We were invited to the resident involvement day at Soho Community Centre, Birmingham by the Resident University. We were on hand to give an insight into how social technology can be used to support community related endeavours. There’s already quite a burgeoning online presence for Soho, sites like http://sohowardbirmingham.com/ and http://www.sohofoundation.org.uk/.
The Soho Finger Neighbourhood Forum team, who are in the process of developing an online space, seem to be the link between services / information and residents. They are residents too and so have a more vested interest in what is said and wanted by local people. We showed them some of the more direct tools available online such as the range of services available from My Society.
A few issues regarding the community were raised during the introductions so I attempted some hands on examples of how technology could be used for such matters. I recorded a quick interview with local resident, Reg Everall, who was concerned about the growing problem of bird droppings.
He felt this is on the increase due to the lack of awareness of the consequences of feeding the birds scraps of food. If the community was made aware that the not only was it causing an increase of bird droppings but also not good for them, the problem could be eradicated. Reg suggested leaflets in a few languages (Soho has a diverse ethnic community mix) which could be locally distributed. I suggested that maybe having the same leaflet available online along with some audio version might increase awareness as well as provide a resource for other neighbourhoods to use.
So I was using technology for a number of things here. Initially, to record concerns by local residents, which I uploaded and shared with others at the event in a matter of seconds. I also embedded this into a page I created on the day, quickly and easily, using free tools (There are many simple tools to enable residents to express themselves online). I then suggested how technology could be used to help solve the problem. A leaflet could be produced, with a simple sentence in the main 3 or 4 languages of the neighbourhood. “Please! Do not feed the birds”. I found a leaflet used by Stroud MBC for this very purpose (pdf). With the right links, a few other language versions could be reproduced and also replicated online. The message could also be recorded by local residents in other languages and feature prominently on a Soho related website. All this could be produced very quickly, easily and cost effectively.
The tools I used on the day were: wrrtn.me for a place to put the content I created, audioboo.fm where I uploaded the interview, recorded on my phone, bambuser.com where I streamed some live video from the event.
Over the last month or so we’ve been doing a series of workshop sessions with brap — who work to promote equality — on giving some of their clients an introduction to the opportunities social media might offer their businesses, charities or social enterprises.
Each session was for four hours with around six people — with two trainers. We originally thought that that would be plenty of time and that boredom would be setting in by then — but there wasn’t a session where we wouldn’t have liked to extend just a touch. After some very brief introductions, the first thing we did in each session was to divide into groups of two and play the Social Media Game.
The game is a great way for people to start thinking about the big picture of the social web, how different tools, techniques and ideas work alongside each other — and it also acts as a way to quickly see some of the options that are available. We’ve been playing the game slightly differently; smaller groups (so we can make sure everyone has grasped the concepts behind the cards), tighter questions which the teams can alter to more closely reflect their real situations, and we’ve done an updated set of cards (which you can download here to use or alter yourselves).
After this we worked more directly with each person and started them going on something that might prove immediately useful to them: starting a blog was a popular one, as was learning how to monitor the social web. But the main idea is just to have a go — that might be Facebook, Twitter or even a quick video cast (shot on iPhone so excuse the appalling sound):
We’re hopefully going to be doing some follow up sessions to see how people are getting on… will keep you posted
February 1st, 2010 |
by Stuart Parker Published in
Resources, Training
Here’s a resource that we’re using with a young people’s project to gain a better understanding of the employment market. It’s available to download and use for your own projects. It’s good for creating discussion about the reality of employment as well as using the web to research all the different kinds of work out there.
If you find it useful or have any comments please let us know.
We’re really pleased to announce what we think is the first officially accredited course in understanding and using social media for those with no previous experience. We Share Stuff has developed the course and it’s now part of the OCN framework (WSS are an OCN Centre), as three units of 10 learning hours each.
As it’s platform agnostic (it doesn’t prescribe certain sites or tools) and also driven by the learners as to use, it’s applicable to anyone that wants to get to grips with the social web and gain the confidence to get involved.
We envisage it being useful to businesses, young people — almost anyone — with the bonus of a real qualification at the end of it. We’re now looking for opportunities to deliver it… the fun starts here.
October 2nd, 2009 |
by Stuart Parker Published in
Training
We Share Stuff is looking for people from all manner of industries to help us with a young people’s project in Sandwell, West Midlands. As part of the project, the young people identify industries they might be interested to work in and are set a task to come up with some questions and interview somebody from that particular industry. The interview will only a be a quick fire Q&A style thing and could take the form of video, audio or any other method that the interviewer decides.
So, if you’re based in the West Midlands (or further afield if interviewed online) we’re asking you if you wouldn’t mind joining our interviewee pool. All you need to do is be available for a quick visit / or online chat etc, from the project team at relatively short notice. Just state your name and job / industry that you’re involved with either on this post, email, twitter etc.
Digital Mentors are people we work with to help to train, advise and inspire our clients in the use of social technology. Our clients are usually defined as “digitally excluded”, but may also be socially excluded too — we focus a lot of our work on NEETs – young people not in employment, education or training.
Digital Mentors need to either be working with social media, or using it personally on a regular basis — doing it as part of the rest of their activities, not something separate. We Share Stuff feels that the use of social technology shouldn’t be seen as different, difficult, or “something else to learn”, but simply another way to connect and create.
Digital Mentors need to be confident in trying new tools and networks, passing that confidence on to others — our aim is to use informal learning, letting clients chose their own reasons for interacting. That means that we don’t prescribe types of content, sites or tools to use, but instead help instil the knowledge to choose the appropriate way for each task and the basic skills and confidence to learn the rules and techniques of the tools.
We are an accredited OCN (Open College Network) provider and are working on our own social media course that will fit into QCF framework. No previous teaching or assessment experience or qualifications are necessary, but there may be opportunities to gain them.
As our work is project based, we need to be able to engage freelancers to help deliver training — work may not be regular, and we will have a team for each project. Some availability in normal working hours is much preferred. We’re based in Birmingham (UK) so most of our work is based in and around the West Midlands.
Our Digital Mentors need to be comfortable with working with young people, and in some instances may require a CRB certificate and/or public liabilities insurance (we will both advise and help on these issues).
We’ve just heard some good news. The proposal we put forward to run an accredited training programme with Sandwell Youth Offending Team has been accepted. We start delivering our social media flavoured course from September. The course is designed to give young people a range of resources, skills and a qualification in support to them finding employment, training or going into education.
Once we have the course underway, we will share the hows and whats in more detail right here.
Michael Grimes, aka Citizensheep did a great job in setting up the live blogging stuff from the conference. As we’ve been slow in posting some form of response or update, here’s the blogging as it happened.
March 11th, 2009 |
by Stuart Parker Published in
Training
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.
January 16th, 2009 |
by Stuart Parker Published in
News, Training
‘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.
We Share Stuff is a Social Enterprise based in Birmingham, UK. We share our experience in the social web, to help people make the most of digital opportunities.
