The Digital Unite Blog

alex is a new simple-to-use personal computer that’s aimed at the “digitally-excluded”. Broadband Computer Co, the inventors of alex, are based in Newcastle.

As the Digital Unite tutor in the region Anne Donnelly was invited along to see a demo of the system and borrow a copy to trial for a week or so.
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Katya Coupland here, Director of River Tales.

This Age Concern intergenerational oral history project had a huge ambition – to help re-connect a whole county to their rivers and to connect the generations. The plan was to hold 50 River Tales reminiscence workshops, interview people on camera and involve three schools in the project. A DVD would then be distributed to groups – coffee mornings and care-homes; libraries, museums and heritage centres – to spark more memories and get people talking as well as a CD-ROM created for the schools of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, fulfilling national curriculum requirements and giving children an appreciation of their local rivers and showing older people in a whole new light. Read the rest of this entry »

Fiona, blog editor, here: This year, our partners ERoSH (Essential Role of Sheltered Housing) have been focusing on Mental Health. If you click here it will take you to their website and an article on how using computers can make a difference, by guess who? (us of course!)

Also this year, to coincide with Silver Surfers’ Day, we successfully trialled a new initiative with ERoSH to help sheltered scheme managers to link up with local schools to run internet taster sessions. You can read all about that here

Fiona Syrett here, DU deputy tutor network manager.

Apparently, millions of people worldwide do some form of computer-based brain training every day. It seems to make sense that by regularly ‘exercising’ your brain with special tests and puzzles, you can improve your ‘brain skills’ and become better at everyday thinking tasks. But does brain training actually work? Recent research suggests that the scientific evidence is lacking.

The BBC are conducting a scientifically valid study called The Brain Test Britain Experiment and are hoping that thousands of us will help them to answer, for the first time, the question: does brain training work?

You can take part here

Gill, blog editor here:  We hear so much about what is bad about schools admissions and exams, so it was rather exciting to hear news of a service, being trialled in Bristol and elsewhere, whereby you can go on a video tour of a school and then apply to it online! For parents, this could make selection and application very much easier. (Those who aren’t online once again miss out!)  Here is the pilot video from Brislington, Bristol. It’s all part of a Government desire to make sure parents get online – and we’d like to see the same motivation for grandparents, too!

Debbie Brixey here – DU Tutor for SW London.

A colleague of mine recently sat (and passed) an intensive driving course and he was telling me what it entailed and I voiced my doubts as to whether after almost 30 years of driving I would pass a test now.

Coincidentally I then came across an interesting article on some new software created specifically to help older drivers improve their reaction time. According to the reviewer of this software “Some scientists believe that, as people age, their capability to rapidly grasp and act on what their eyes see can degrade. And one of the activities most affected is driving, a task that demands you simultaneously track multiple moving objects, often at the edge of your field of vision”.

The purpose of this software is really brain training and is aimed at helping improve your reactions. The full story is here .

Hello – Debbie Brixey, DU Tutor from London here…

I knew that something was happening in the world of Facebook when my own mother rang me to ask how she went about setting herself up with a profile.

So just who is using Facebook these days…well figures taken between  January and July 2009 show the number of users aged 35 to 54 has grown 190.2% to make them the highest users. According to analytics company iStrategyLabs the original Facebook users aged 18-24 are now in third place but amazingly the number of users older than 55 years has grown a tremendous 513.7%. The full details can be found here http://xrl.us/be29wo.

Not only do they bowl online (it’s a ‘Wii’ thing – you’ll just have to watch the film on You Tube) at this sheltered housing complex but they get school kids in and compete with them. It’s all very rowdy -  have a look.

More here.

Gordon Brown made a speech in January anticipating the publication this afternoon of Lord Stephen Carter’s ‘Digital Britain’, in which he said that broadband should run like water or electricity which most of us reading this would find hard to dispute.

The report might be one of those ‘good reads’ that either changes all our lives, or just documents our lives. Certainly there are going to be weighty pronouncements about us all being wired to superfast broadband by 2012 – but, the question, as ever, on our lips, is will millions of older people suddenly get involved just because the technology is ‘on tap’.

The report is going to be all about how we now and in the near future communicate with each other and what on earth we as a nation are going to do about minor (!) details Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, Great to watch from Ireland where Bealtaine, Ireland’s nationwide celebration of creativity in older age is in full swing. Look here; http://www.bealtaine.com or peek at a project here http://www.themagpiesnest.ie that features an amazing family tree. Bealtaine’s in its 14th year, takes place in every County. Read the rest of this entry »