Digital Grandma, Version 6.6

Iowa retiree Susan Wakefield can talk technology and teach it to her peers, too.

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Susan Wakefield at a computer station with friends. —photo by MARK TADE/GAZETTE COMMUNICATIONS

Susan Wakefield is not the kind of senior citizen who has to ask her grandchildren for help programming her VCR. In fact, she teaches people how to use far more sophisticated equipment.

The 66-year-old Wakefield (below at right), first became interested in video and television production toward the end of her career as an elementary language arts teacher.

“I’d had some experience videotaping classroom lessons, and I learned that a local cable company could provide the equipment and training so we could make and broadcast student productions,” says Wakefield, a member of the NEA/ISEA-Retired Program. She pursued the idea and quickly caught the video bug—earning money in retirement by videotaping weddings and producing a professional video on warehouse safety.

Three years ago, Wakefield got involved with the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center, which operates its own TV studio, Senior Center TV. Assisted by graduate students from the University of Iowa, volunteers learn every aspect of television production and create their own programs, which air on local cable and cover everything from studio interviews to videotaped shows of the senior center’s band and choir. Sometimes Wakefield does the teaching.

“I love the variety of work,” says Wakefield. “Most of all, I love watching our TV staff volunteers active in something that allows them to age creatively.”

—MATT SIMON