In recent years, there has been a proliferation of websites that bring together census information and access to archives allowing people with just a basic knowledge of their own background to build a hugely comprehensive picture. The 1911 census of England and Wales alone contains over 16 million documents.

As our guide to finding family history online shows, it’s now possible to trace back to your relatives from hundreds of years ago, without leaving the comfort of your living.

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.

The online course is 10-weeks long, with 20 lectures, eight homework assignments and two exams. Passing students will receive a certificate of accomplishment.

If 10 weeks sounds like too much of a commitment, there are many other ways to enjoy the riches of a university education, for free.

Age UK Oxfordshire’s press release to the Witney Gazette and Oxford Mail generated an amazing 42 immediate enquiries from older people keen to take advantage of the offer. Since then, word’s gone out that the sessions are fun, laid back and enjoyable: demand is now huge and the classes are currently booked out until next May with a waiting list after that.

At each class, a tutor and volunteers show people how to get to grips step by step with the computer, using Myguide,  which allows people to go at their own pace, helps them track their progress, and is free to use. At the college sessions, student volunteers also help out after school. When we visited one November afternoon, over twenty people were gathered in the college’s well-equipped and spacious IT suite, often helping each other through some of the mysteries. ‘I’m going to kill that mouse,’ says one lady. Fortunately though, no animals or equipment were harmed in the making of this blog entry.

Pat (pictured with friend Beryl) enjoys coming to the weekly sessions at the college, and now that she’s off her L-plates she’s thinking about volunteering to show other people too: ‘Silver Surfers’ Day was so much fun. I don’t have a computer at home; I come here and we all do it together. It’s a real buzz’.

Ruth Swift from Age UK Oxfordshire points out that it’s the overall picture that counts: ‘It’s also an easy format for us to check up on older people who might have other needs as well. It’s important too to see it in the context of all the activities: we’re so pleased to be working with RAF Brize Norton down the road, who for example are inviting local people to a Christmas party on the base.  The kids who contribute their time through Vinvolved also get the chance to qualify for a nationally recognised community award. So it’s good for everyone’.

If you too want to inspire older people to enjoy the benefits of being online, why not start planning your own event, during the week of national activities leading up to the tenth annual Silver Surfers’ Day  on 20 May 2011. The library at Witney in West Oxfordshire is already booked with a birthday party theme! Now’s a great time to think about venues and possible partners in your local area, and we’d love to hear about what you’re planning to do.

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!

Newcastle Library – Adult and Culture Services
Libraries, Information and Lifelong Learning

In addition to 1-2-1 taster sessions and classes on basic Internet Skills and e-mail we also offer sessions on music downloading, online shopping, social networking and will be doing a session on online dating at the end of July and we are planning sessions on eBay, digital photography and file management. We plan new sessions based on public demand and feedback from taster classes – for example we found that by doing the music download sessions that the area that most customers had issues with was basic file management, which is something that most of us take for granted but is essential to both downloading music and moving images from a camera to a pc.

The 1-2-1 sessions are done using handouts that the customer can keep. The taster classes follow the same format using the handout as the basis of a Power Point presentation. We take a show and try approach but this sometimes depends on the skill level of the group.

Taster sessions are aimed at all ages. Although we do not currently gather information on the ages of those taking part a very high proportion are aged over 50. Library customers like the tasters because often they have a specific issue that they want help with and don’t always want to sit through a number of classes on a prescribed course. Our staff are flexible enough to be able to tailor sessions to individual needs and often a taster is a springboard to finding an appropriate course.

From the taster classes we recruited a group of Silver Surfers who meet in the City Library on the first Thursday of the month. After consulting with the group we are working on a monthly programme where we look at a different topic each month. The group wanted to start with basic keyboard skills and we looked at this using My Guides and in the next few months we will be looking at e-mail and file management. So far the Silver Surfers seem to enjoying being in a group setting and are supporting each other and forming friendships as well as engaging with the digital world.

I’ve found the Digital Unite website useful to refer to and really appreciated the link to the ILC-UK report by Simon Roberts on The Fictions, Facts of Older People and Technology as it was thought provoking.

If you would like to share you example of how you or your organisation is helping older people get to grips with digital music get in touch by emailing kate.norman@digitalunite.net

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.

Improving your typing skills has a lot of benefits. Besides the obvious typing speed, people who type with ten fingers make fewer mistakes, spend less time in front of the monitor and suffer less wrist pain.

Here are some free online typing lessons that you or people your are involved with helping along with their IT can try out. They vary from the very formal to the BBC’s version for children (which is just as fun for adults).

Typing Practice 1
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/typing/

Typing Practice 2
http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/lessons.php?lang=EN&lesson=1

Typing Practice 3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/flash/stage1.shtml

Typing Practice 4
http://www.typeonline.co.uk/copypractice.php

Typing Practice 5
http://keybr.com/

Have you got any others which you can suggest and how to you incorporate them in a session?

There are more than 750,000 people in the UK affected by dementia with numbers set to rise to 1 million by 2025. More than half of these have Alzheimers disease.

But computers, the internet and learning about digital technology is one way you can keep your brain stimulated and can fight dementia in a few different ways.

Research

A computer training company is releasing the results of a ‘Silver Surfer Survey’  which shows that using a computer can make the older generation feel significantly younger. Tutors 4 Computers recently conducted a survey of its older customers with results showing how surfing the internet can rejuvenate the elderly, putting a spring in their step and giving them a new lease of life.

“a full 80% believed that using a computer had made them feel younger” Ian Mabb

This study builds on information already known about the benefits of the internet highlighted in this article BBC News Article (14 October 2008) Internet use is good for the brain from a University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex reasoning. The researchers say this might even help to counteract the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to slow down.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:

“These fascinating findings add to previous research suggesting that middle-aged and older people can reduce their risk of dementia by taking part in regular mentally stimulating activities”

Connecting Carers

Talking Point is an online support and discussion forum, for anyone affected by dementia. The Alzheimers Sociaty have made this great video Connie on Talking Point about how life changed for Connie in so many many ways when she bacame a carer for her partner  “because your world grows smaller”. This is a similar experience that was recorded in the video about Carers made for Silver Surfers Day 2010 about the Internet being a Window to the World for Carers.

So a computer can be a lifeline for those who look after loved ones with dementia and also can help to fight the affects on the brain of aging – so keep challenging your brain with new things to learn and new experiences.