The Digital Unite Blog

We were interested to read a report this week that only a quarter of people aged over 55 years bank online. The research, released by PayYourway.org.uk, showed that whilst 71% of users aged over 55 feel confident about making online transactions, only one in four (25%) had tried managing their money through online banking.

Earlier this year, we were told by our own sample of internet users aged over 55 that for 86% being online has improved their lives with a key reason being that they can do things quicker (71%). Long queues at banks or the hassle and cost of posting cheques can be easily avoided with the click of a button.

However we also know that for many security fears and identify theft as a result of internet transactions is still a major concern and the thought of laying personal account details to bear on a computer screen is probably a step too far right now.

People also still want and need the interaction with service providers and a trip to their bank, for which many have a well-worn relationship, can fulfil that desire. Certainly at Digital Unite we don’t believe the internet should be an exclusive tool that negates the need for human contact but should instead be used to enhance day-to-day living.

That said as the modern age is increasingly demanding and incentivising people to engage with products and services in a cost-effective and time-efficient way being online is becoming an essential requirement for everyone. And here’s where organisations such as ours come in.

Having worked with the over 55s for the last 15 years we know that the process of engagement isn’t one that can be hurried or enforced – a slow, measured and supportive approach is essential to ensure that once older people experience life online they remain interested and willing to explore further. Maybe that’s through supporting self-learning, or through providing tuition, local support or formally trained mentors, one size certainly does not fit all.

Our research sample also told us that being online makes them feel more like part of modern society (81%). More work at both a national and local level must be done to ensure many other thousands of older people not yet using the internet have the chance to feel like that too.

New data released by Ofcom today says that a third of all adults in the UK uses a smartphone, with Apple’s iPhone at the top of the list in most age groups.

The report says that Facebook was the most visited website through a handheld device, with a massive 43 million hours spent on it in December 2010.

While adults en masse are taking to smartphones with aplomb, smartphone use differs in popularity through different demographic groups. Some 58% of men own a smartphone, to 42% of women. But in younger age groups, 52% of teenage girls use a smartphone with 48% of boys using one.

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If you’re not yet au fait with the microblogging platform and think it’s all celebrities showing off and techies talking a different language, a new book from charity Food Cycle could tempt you to give Twitter a try.

Tweet Pie – The World’s Shortest Recipe Book has been put together solely from recipes of 140 characters or fewer, and sourced through Twitter.

There are 50 ‘twecipes’ and they have been selected by tiny recipes expert, Craig Dugas and include submissions from top chefs as well as the general rabble of amateur cooks and enthusiasts.

Read the rest of this entry »

New research launched yesterday by Ofcom now has five years of comparisons for how UK consumers experience digital communications.  In short: it’s on the up, but still a way to go for many.

Households are more likely now to have a mobile phone than a landline: 16% of households don’t even have a landline any more. This rise in use of mobile technologies is a trend that we’d expect to continue over the next years. Heartening to see that the average cost of mobile is also steadily sinking, with the average minute on a mobile now (8.8p) costing just over half as much as it was in 2004 (15.1p).

Another trend we’d like to see continuing is the number of older people who are getting the benefits of digital technologies and in particular the internet. The Ofcom Customer Experience report doesn’t track this directly; it looks at broadband take-up instead. Whilst this is a slightly different kettle of fish, the trend is clear: in 2005, only one in ten over 65s had broadband connections. In 2010, this is now about half. But that’s still a big number of people who are missing out, and amongst the over 75s it’s still only about a quarter. So there’s plenty still to do.

Like every government-funded organisation, Ofcom is required to make serious savings under the current austerity measures. The decision has been made to reduce some of the governance structures, and in particular, the Communications Consumer Panel and the Advisory Committee for Older and Disabled People (ACOD) are being discontinued… It’s our hope that both their good work and the learning that’s come out of it, will continue in another form. It’s just too important not to.

With over 9 million people in the UK still having never tried out the Internet, a creative approach to encourage people to try it out is really needed. We were really interested to see in this marvellous video how Wellingborough’s older residents have been taking computer tips from teenagers, in a lovely event at Hollowell Court, which is a Wellingborough Homes sheltered housing scheme. Schoolchildren from Sir Christopher Hatton School came along to help residents explore the wonders of the web together, as well as having a go on the Wii.

Laura Osborne, aged 90, said: “The schoolchildren are absolutely fantastic.  They’re so polite and very intelligent – they’ve taught us a lot!  Coming down and using one of the computers makes life less lonely, it’s good company.  You can explore and find out different things, it’s very interesting.”

The learning in the scheme has been made possible via the Get Digital programme. It is so heartening to see it in action: we thoroughly recommend having a look at what went on.

Do you have stories and outcomes from your events? Let us know!

Alan Pollard, Digital Unite Tutor amongst other incarnations, is our guest blogger today, with news from a distant land… here are his own words:

‘I have been very fortunate to have been invited to give a talk about Digital Inclusion to the second ICT Symposium in Trinidad.  I am writing this from the venue in Port of Spain – the capital of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T).  Yes; I know; it’s rough but someone’s got to do it!

‘My invitation to speak arose a year ago when I was President of the British Computer Society and had contacts with  members all around the world. Planning came to fruition and the Symposium took place from 14-16^th November.  About 300 delegates from all over the Caribbean met to hear about progress being made in the Caribbean and in Trinidad in the application of ICT to the public and private sectors.  Trinidad is not a backward island by any means. Situated only a few miles from Venezuela, T&T benefits from access and rights to vast resources of oil and natural gas. It also has the world’s largest deposits of asphalt.  Unlike the majority of the Caribbean islands its principal source of income is therefore not based on tourism but on energy, banking and investment.

‘T&T also has a thriving telecommunications and IT industry and is well up in the league table of Caribbean countries with respect to internet access and mobile phone usage.  However, it exhibits the same problems and challenges as UK in reaching out to the under-privileged and poorly-connected element of the population.  Much is being done to reduce the Digital Divide and the numbers of those who are excluded.

‘I was able to describe the work of Digital Unite and our approach to the older generation.  My talk seemed to go down well and there were choruses of agreement at all the issues I raised and recognition of exactly the same challenges being faced.  They too have a longer life expectancy and ever-increasing numbers of older people.  Many of their inhabitants are poor fisher-folk and they find it hard to convince them of the benefits – or even the need – for the internet.  Yet, with Government services being delivered on line more and more, the time will come when some form of connectivity – even the most basic – might be essential.

‘As in UK, the older generation in T&T are proud and therefore reluctant to show their ignorance by attending computer classes.  T&T have just launched the award-winning TT Connect, which is a suite of services for online government.  One of these – the latest – was unveiled at our conference by the Prime Minster. It is called TT Connect Express and is a fleet of buses kitted out with work stations, wash rooms, disabled access and human assistance which will tour the islands much like a mobile library. Recognising that education in early years is essential to building a technology aware population, the Government has funded one laptop per child nationwide.

‘The short stay demonstrated to me that the issues we face in UK with digital exclusion – in particular among the older generation – are no different to those over here and, I guess, are the same the whole world over’.

Sounds like people are people everywhere! A big thank you to Alan for letting us all know what he’s been up to (tough assignment that it clearly was). 

Have you been involved with digital inclusion in other countries? Does the story look the same or different to you? We’d be interested to hear your comments.

We were interested to see Valerie Wood-Gaiger on BBC Wales yesterday, helping Roy Nobles show the myriad of possibilities that the internet offers. You can still catch her on iplayer over the next couple of days. (About 16.40 minutes in) A clip is now up on youtube as well.

Valerie is the amazing welsh grandmother who’s is incredibly actively involved with intergenerational work, in her Learning with Grandma initiative.

She’s off to Lyon on 29 Nov to take part in a seminar about encouraging older volunteers, and from there goes on to Paris, where she is speaking in the opening session of a major event, about how younger people can help older people become comfortable with using the internet and new technologies, but just as importantly, making this learning a two-way street, so that traditional skills are not lost with the passage of time and the march of progress.

All due respect to Valerie, and we look forward to hearing further about her adventures!

Get Online Week finished up on 24 October, and a big thank you to everyone who took part. There’s been loads of coverage, so today we thought we’d bring you a round-up of some excellent links and interviews.

First up, here’s our tutor Andrew Bailey on BBC Radio Stoke. Brian Eisenburg was lyrical both on ITV Daybreak as well as BBC Three Counties (2 hours 10mins in) (well done for the double, Brian!). And one of Lynne Thompson’s residents in the Get Digital scheme has a star turn on BBC Northampton (31 mins in).

Did you know already about the Airlie Silver Surfers’ remote health consultation project, about the fact that half of women over 55 are on Facebook, and even the Independent has noticed that Peggy Archer has been learning to surf the web? We’ve got the Daily Mail giving us tips about saving money online, and our own Get Digital programme is also in the news.

It’s fantastic to see all this publicity and coverage, and we’d still like to give the last word to Nancy, a resident on on of our Get Digital schemes – “[The Internet] is the kind of thing that if you don’t get a handle on, you’re going to be lost in this world. I’ve been dying to get computers. My family and grandchildren are all in America and they have Skype and a webcam and I can talk to them. It’s just opened up a whole world.”

Go Nancy!

The BBC’s new campaign First Click is talking to people all over the country about how they are involved in helping people get online, one click at a time. Listen here (2.54 in) to our very own Digital Unite Tutor Malcom Collins and his stories from the Get Digital programme in sheltered housing.

Rory Cellan-Jones was also talking to John Humprhys on Today, with a clip of Peggy Woolsey from The Archers and Martha Lane Fox talking about the importance of the campaign as social justice.

There’s a lot going on for this year’s Get Online Week!