8 out of 10 older people in the UK still can’t access online services – they aren’t media literate. SSD09 gives us all the chance to change that.

Media literacy, in today’s digital age, is more important than ever. It can facilitate a more convenient, cheaper, community-rich lifestyle. Older people, who have so much to gain from the online world, are still largely missing out. SSDO9 will reach many thousands of older people in hundreds of locations around the UK and do something very tangible about redressing that imbalance.

Digital Unite (DU) is managing the seventh annual Silver Surfers’ Day Campaign. Devised in 2002 by DU, SSD is the biggest annual media literacy campaign aimed at older people. (http://digitalunite.com )

(taken from digitalunite.com)

Yes, it’s the latest, most fashionable Internet thing going right now. Some people couldn’t live without it, others cannot see the point. If you’re yet to understand this ‘Web phenomenon, our very own Jon Bounds has done a rather good beginners guide over on his personal blog. He goes deeper into starting out with Twitter than our quick-fire ‘How To’ guides on this site.

The National Digital Inclusion Conference 2009 will be the fourth annual event bringing together over 300 experts, decision-makers and practitioners to network, debate digital inclusion policy and practice and shape the agenda for action that delivers ‘empowerment through technology’.
So goes the blurb on their website. This event should be pretty important as a lot of people attending are the kinds of people who should either already know, or really want to know about how Britain is shaping up, digitally, if you will. The cost of this conference is somewhat steep with prices between £300 and £400. There’s a good chance that a lot of people who would really benefit from attending, won’t be able to afford it. Plus, it’s in London again which brings it’s own issues.
Jon Hickman had an idea around maybe organising some sort of ‘unconference’ at the same time, for the interested folks who couldn’t afford tickets so we’re in the throws of organising something. We hope to get something organised at the same venue as the conference which could allow conference and unconference peoples, the chance to network.
There’s plenty to try and organise but we’ll keep you updated here as and when.

‘We Share Stuff’ is more than chuffed to announce that it has become a recognised OCN centre. In a nutshell, this means we can now offer & develop qualifications relevant to our aims and objectives as an organisation. The OCN repertoire is quite vast and has many learning paths. This flexibility will allow us to work with other organisations and training providers in delivering skills and knowledge with qualifications, relevant to their needs. The next step for us is to continue to work with OCN in developing our curriculum plan. We shall continue to update via the blog as and when there’s more news.

The Digital Mentor bid, led by UK online centres is starting to move along quite nicely now. On Thursday, they are hosting a workshop / meeting for all the organisations that put themselves forward for a lead role on the work packages. We originally intended to put ourselves forward too, knowing full well that there are some pretty big and vastly more experienced orgs than ourselves who will probably get the work. However, I thought this would be ideal experience for us and I believe we have plenty to offer in terms of defining how the digital mentor role should be shaping up. After much pondering and discussion we’ve decided not to attend the meeting, pretty much down to travel costs! While it would be great to attend the meeting, be involved with the structure of the roles, network with contemporaries etc., a trip down to London would not really suit our financial standings at this particular time. While there is some really exciting stuff going on that we’re chomping at the bit to get involved in, we have to remember that the ‘We Share Stuff’ project has only been operating, in reality, less than six months. The ‘to do’ list is looking quite meaty and for the project to succeed, we need to focus on our priorities.

Following on the NIACE digital inclusion conference, we have set up a few ‘guides’ on current Internet usage. It’s really just to see if by providing a simple ‘how-to’ get involved with the social web, we can begin to build adult education related networks, if at all!

The ‘We Share…‘ series will be an ongoing thing and hopefully beneficial in understanding some of the barriers that practitioners / tutors etc face when learning how to the make the most of the social web in an educational context.

Okay, so we’ve started to find some useful / poor / interesting / pointless websites and information contained therein. So what’s the best way to keep track, manage and share them with others? well that would be social bookmarking. Using this tool (and there are a few variations out there, see the list at the bottom of this page) it is possible to manage everything you find on the Internet and usually it’s as easy as clicking a button and adding a few words. Because a whole load of other people are doing the same, then the system becomes even more useful by rating the best and worse that’s out there. There are so many benefits to using social bookmarking that it’s best to just get in there and try it out.

Let’s have a look at Delicious. All you need to start is a valid email address, you may already have one, you may have one or two. Ever thought of having one simply to sign up to all these services? as a kind of gateway? Anyway, back to Delicious. Again, we don’t want to tell you how to use it here, they do it much better than we could on their help page, so head over there to get started.
You can find all our bookmarks on there so add us into your network and we’ll do the same. similar to how we did on twitter. It’s up to you whether any of our bookmarks are of any use to you, but in any case, please let us know how you get on. Remember, it’s all about the conversation.

A few Social Bookmarking sites

Delicious

Stumble Upon

Furl

Using a search engine is the most obvious way to try and find stuff online. Trouble is, there is so much of it out there. The trick is to put a bit of thought into your searching. By learning how to search for things you will find your information a lot quicker and easier. Then it’s a case of organising what you have found, finding and learning about the best tools to do this and of course, sharing what you’ve found with others (which we will cover in other parts of the ‘We Share…” series). This is the social web in action.

There are many ‘How To’ tutorials on searching the Internet and more specifically, Google. We have provided a few of them at the bottom of this page. Probably the best one is Google’s own. Have a go, see what you think. Then try the others and see how they compare. By all means, leave us a comment with your opinions or if you have any questions. If haven’t already joined Twitter, come and discuss it there. As long as you’re having a go and talking about it, that’s what counts.

Just a quick note that Google has now become much more than a search engine, but for our little experiments, the searching will do for now.

Using google web search

GoogleTutor

Google Guide

After the last NIACE event I wasn’t enthralled by the prospect of more of the same. Fortunately, me and Jon took away some valuable stuff linked to what we’re trying to do with We Share Stuff. Funny, really as what we’re doing is what most of the conference speakers seem to be hinting at. In an Adult Education sense, there seems to be two main issues. How do we train the teachers / tutors / deliverers in the ‘new’ technology and where is the money coming from? Herein lies the problem. Because it seems most of the providers out there have always stuck to the same methods, applied to the same funding streams, delivered the same content, ticking the same boxes and chasing the same targets. We’ve mentioned before how the Internet is disrupting traditional ways we learn things. Well, it’s also disrupting the way we teach and the way we fund the stuff too. There are many good examples of teaching / learning via new technology already out there. How we develop and define the networks where these examples can be shared by learners / teachers, is a key point. As these networks for learning / teaching develop, by their nature, they become more sociable and other stuff apart from learning / teaching, is shared. This is where the blurring of content / discussion happens, the whole ‘mash-up’ thing that is spawned by Internet noodling (I can’t think what this should be called!), doing its thing again. So suddenly we find these social / educational / community networks blending into something new and maybe raising the potential of funding from alternative streams… community, creative industry and educational etc.
My point is that the Internet is really shaking things up, and providers need to be tuned in to what is happening. From what I heard yesterday at the conference, i’m not sure how many providers really know what’s going on or how they can make the most from it.

We ran the first Internet surgery on Sunday, and while it was quiet, we still managed to discuss some stuff and throw out some ideas to those who attended. We have decided to make the surgery a fortnightly affair which gives everyone a bit more time to promote / organise etc. The next one will be on Sunday 7th December, same venue, The Red Couch cafe, Erdington from 11:00 am.