Does Not Compute

With our Silver Surfers Day Music Maestro page getting refreshed with new resources and links we spoke to one of our Silver Surfers Day event holders about what they were doing to get people involved with digital music. Kerry Morris Service Manager (Information and Digital) from Newcastle Library gave us the following response to how they work to get people into the library to learn about digital music and much more.

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

We are Kate Norman and Rick Crust, and we are part of the Digital Unite team promoting Silver Surfers Day 2010, which is on 21 May 2010. In this blog we’ll be telling you about the amazing events and partnerships we’re lining up for this year’s Silver Surfers Day. We’re excited… we hope you are, too.

To register for this year’s event, go to http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com/how-to-register

To contact Kate (Media Officer)
email kate.norman@digitalunite.net or phone 0798 2063062
twitter @sarahkatenorman

To contact Rick (Event Manager)
email rick.crust@digitalunite.net or phone 0800 077 6144

Follow us on Twitter

Sign up to the Event on Facebook

Last year, we clocked up 1055 events on and around Silver Surfers Day, and we estimate we reached more than 8 million people. With your help, we can reach and surpass these numbers in 2010.

Read about SSD09 [pdf]

View the video Silver Surfer Day 2009 [YouTube, 2:40 mins]

“There’s lots of pleasure, work and friendship transmitted through this machine. Who would hesitate?” Joan Bakewell

I loved the video to promote last year’s that included endorsements from Angela Rippon OBE, Martyn Lewis, Patricia Routledge CBE and Joan Bakewell. I found it inspiring and lovely to hear about how those individuals use technology in their everyday lives – and how they feel it has helped them and how they would like to encourage others.

But many of you will know the reality of the barriers that lie between an older person who has never used a computer and the satisfaction that they can enjoy. It is a journey – and the journey has to start somewhere. Silver Surfers Day is a call to action for older people, their families, friends and supporters.

It shows them:

• what they can do;
• where they can go; and
• that there are great people, groups and companies – like you – to support them as they reap the benefits.

You are already doing this work, and we know of some wonderful places for older people and some heartwarming success stories. We also know how hard it is for these places to be sustainable, and we want to help you make the job of running a Silver Surfers Day this year as easy and as fun as possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rick Crust here, Silver Surfers’ Day Event Holder Manager

Would you like to help us to develop a new website specially for Silver Surfers’ Day?  The site developers would like to recruit a group of older people who are already online but who are NOT particularly experienced or knowledgable.  You will test the website as it is built, and give the developers your opinions, comments, suggestions, complaints, etc.

The website will be all about social networking, security and privacy issues etc so you you should learn quite a lot about online security while you’re doing it.

If you think you might like to join this group, please send an email to me at rc@seniors.org.uk

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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!

Gill, blog editor here:

You may remember that one of our cunning plans during Silver Surfers’ Day was to run a Joke Roll – an opportunity for people to tell jokes online, and then to ask the gentlemen from Silver Comedy  to pick a winner. Well, they picked three winners !

Overall winner, Wendy White’s joke was sweet and simple and about a Grandad. It won her a £25 Amazon voucher. Contributors of the
Computer Joke and the Nelson Joke won £15 and £10 vouchers, respectively. Click here to view all three on YouTube.

Chris and George of Silver Comedy were the judges; thanks to them, and for their superb idea about Comedy Courses for Older People. Here’s a note from them:

‘If you and friends want to have a real laugh, learn stuff about comedy and develop in confidence and creativity contact Silver Comedy and we’ll see what we can offer. Here is our website: http://www.silvercomedy.co.uk/work.html .

‘Silver Comedy creates a variety of opportunities for older people to become actively involved in comedy. We work with groups of people who want to have fun together while developing their skills in comedy. This can include many things such as stand up, comedy writing, clowning and improvisation. As well as having some fun, you can meet other people and be creative. You can be either a complete beginner or you may want to develop or re-awaken your own skills in comedy. We can create a course for you, your friends and other like minded people that suits you. Read the rest of this entry »