Different Digital Literacies of Older Care Workers

This chapter discusses relations of older workers and digital technologies in care at times of care digitalisation. Relying on the Science and Technology Studies (STS) approach to care, we see digital literacy as situated, emergent, multiple, and co-produced by humans and nonhuman materialities. The data used has been collected during the ethnographic study on the introduction and use of digital technologies in long-term care to discuss barriers and drivers behind digital literacy promotion of older care workers. Specifically, the chapter discusses insufficient training and lack of actionable feedback opportunities in three Dutch care organisations, as well as informal knowledge transfers and adaptation of digital technologies to local contexts. The chapter introduces three different types of socio-material practices, which produce and represent digital literacy: experiential everyday use of digital tools, the use of professional care technologies, and informal digital practices of adapting technologies and teaching colleagues about context-specific particularities of using digital technologies.