The Digital Unite Blog

Congratulations to Age Concern Tameside, Joint Runner Up for the Silver Surfers’ Day 2010 Best Event award.

When/where was your event held?

Age Concern Tameside, May 2010.

What did you do?

NIntendo Wii Fit, Internet shopping, Teaching your granny to text, Family history, NHS Choices, Nintendo DS BrainTraining

We invited a number of other organisations to the event, including Tameside Libraries IT Buddies service, which was well received, and Tameside Older People’s Opening Doors Project. This was a great opportunity for us to talk to our partner organisations and show them what we do on a daily basis, as well as allowing them to publicise their services. We were also visited by The Tameside Reporter, who covered the story as part of their community news section. This is great publicity for our organisation, but also shows some great examples of active citizenship from younger people and real partnership working between local services.

How many people participated?

60 people

Do you have any event stories?

To see young people and old people working together and sharing thier skills and knowledge was very inspiring. ‘Jade’ from a local school was our expert ‘texter’ and worked very well with everyone. At one point she had a queue of people waiting to see her. Two ladies from a sheltered scheme got so excited by the intergenerational ten pin bowling on the Wii fit that their shouting and laughing could be heard all over the building Our caretaker Eddie beat a young lady on the Wii Fit, despite being more than 40 years her senior. He was very pleased with himself! The young people who attended from Copley School were a credit to their teachers. They were so helpful and polite, and asked if they could come back every week. They were very happy with their complimentary Silver Surfers’ Day mugs and pens. A gentleman who had never been to Age Concern Tameside before, and had only used the internet a few times, came in and bought himself a sports care on e-Bay. One gentleman came in to try out the internet, and left having sorted out his entitlement to pension credits. He also asked whether we would make the laptops available on a regular basis. After our young people had left to go back to school, a few of our service users were sat chatting about the event, and one lady said; ‘they weren’t so bad those young ones were they?’

What have you taken away from the day?

The day seemed to break down a lot of stereotypes. One of the students from Copley School told me she was really surprised by how nice our service users were. Ms. Colemen, their teacher, tells us that they would like to come back every week, and we are already looking for opportunities to work together again. Our regular service users who attended, commented on how nice it was to have so many people in our public tea bar area, and to see so much activity. The Wii Fit is to become a regular activity as a result of the event. A number of people who attended had never been to Age Concern Tameside before. As a result of the day we are developing plans to open an Internet Cafe, and will certainly be looking to meet requests for another Technology Taster session in the near future, particularly with our more vulnerable service users, those who live in rural areas, who suffer from mental health problems, come from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities, or who care for someone with Dementia.

Contact: Lindsey Mallory, Age Concern Tameside

For more information about all the winners, see here.

Congratulations to Southampton City Council Supported Housing, Joint Runner Up of the 2010 Silver Surfers’ Day Best Event award.

When/where was event held?

Sheltered Housing schemes in Southampton, May 2010.

What did you do?

Our sessions were well received because of the hard work of Activity Coordinators, SCC Adult Ed: IT consultant, volunteers from other departments (thanks to Managers who agreed) Sheltered Housing Staff, our Silver Surfer volunteers and mentors, Solent Youth Action, Mayfield Academy, Catch 22 and everyone who made it so successful and helping us with intergenerational cohesion. There was so much sheer enthusiasm, inspiration and community spirit. If laughter were fuel we lit up the City!

We linked up computers in 10 Sheltered Housing Schemes with web cams in the local school and library. Web cams were donated by Adult Education services. Staff used lap tops at 3 other Courts so they too could join in. It was a huge success and we’ll definitely do it again.

How many people participated?

60 people in over ten locations simultaneously

Do you have any event stories?

Absolutely! Ray a resident in his 80s who is profoundly deaf was supported by a 19 year old volunteer and learned how to use a mouse by one of the online exercises recommended. Well, for someone who was reluctant to “have a go” we could not get him off! Everyone agreed it was a very moving sight, his wife was in tears of joy and laughter! What moved staff was the patience shown by the youngster from a Youth group who was helping. In fact all the youngsters who came along made us proud of younger people in our City. We held a “Link Up” session between sheltered housing communal sites, a School and Library, so that people could see other people via the linked-up webcams. Well – the faces being pulled were hilarious! Senior Surfers saw friends and family members: one lady was able to see her sister who had been unwell; it was really touching.

What have you taken away from the day?

Cooperation and mutual support with sheltered housing staff, volunteers and surfers! The dynamic was inspiring and motivational. Seeing the joy, fascination and pleasure on faces!  We have inspired groups of older residents to develop a shopping group, offering choice to those who can’t get to many shops, this means social inclusion. Welfare Rights, Benefits and Pensions staff will come along and show how easy it is to check information on line to help ensure older people receive the right benefits.

We’re now also involved with Admiral Nurses who are the leading experts in dementia and we’re helping to educate and support those who care themselves. Similarly, Uni students studying dementia can now use online surveys for sufferers who are willing to have their dementia monitored. This is a huge step forward to contributing to generic understanding of this growing issue.

Yes, changing lives for the better is happening via the internet for many Silver Surfers including staff! Many of us were technophobes…luddites almost and many of us have been enlightened. So thanks for that too!

Contact: Bev Weir, Southampton City Council Supported Housing

For information about all the winners, click here.

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

I get asked allot by students about how to improve their typing and move on from 1 finger jabbing at the keyboard that beginners often start out with. Many years ago I took a word-processing and text processing qualifications which whipped my fingers into good habits.

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?

Extra million ‘silver surfers’ go online as one in four internet users are now over 50

‘When it first was introduced it was very alien and very niche, directed at younger people.

‘Now it is part of everyday life. There are new sites such as those set up by Saga, or clothing sites for older women which are targeting this new audience.

‘Travel companies such as those who organise coach and cruise holidays have also created an online presence which appeals to older consumers.’

The British internet audience increased from 36.9million in May 2009 to 38.8million in May this year.

Internet surfers over 50 accounted for 53 per cent of the overall increase.

Men in this age bracket were responsible for 38 per cent of this growth — 722,000 of the increase.

According to the figures, more than 12million people over 50 now regularly use the internet.

However there remain concerns that while the internet is achieving a more mature audience, the most elderly are still being left behind.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1290755/One-internet-users-50.html#ixzz0sK4XTSLv

Judith Taylor who was a Silver Surfer of the Year runner-up in 2008, would never have guessed that she would become a website developer in her 80s!  I asked her to tell us how she had found the experience:

When I was asked to lead a small team to commission a website for my older women’s network, I had no idea how huge a challenge it would be.  We had first to learn enough about websites and designers to pick the right company for us.  Then we had to learn the jargon, understand how websites are constructed, commission a logo, choose a colour scheme, collect photographs, and provide all the necessary information, including bringing much of it up to date!  By launch day I was exhausted! Read the rest of this entry »

An amazing year for Silver Surfers Day 2010 saw a whopping 50% increase in events being run all over the UK.

From ‘Computers for the Terrified’ at Newlyn Cornwall to the Silver City Surfers from Aberdeen there were 1,600 events on or around the 21st May, with an estimated 32,000 participants. The campaign to give over 55′s a day which is all about what they are interested in learning about the digital world has had its greatest year yet.

Thanks go to Sir Terry Wogan and Dame Vera Lynn who were our ambassadors this year and helped up get an unprecedented amount of media coverage which we are currently totalling. The BBC support meant that not only did we get coverage of Silver Surfers Day on a large number of their regional stations and The Jeremy Vine Show but also were centre stage on the BBC 1 Breakfast Sofa and an item on Working Lunch.

We saw more primary and secondary schools taking part in the growing ranks of ‘Schools for Silver Surfers’ initiative. Simpson Primary School in Bathgate West Lothan is a new school taking part this year who have organised a day for their community with the pupils from the age of 7 passing on the skills. A fun filled day included 11 zones which visitors could enjoy and which the whole school all had a hand in running. Ms Black who first heard about Silver Surfers Day and wanted to get involved this year said:

“Primary 7′s are very talented at ICT and passing it on. It was an opportunity for them to show off their knowledge in different subjects which all have an aspect of using the internet. The whole school is looking forwards to having a fun filled day of teaching and learning”.

More Housing Associations have also joined the ranks with Chevin Housing Group on of those new editions. They thought it would be nice to see what the take up would be for running an internet taster session for older people.  They set up 3 computers for residents to have a go at accessing the web with I.T and other members of staff available to help out and guide people.  Joe Howey, ICT Assistant at Chevin said

“Residents were queuing up at the beginning of the session; it was great to see so many people interested.  Some residents had more experience on computers than others but nearly everyone who had a go commented it wasn’t as hard as they had first imagined.  The taster session definitely gave some people the confidence to not be afraid to have a go on their own.  It also highlighted the fact that there is another outlet for them if they are not able to get out and about, knowing that they can access shopping and banking on-line”.

We also had fantastic support again from libraries and UK Online centres which have a great track record of supporting the day. These places and community centres up and down the country do an amazing job of helping their communities throughout the year.

The team at Digital Unite would like to thank all of those event holders and volunteers who took part without which Silver Surfers Day would not be possible. So whether you are a veteran event holder since 2002 or just had your first taste of how running an event can benefit your organisation and community – we hope that you will join us again next year to break another record!

You can read more about the experiences of volunteers at the libraries who give their time in this article on Library ‘computer buddies’ share their experiences.

Next year – when Digital Unite celebrates the 10th anniversary of Silver Surfers’ Day – many more Events will be accessible to even more older people so if you didn’t get involved this year you can start thinking and planning how you can celebrate with us in 2011 contact us or call 0800 822 3951.

Skype employees from around the world are today volunteering to help new internet users get to grips with Skype in support of Silver Surfers’ Day in the UK.  The virtual call centre is welcoming experimental surfers to the world of Skype and encouraging people to discover how the internet can get them connected.

One silver surfer eager to learn more about the internet is Leonard Turner aged 84 from Port Talbot in Wales. Leonard contacted the virtual call centre from the ‘Skype Day’ silver surfer event being hosted by pupils at the Glan Afan Comprehensive School in Port Talbot. He wanted to find out more about Skype so that he can stay in contact with his grandson who is currently travelling around New Zealand. “My grandson Steffan has been away from home for three months now and I don’t get to talk to him very often as it is so expensive to call New Zealand. I really miss him and want to hear about his adventures, so when one of the pupils at the school told me about Skype I was excited to learn more. Arianna at Skype told me how to get started and make a video call using a web cam. I can’t wait to give it a try.”

Today is a great celebration with 1,500 Silver Surfers’ Day events to help older people get online being held across the UK today (21 May).  Information on local events is available by phoning 0800 100 900.  All events are listed at http://www.silversurfersday.net

Martha Lane Fox, UK Digital Champion commented:  ‘Four million UK adults are currently socially and digitally excluded, of which more than a third are over the age of 65.  We want to champion these individuals so that they can enjoy the benefits of being online in the next three years.  Silver Surfers’ Day is a great event that helps introduce older people to the joys of the Internet.’

Stewart Purvis, Chair of the Digital Participation Consortium and Partner, Content and Standards, Ofcom said: ‘Silver Surfers’ Day is an exciting opportunity for older people to learn about going online and for regular Internet users to share their knowledge.  The Internet offers something for everybody, regardless of their age, and Silver Surfers’ Day is a great way for Digital Participation Consortium members to work together to support older people on their digital journeys and to help them make the most of the online world.’

Bill Thompson, who has been working in the computing industry and as a technology writer for nearly thirty years, highlights the importance of Silver Surfers’ Day in his BBC Technology blog and his support of the scheme since 2001.

“Helping older people get online is vital, and part of a wider transformation” says Bill Thompson

The net is not just for the young gives Bill’s further pearls of wisdom for those who take their digital literacy for granted. It goes on to remind government strategist to ensure that those over 55 who are not online are given these opportunities to gain the skills and confidence to access services on the internet.