Race Online 2012

Building on the success of October’s Give an Hour campaign, the OU are supporting Give an Hour: Summer of Sport.

Running from 30 June – 13 July, this aims to help people who can’t or don’t use the internet to give it a go, and improve their digital skills by inspiring them to get the best out of the Summer of Sport online.

The BBC has created a whole host of brilliant resources to help people develop their online skills – and all designed to get the best from the Summer of Sport!

Over the two weeks there will be various videos and help on the BBC websites, starting with an introductory film fronted by Chris Hollins and Fatima Whitbread.

 

If you’ve signed up to be a Digital Champion as part of the Race Online campaign – now called Go On UK – then you can bag free tickets to this year’s National Digital Conference in London.

The OU is one of the campaign’s partners, which aims to promote the benefits of being online to individuals and organisations.

The Go On: ND2012 conference will take place on 30 and 31 May 2012 at Old Billingsgate, bringing together over 1,000 attendees to explore the policy, leadership, innovation and collective action needed to support a truly digital nation.

And there will be fun activities, stalls and an appearance by the X Factor’s Misha B. Digital Champions – those who’ve signed up to help others get online and reap the benefits of the internet – can attend for free and are encouraged to bring thee people they’ve helped.

If you’re an OU student and you’re going to this event, let us know. Either comment on this article (you'll need to be logged in with your OU username and password to do so) to tell us you’ll be there – because so will we! – or drop an email to platform@open.ac.uk

I never quite understood why the UK still does the whole daylight savings thing. Right from being a nipper I’ve always forgotten when, during the year, the clocks go forward/back and the only way I can remember which is which is by the rather Americanised ‘spring forward, fall back’ mantra.

I remember a kids’ TV series which was on when I was younger called Eerie Indiana and one of the episodes was about the main character refusing to adhere to daylight savings and becoming trapped in the ‘lost hour’. Man, I loved that series. The lead actor in it was called Omri Katz and I had such a crush on him. What’s an hour anyway? What can you do in an hour? I could watch an episode of the fantastic new BBC series Frozen Planet. I could read about three pages of a module book (I get distracted easily). I could fritter away some time googling myself (yep, I’m a self-confessed paranoid narcissist). Or this afternoon I’m going to sit for an hour listening to my professor rambling on about post-modernism and post-fordism.

You can’t accomplish a lot within an hour, admittedly, but you can set a ball rolling. In my job I deal with a lot of social housing tenants, a lot of whom are elderly. A few weeks ago I came across a lovely old couple who I’ve since had some really good chats with about everything from what the area used to look like before the estate was built to how most of my life/job is done via a computer. Now this old couple have never really dabbled with computers, they’re in their early 80s, have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and live in comfortable bliss with each other. However, Mrs Old Couple is now pretty much house bound and can’t really get out, and she misses knowing what’s going on in the area and it’s so sad to hear how involved in the community she used to be, but can't be more.

Now some of you may remember that back in February I went to the National Digital Conference in London. There was a rather embarrassing interview with me on here which I simply cannot watch anymore for the sheer hatred of my voice, but following it I signed up to be a Digital Champion and pledged to help someone get online by 2012, but to be honest no opportunity has arisen as yet and I’ve not had the time to seek one out. Until Mr and Mrs Old Couple that is.

As part of the campaign there’s a ‘Give an Hour’ pledge and this is my chance to go for it. I’ve arranged with Mr and Mrs OC to go and visit them next week with my laptop. I have a mobile broadband dongle so I needn’t worry about connections or anything just yet. My plan is to show them that there’s a really great and easy way for Mrs OC to keep in touch with her friends and the community via the internet. A lot of the clubs she used to go to have websites and the Council have news pages she could read. These will give her much more up to date information than the free newspapers and can let her pick and choose what info she reads rather than only getting the info her husband remembers to pass on.

I don’t expect to be able to teach them much about the internet within an hour and depending on the availability of cups of tea and custard creams I may be there all afternoon, but I’m hoping it might just plant the seed in her mind that the internet isn’t something to be feared. My late father-in-law bought his first computer at age 75 and took to it like a duck to water, so there’s hope for everyone.
 

Here's how we'll be giving an hour when the clocks go back to help someone online... how will you use your extra hour?

Julie pledges to help her dad save money...

 

Kate pledges to help her father-in-law research gift ideas for his wedding anniversary...

 

Kath pledges to help her unemployed neighbour hunt for jobs...

 

Roz pledges to show her mum the joys of email...

 

Christian Payne, AKA Documentally, tells how he first introduced someone to the joy of the internet and what he'll be doing to help the Give an Hour campaign...

 

Jenny pledges to show a friend how to download music...

 

Robyn pledges to show friends how to use Skype to stay in touch and how to publish and share photographs online...

 

If you want to send a link to an audio or video clip sharing your pledge to give an hour to help someone online, please email platformeditor@open.ac.uk or add your comments in the box at the bottom of this article. And don't forget to officially register your pledge by filling out the form on this page.

 

When the clocks go back at the end of October, the Race Online 2012 campaign, supported by the OU, is urging people to give up that extra hour to help someone new to the internet get online.

If you can find the time to give an hour and help someone discover the internet, what would you show them? How can you engage them through their own interests?

Friend of Race Online 2012 and OU honorary graduate Martha Lane-Fox is giving up her hour to help her dad go beyond basic email and show him how the internet can support his interests in gardening and history.

 

If you pledge to give an hour, what would you show an internet novice? Share your comments below and feel free to submit your own video and audio messages too. Please email the Platform team with your video messages.

Computers for the petrified and the health benefits of a Wii are among the highlights of Age UK’s  annual digital inclusion campaign ‘ itea and biscuits week’ running from 19-25 September.

Hundreds of events are planned across the country introducing older techno novices to the benefits of digital technology.

Last year about 10,000 older people benefited from increased skills, confidence and motivation by participating in itea and biscuits week activities.

For 2011 those activities include ‘Computers for the Petrified’ at Lancashire College, ‘Recording your memories and using a digital camera’ in Stockport, ‘Save money and shop online’ at Age UK Gloucester and ‘Get Fit, no matter the weather', with tennis, golf or bowling on the Nintendo Wii in Essex.

Age UK is asking people to share their IT skills and passion with an older person during itea and biscuits week.

For more information about Age UK itea and biscuits and organising an event in your neighbourhood visit Age UK

Skype is a great way to connect with friends and family - watch this video tutorial to find out how to use it...

What does the word ‘volunteering’ mean to you? That’s the question student blogger Carrie is asking in her latest entry for Platform as she reveals why she is a school governor, OUSA representative and Digital Champion supporting people get online…

“I somehow had it in my head that volunteering always involved getting dirty or getting puked on or having to entertain bored little kids by trying to assure them that digging trenches really is great fun.

“I’ve been volunteering for a few things for over a year now but it’s not volunteering in the sense I immediately think of, and up until recently I didn’t actually consider it volunteering at all.

“I never really considered them as volunteering posts for one simple reason; I do them for purely selfish reasons...”

Read more about Carrie’s thought’s on volunteering at her Platform blog