Technology companies rarely design with older adults in mind, yet seniors face increasingly high-stakes digital challenges—from navigating confusing interfaces and password resets to identifying AI-generated deepfakes and avoiding sophisticated scams. Join Lucy Gray, an educational technology veteran who now works part-time at a public library supporting older adults with technology, as she shares real stories from the frontlines of senior tech support. Lucy will illuminate how seemingly simple design choices—like full-screen promotional overlays or multi-step authentication processes—can trigger cascading crises for seniors, locking them out of essential accounts and services. More importantly, she'll share practical strategies educators can use to support older family members, friends, and neighbors, while making the case that media literacy education isn't just for students—it's a critical life skill for adults of all ages. This session will challenge us to recognize that the same media literacy competencies we teach our students are desperately needed by the seniors in our communities, and that each of us has the power to bridge this digital divide through patient, informed support.
Date: Monday, March 2, 2026
Time: 12 pm EST | 6 pm CET | 10:30 pm ISTÂ
LOCATION: Register here for the webinar series.
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Recommended Media (please preview before attending)
- When an Ad Triggers a Full Account Crisis (Lucy Gray, 20 Jan 2026)
- Designing Materials for Adult Learners (Lucy Gray, 26 July 2025)
Optional Media (enrich your learning)
- Video: TEDxMSVU Aging Well: Amélie Lemieux (2018, 6.5 min)
- Video: TEDxUCO Technology Fear Therapy: Wes Fryer (2021, 18 min)
- Podcast: She Said Privacy/He Said Security: "Helping Seniors Avoid Digital Scams, One Click at a Time" (Red Clover Advisors, Alexandria “Lexi” Lutz, July 2024)
- Journal Article: "How 'basic' is basic digital literacy for older adults? Insights from digital skills instructors"
(Frontiers in Education, August 2023) - Journal Article: "A digital media literacy intervention for older adults improves resilience to fake news"
(Scientific Reports, April 2022) - News Article: "Elderly Americans lose $28 billion a year to scams, and some are fighting back by learning to spot deepfakes, AI, and misinformation" (Fortune Magazine, August 2024)
- News Article: "Older adults' experiences with using information and communication technology and tech support services in New York City" (PMC/PubMed Central, April 2023)
Guest Bio:
Lucy Gray is an educational technology consultant, event producer, and part-time library technology educator who has spent decades at the intersection of learning and digital innovation. After years working in K-12 educational technology, Lucy now staffs the adult services desk at her local public library, where she teaches technology classes and provides drop-in support during weekly "Tech Tuesday" sessions. Through this work, she has become acutely aware of how modern technology design fails older adults—creating unnecessary barriers, confusion, and even harm through interfaces that assume digital fluency. Lucy documents these experiences and insights on her Substack newsletter, "Lucy's Daily Dispatch" (elemenous.substack.com), where she advocates for more inclusive, accessible technology design and shares practical resources for supporting adult learners. Her recent writing has highlighted critical gaps in how tech companies serve seniors, from password recovery nightmares to deceptive promotional interfaces that trigger account crises.
Host: Dr. Wesley FryerÂ
Wesley Fryer, PhD, is a middle school STEM and media literacy middle school teacher at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina. As an educational technology “early adopter / innovator” since the late 1990s, Wes continues to share regularly on social media. Learn more on wesfryer.com.
Please get in touch with us if you want to suggest future Media Club meeting topics to discuss an article, book, podcast, video or any media related to our interests.
Dr. Wes Fryer, Webinar Series Manager |Â wes.fryer@providenceday.org Â
* AI Image (for this webinar) generated by Wes Fryer using Gemini's Nano Banana Pro.