Comments on: Silver Surfers' Day – on the Nintendo Wii ?

By: gilladams

gilladams — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:37:51 +0000

Thanks, Emma, pse keep us informed! Gill

By: Emma Symons

Emma Symons — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:32:38 +0000

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.

By: Christine Alexander

Christine Alexander — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:37:35 +0000

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!

By: Liam Barnes

Liam Barnes — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:34:13 +0000

“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.

By: sophiet

sophiet — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:26:39 +0000

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….

By: cath padfield

cath padfield — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:31:43 +0000

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!

By: Carolyn Gyseman

Carolyn Gyseman — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:14:07 +0000

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.

By: Emma Solomon

Emma Solomon — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:21:42 +0000

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.