used to advise public policymakers.

Efforts should be made to let data speak for the elderly and allow every member of society to reap the dividends of the digital era.

In the digital era, only those who are able to access, collect and process data can enjoy the benefits of added value of data.

Rather than just asking older people to learn to surf the internet or use electronic devices, we public policy researchers need to collect such data for their benefit.

Zhou Xianghong spoke with Li Lei.