Does Not Compute

If you are a Radio 2 listener, you will have already heard that their Get Connected campaign launched yesterday. The aim of the campaign is to help more of their listeners get online and understand digital technology better. Many Radio 2 shows will be involved throughout the whole of March and there are lots of tips on their website from presenters such as Terry Wogan. You can also phone 08000 150 950 and they’ll send you a booklet.
There’s more here.

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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I have become a fanatical follower of the Common Craft Videos in Plain English, ever since you posted a link to them to explain RSS.  I have them in my feeds, on my reading list, and in my YouTube subscriptions, just to be sure I don’t miss anything.  A big thankyou to DU for discovering them for me.

I just wonder if you are making any further use of them, in your teaching materials and programmes.  (Forgive me for not reading through all the stuff on the website to find out.)

I also think they should be used in schools,  in lessons about living in the real world after school.  But that’s not your concern – except perhaps where schools are helping to teach the senior generation.

Their only drawback, perhaps, for the older person who is hard of hearing, is the rather fast delivery in an American Accent!  But I’m coping so far.

Judith Taylor

Rebecca Court, Community Learning Advisor for Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership, here:

‘Nobody realised what  had been started when Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership (SLLP) and the Workers’ Education Authority (WEA) heard about the opportunity afforded by Silver Surfers’ Day, 2009 (SSD09).  We learned that the ‘Day’ is organised annually by Digital Unite (DU) and resourced online with some neat and helpful resources that support both professional tutors and volunteers in organising, engaging and guiding older people on to the Internet. For most of these older people the Internet is a place they’ve never visited before.

‘DU offered phone support and some on-the-ground support from head office in the form of a talk. The first result was that the SLLP and the WEA organised a Silver Surfer event at the Longmead centre, Epsom on May 15^th 2009.

‘The turn-out and enthusiasm of the Longmead invitees led to a 5 week course. To cater for increasing numbers, it was decided to have a morning and afternoon session and even these had 13 learners in each one, which proved quite a challenge to the tutor and volunteer.

‘Both courses were successful and Jerry Lewis, the centre manager, decided to advertise further. The result is that the WEA are now running three courses and Nescot have taken on one more. Forty or more learners go through the “computer room” on a Thursday and Friday,  with more learners on the waiting list.

‘The interest shown prompted SLLP to help constitute the InterGenEpsom group which bid for Councillors’ Allocation Funding from Cllr Jan Mason and Cllr Colin Taylor. Their £2,000 contribution means that InterGenEpsom can buy lap-tops which will be available to other community groups – hence the name: which indicates all generations of learners in the Court & Ruxley Wards. The lap-tops  will also be available at Cox Lane community centre and The Wells centre. Read the rest of this entry »