Can technology be more inclusive for the elderly?

So it should come as no supprise that the queen has a great website and uses a wide variety of social media to keep her subjects up to date with the goings on of the royal household.

The latest addition to this is a superb collection of images which many have not been in the public domain before and are now hosted on Flickr. Why not take a look and see and have a listen to the Royal Twitter and the countless videos on You Tube. I can’t wait for HRH to be uploading photographs of her morning walks with the Corgis from her Android phone and Blogging about her latest holiday on The Hebridean Princess around Scotland.

Official website of The British Monarchy

The Queen’s Twitter Account

The Royal Channel on You Tube

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10663353

You may have heard the story of the Indian slum children who taught themselves how to use computers when someone embedded a computer in his Delhi office wall for them. It proved so successful that all around the world the same experiment was repeated and each time, children taught themselves complex tasks easily – with little supervision.

But, and here is an even more interesting fact, they did even better when a ‘granny figure’ stood behind them offering encouragement – not teaching them, but just positively encouraging them and engaging with what they are doing.

So an encouraging and positive older person standing behind children who were working out how to do something themselves made them achieve more. Does that sound familiar? It is a pretty good description of good parenting and particularly in parent engagement in education.

The granny figure was not a specialist teacher, or a computer expert but an adult whose job was just to stand and encourage young children in what they were learning – just like a parent or any involved family member would. The man who came up with the original idea for the ‘computer in the wall’ in Delhi is Professor Sugata Mitra and he has taken the concept even further now and added to it with the concept of the ‘Granny Cloud’.

Professor Mitra is proposing an idea for schools called SOLE or Self Organised Learning Environments. These learning environments consist of a computer with a bench big enough to let four children sit around the screen. “It doesn’t work if you give them each a computer individually,” he is quoted as saying.

Professor Mita is now professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK) and has also been a speaker on the TED stage

The children are then backed up by a “granny cloud” – 200 volunteer grandmothers who can be called upon to video chat with the children and provide encouragement. He has tested the spaces successfully in the UK and Italy, and now believes they should be tested more widely. Infact, during an earlier stage of his experiments, Indian children actually asked to be read fairy tales by UK grandmothers via Skype! Professor Mitra, who now lectures at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom, told the TED Global (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Oxford in the UK:”I think we have stumbled across a self-organising system with learning as an emergent behaviour.”

And all of those grannies are clearly helping too. Long term research in the UK has proved that the existence of one older person in a child’s life who has a passion for the child and wants them to do well in their education is enough to ensure they make the most of their schooling, regardless of the quality of their school or their economic circumstances.

Digital Inclusion is at the very heart of what we do – and this programme is bringing the wonders of the web to 200 sheltered housing schemes. The first wave of activity is going down a storm and the pace is getting faster. If you think that you can take a group of mixed age people from knowing nothing about computing technology through to providing confidence, competence and creating lasting usage, then please get in touch.

We will select those we feel have that special talent for supportive learning. The benefits to you are an attractive day rate, the knowledge that you are working for the leading company in this learning field and being part of a tight delivery team deploying a Digital Inclusion programme that is building a lasting legacy.

Tutors for this project are sub-contracted for 1 day per week for approximately 13 weeks.  If you are interested, please send an email to info@getdigital.org.uk  attaching a current CV.  If you have already expressed an interest, please do not apply again, we will be in touch with you shortly.

More infomation can be found at the main website: http://tutors.letsgetdigital.org.uk/tutors-wanted/

“The incremental cost to maintain the BBC iPlayer is approximately £4 million per annum and includes transferring programmes into web formats, providing metadata about the programmes, as well as editorial oversight, support costs etc.”

The BBC’s technology chief Erik Huggers recently expressed concern that some viewers are getting ‘a free ride’ by watching its shows on the internet rather than on television.

• Scrabble Club.
• Dominoes.
• Card games.
• Build a city or farm.
• Command your own army.

Third Age Entrepreneurs Win NESTA’s Age Unlimited Challenge

Third Age Fun and Games will enable older people to: Learn computer games while at the same time having fun. This will lessen any sense of isolation while extending their knowledge of computing at home or in a group; and encourage families to pass on their “old” computer to an elderly relative so that they may also learn the advantages of being online.

The club have two venues near Edinburgh in Leith and Fountainbridge. You can find out more about the developing pilot project at their website:

The Fun and Games Club

Here are a couple of examples from scotland of how buddies are becoming a part of many digital inclusion schemes in different types of digital inclusion projects. We would love to hear about any examples which you are involved with or know of that can be shared (please ad a comment on this post).

Laptop loans in Sheltered Housing

James Rose of Meridian Mature Citizens Fourm explains how a new project starting in 6 sheltered housing centres this year will loan a computer to someone new to computing. The pilot scheme allow them to learn with a buddy about how a computer can be a part of their lives and have someone they feel comfortable asking about what they can use a computer for and how to maintain one for themselves. It is intended to encourage the confidence and experience to allow those with no prior computing experience to get a .

Watch the YouTube Video: How can buddies help with digital inclusion

Libraries in East Lothian buddy volunteers

In December 2002, 57 new public access computers were installed in East Lothian libraries, with free fast access to the internet, email and scanning. The computers are intended for recreational, educational and information needs of the public. A range of free introductory courses in computing are being offered to adults in many libraries to help them benefit from this new technology. These new users and others with little experience of IT will appreciate the help of a buddy.

The buddy will sit with the beginner at the library computer and help her or him to practive skills and sort out basic mistakes. The buddy is not a computer expert. Anyone with familiarity is using word email, the internet or a scanner will have all the technical qualifications required.

The important qualities required are the capacity to listen, patience and friendliness.

East Lothian Council Website

PDF Further Information (557KB)

Bracknell Forest Homes’ residents are making the most of a nine week course to learn and get savvy with websites, email and word processing on the Council’s Adult Learning bus.

Dennis Pilcher resident of four years, Maggie Day, said: “I have enjoyed the learning bus. My new skills will help me keep in touch with my daughters with modern communication that they use. I’ve also treated myself to a new digital camera for the summer holidays so I’m looking forward to seeing pictures on the computer and being able to print them.”

The initiative has been led by the housing association working closely with the Adult Learning team. The over 50s residents have been honing their skills for web messaging and talking online, internet browsing, email, word processing and creating digital art. Residents said they are looking forward to being able to keep in touch with friends and family overseas using the internet and looking at their photographs, using the computer at the sheltered scheme.

Wendy Smith, also a resident at Dennis Pilcher House, added: “I used to use a computer at work so this has brought back some of my skills and has been a very enjoyable refresher. I will be able to keep in touch with my two daughters and we can play games.”

Linda Wells, Housing and Community Services Director at Bracknell Forest Homes, said: “This is an exciting initiative and residents have jumped at the opportunity to learn how to use computers, including the internet and email. For many this is a first experience and now they can keep in touch with friends and family in different time zones around the world.

“This is part of Bracknell Forest Homes’ community development project and fits in with the Silver Surfers Day which was in May. We were thrilled to work with the Council’s adult learning service and plan to offer more community development opportunities during the year.”

The Council’s learning bus tours the borough providing adult learning. It is a fully equipped mobile classroom and provides free sessions for adults who want to return to learning.
Relevant Links:
http://www.bracknellforesthomes.org.uk

LLL Charter , Ed Vaizey’s speech: http://www.dcms.gov.uk/news/media_releases/7216.aspx , MLA comment: http://www.mla.gov.uk/news_and_views/press_releases/2010/public_charter

Read more at the Guardian Website’s article: Ed Vaizey puts libraries at heart of ‘big society’

A computer and home internet connection are now considered essential for all non-pensioner households, according to the groups involved in the research. In 2008, they were only considered essential for families with school-age children.

It is an attempt to determine what, aside from physical necessities such as food, warmth and shelter, people need to allow them to feel part of society and this research now states that in the last 2 years a tipping point has been reached where internet access in the home is deemed as essential.

The report goes on to state:

Participants argued stongly that internet access at home has become essential to have the opportunities needed to participate in society – and was needed for example to access job opportunities and get discounts on services. Pensioners in the review groups agreed the internet is growing in importance, but disagreed that home internet access is part of a minimum living standard for them. Computers and the internet are therefore included in the 2010 budgets for working-age but not
for pensioner households.

Looking further into the report:

However, the research suggests that people on low incomes are at risk of suffering in today’s economic context:
New spending needs emerge in a changing world. In 2010, the essential need for a computer and home internet access impose significant extra costs on low-income households.

From the full report more details emerge about the issue of pensioners use of the internet:

In 2010, there was a range of individual perspectives on whether computers are now essential for households. The prevailing feeling of the groups was that every household including adults of working age should now be able to access the Internet, but that for pensioners it is not yet a necessity.

From research taken from the group above retirement age the report states:

Groups of older people, on the other hand, used a different set of rationales to the working age groups, and overall did not feel that a computer or an Internet connection is at present essential for pensioners. As in 2008, individual pensioners took a variety of views of the Internet, some being enthusiastic advocates, others thinking it was useful but not essential and some expressing hostility to its role and influence. As in the previous research, the pensioner groups rapidly reached a decision that Internet access in the home was still not a minimum requirement for pensioners, and that those who did wish to use it could do so in places such as libraries.

It would be intereting to get your views on this report so please add to the comment and make your point of view heard.

Read the full repot here