Erica Archie stood in the parking lot of Union Station in Jackson, Mississippi, on March 25, the sun barely above the treeline as she looked across the lot to where a group of senior adults huddled around a parking meter. The group whispered and worked together to discern how to purchase overnight parking for their vehicles.
“Look at them over there at the parking meter,” Archie said from across the lot while filming a Facebook Live on March 25. “I’m taking my seniors to Memphis, Tennessee, today.”
“Y’all got it?” she asked them.
The chattering group reassured her that they could figure it out and went back to work. Archie turned her attention back to the camera with a proud laugh.
CAPTION: A student in The Bean Path’s Older Adults Technology School uses her debit card to tap pay at a Memphis, Tenn., museum on March 25, 2026. The field trip was the culmination of a learning unit on using online reservation services. Photo courtesy Erica Archie
ALT TEXT: A woman in a red shirt taps a credit card to pay at the counter
The seniors are part of The Bean Path’s Older Adults Technology School, or O.A.T.S., a program under AARP. The organization’s Senior Planet programming focuses on “opportunities in the lives of older adults where a significant impact can be achieved through the use of technology,” its website says. The Bean Path is the only space in Mississippi that offers the in-person course, which is free to participants through grant funding.
“If we don’t (teach them), they’re gonna get left behind,” Archie, who serves as program director, told the Mississippi Free Press on April 15. “This world is not waiting on us. You go places all the time, and it’s cashless. You go to places all the time that are technology-based, and they have no reservations about it. They make no apologies for it. This is just what (they) do. So I tell them all the time, ‘If we don’t do this, you’re going to be behind, and we don’t want you to be behind.’”
Using the Lessons in Real Life
During the last cohort, Archie taught seniors how to plan and book a trip online. During one lesson, the class asked if they could actually take the trip.
“I said, ‘You know what? We can. We can. It’s right to Memphis. And we have been talking about taking a trip anyway, but we just hadn’t followed through with it.’ So we got serious about it and decided to go.”
In classes held in The Bean Path’s computer lab, each student researched places they would like to visit in the city and the entry fees. They booked hotel rooms and Amtrak tickets through the business websites. Once they had all the information, they created itineraries for their trip.
“When it was time to go, everything was done,” Archie said. “They were so amazed that they were able to do everything online, and (that) it was so easy to do. They feel like it’s so difficult to do things like that.”
Archie and the class took a charter bus to Memphis. There, the group used their phones or debit cards to “tap” pay for tickets at the Slave Haven Underground Railroad. They visited the Stax museum, the B.B. King restaurant and other Beale Street sites, all using digital currency. They spent the night at a Tunica hotel and caught the train from Marks, Mississippi, home the next day. Archie said the experience guided her lesson planning for the next unit.
“I was watching money spending while we were there so I could see,” Archie said. “That’s what led me to what we talked about this time, which is electric money. We need a little bit more guidance on what to do with the tap and things like that.”
Each O.A.T.S cohort is 10 weeks long. The classes are small with no more than 10 students aged 60 or older. Archie is leading the ninth cohort of the program, which she began teaching in 2023. There are two levels to the training. In the beginner’s class, students learn the basics of computer use, including turning on the hardware, using the mouse and managing the keyboard. From there, they learn about email, passwords and using the internet.
Archie’s mother, Catherine Lacey, now serves as O.A.T.S. program instructor and teaches the beginner group. She took the course and then studied the curriculum on her own.
“I enjoy teaching these older adults,” Lacy said. “They are my peers, and I can talk to them.”
‘We Don’t Want (Them) to Be Behind’
There is also an advanced class, which Archie said is just a step up from the other course.
“The reason why we say advanced is because we don’t do any beginner stuff,” Archie said. “That’s the only reason why we use the word advanced. I really need to find another word, because I think it confuses some of the seniors and they’re like, ‘Oh no, I can’t do advanced.’ It’s not advanced like that. It’s just that we aren’t talking about the beginner things that’s going on with the computer.”
Archie, a former educator with 18 years under her belt, designs the lessons for those courses. She keeps The Bean Path’s goal of bridging the tech gap at the forefront of those lessons, teaching skills like paying bills online, navigating online banking, checking email and using artificial intelligence.
“I formulate a curriculum that helps them navigate the world,” Archie said. “So our last cohort was about traveling, having the world at your fingertips. That’s why we went out of town.”
Loretta McDonald was one of the seniors in that group. The retiree said the classes have enhanced her daily life. During the last cohort, she learned how to navigate the MyChart app used by her doctor’s office. She can now view test results and health information without waiting for the nurse to call.
“(Erica) took the time and walked us through how to get through MyChart, which is something that I need to know,” McDonald said.
Archie said that what is even more important is the community built in the classes. She said the sense of community and shared space is vital to learning because, without that comfort, older adults do not thrive.
McDonald echoed the sentiment.
“You meet new people,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of friends that I didn’t know and met people that I didn’t know, and we’ve exchanged information. So it’s just about doing it. It’s always something to (learn).”
For more information about the O.A.T.S. program, visit beanpath.org.
