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Silver Surfers’ Day – on the Nintendo Wii ?

Posted in All posts, Events etc., Learning, New Technologies, Silver Surfers

The below email came originally from Emma Symons who works at the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust.  We asked her permission to put it on the blog and thought we’d invite opinions from others.

Is the Nintendo Wii a valid use of Silver Surfers’ Day? Does it enhance people’s lives? Is there anyone out there reading this who’s used one? Information please! In ‘comments’ to this post, preferably, so we can all share.

‘I have read your article about Silver Surfers Day and although we cannot host an internet session at our sheltered schemes we are thinking of having an inter scheme competition on the Nintendo Wii. This is to encourage our older residents to use technology to keep active. Would this be the kind of event that could be included in Silver Surfers day or is it purely for internet learning?’


March 31st, 2009 gilladams | 8 Comments »


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    8 Responses to “Silver Surfers’ Day – on the Nintendo Wii ?”

    1. Emma Solomon Says:
      April 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 am

      I think this is great, I have seen quite a lott of ref to wii activity in the last 6 months or so, and for me yes it’s all part of promoting the basic digital literacy agenda – which counts as a SSD Event!

      I also think for you and residents, having a date for the competition to coincide with so many other thousands of older people using technology to do something fun and interesting will be good.

      Do make use of our SSD resources and our Learning Zone content on the day, even if it’s just print outs to give more, basic info.

      Really look foward to seeing how it goes.

    2. Carolyn Gyseman Says:
      April 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 pm

      Yes, I think a Wii does enhance peoples lives. People in a wheelchair can enjoy playing a sport albeit they don’t run around but the they can use the remote and with a group of people there is also the competitiveness element of improving and winning. So part of Silver Surfers day, not sure but it is using new technology and it is fun. They cannot go bowling normally so why not digitally? I think it is a fantastic use of technology for older people.

    3. cath padfield Says:
      April 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm

      it certainly seems that way – ‘guitar hero’ has been used to rehabilitate (?not sure this is the right word!) people who’ve lost arms, but have been fitted with high-tec falsies. The replacement arms have to ‘learn’ movements, and the repetitive physio movements were fairly tedious – but very similar to those needed to be jimi hendrix (et al) on Guitar hero game. Not necessarily directly relevant to older people, but is not the principle broadly the same to using games to exercise that other muscle – the brain!

    4. sophiet Says:
      April 24th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

      I also think that regardless of what you actually do on the Wii to keep your brain and body fit – anything that gives people a fun, friendly introduction to interacting with computers is a good thing. So you might start using a Wii and it gives you the confidence to try another bit of IT…. then who knows where it will take you….

    5. Liam Barnes Says:
      May 5th, 2009 at 10:34 am

      “LearnPlay Foundation strongly believes that the Wii Fit could be an important tool in engaging those who are not ordinarily inclined to take any exercise”.

      We use it for our weekly silver surfers day sessions and have done some intergenerational work using the Wii at the CIty of London’s older people’s forum. Many of the seniors had seen their grandchildren using the Wii but had never tried it out.

    6. Christine Alexander Says:
      May 5th, 2009 at 11:37 am

      Hi Liam,

      ‘Wi, Mi and the Over 50’s’

      EverybodyOnline (Alamein) will be running Wi Fit sessions with Alamein’s Paradise for the Over 50’s Club, and during the summer holidays we’re hoping to have some multi generational tournaments!

    7. Emma Symons Says:
      May 6th, 2009 at 7:32 am

      Thanks for all the positive comments. We did have a taster session a few weeks ago at one of our smaller schemes and it ws a great success. We even found that residents who do not normally join in were in the lounge having a go on the Wii and thoroughly enjoyed it. We are hoping that this competition day will be successful and we will then roll it out to our other sheltered schemes and make Wii fit days a regular scheme activity.

    8. gilladams Says:
      May 6th, 2009 at 9:37 am

      Thanks, Emma, pse keep us informed! Gill

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