Older people challenging isolation and exclusion
Transport can be arranged on request
By the way – this event is not organised by 50+ Digital 🙂
A course for adventurous senior citizens at Mildmay Community Centre – Monday afternoons in March 2023
NB: This course has started.
This is a course about being able to do something useful or essential – apps used by work teams, individual entrepreneurs and creators. You will learn the basics of Google WorkSpace – a package of apps widely used by business and non-profit organisations.
The apps are designed for teams as well as single users – and (like most workplace software now) they all run in the cloud – where you can access them from any location – as well as the computer you are using at home or in an office.
You probably access your personal email in a cloud server. Workplace software extends that kind of access to everything you do at work – vastly increasing productivity – and (a key concept) simplifying immediate collaboration with other people you work with.
This is not new – but if your work experience is not recent, you might not realise how much has changed in the last 10 years. Your tutor has been using this system since 2007, for personal use, community projects, and as a part-time employee of charity MRS – Independent Living (which uses WorkSpace for internal and external processes).
Below is a list of apps that we will look at during the course. If you have email at seniors.org.uk or bold.org.uk, you already have all the apps. If you use Gmail.com, you have limited personal versions of most of them.
Obviously, you won’t become proficient in all of those apps during a short course. But you will know what they are, and how to get started.
Organised by MRS – Independent Living (MRS-IL) – Digital Confidence project – 50pd.uk
A double workshop at Mildmay Community Centre – Monday afternoons in February 2023
NB: this workshop has finished.
We have recently acquired more laptop computers, which will help to double the number of people who can learn effectively at the Wednesday afternoon drop-in.
This workshop will help you understand how to use the laptops (new and previous) …
We will also investigate the best possible use of the space in the main hall — as we did during the last smartphone course (we discovered that we should project onto the large drop-down screen – and that community centre should upgrade the main hall wifi, which they have done).
Organised by MRS – Independent Living (MRS-IL) – Digital Confidence project – 50pd.uk
NB: this event has finished.
Mildmay Community Centre will be open as usual Wednesday afternoon 25 January – but not for the Digital Drop-in.
Instead there will be an all-day Cost of Living event in the main hall – to which you are invited, of course. For more information, please visit page Cost of Living Event at The Mildmay.
50+ Digital is not involved in event arrangements, so there won’t be a normal digital drop-in — but the 50+ Data Bank will be open in the café area from 1:30 to 3 pm.
Sheena Adae-Amoakoh – owner of local hair stylist HausOfShee – brought friends Akela and Whitney to help at the Digital Drop-in, 11 January 2023. Photos by Elliot Jones – based at Point Two Studio.
These community-conscious young volunteers are local entrepreneurs. Your grandchildren might know them.
Tap or click on any photo in the gallery to see a larger version, or start a slide-show (if you are not quite sure how to do that, please ask a helper).
Elliot made a lot more photos. They are all very good, but we can’t publish them all here. However – if you are in one of Elliot’s photos, we will make sure you get a copy – in your email (you might need practice opening and saving photo attachments).
This session reminded us of the Pre-Pandemic Era, when we hosted more than 700 corporate volunteers via Benefacto from 2014 until COVID wrecked everything. Those volunteers were all really impressive – and made a huge, and memorable, impact.
We think employers (or HR departments) might be regaining confidence, though no enterprise has replaced Benefacto. But we are ready to help.
We are sending the photos to you by email (because downloading and managing photos is a useful digital skill for you to learn).
Daniel liked his so much, he got it printed – apparently for less than £1.
We have moved our Friday afternoon courses and workshops to Monday afternoons in the main hall at Mildmay Community Centre Рthe same large space we use for the Wednesday afternoon drop-in Рnot the small caf̩ area we occupied last year.
As we expected, the move was an immediate success. The currrent course –Â Exploring the web with smartphones – was guaranteed to be full because we were able to arrange an alternative activity for the course waiting list. As it happened, everyone on the waiting list joined the course.
Right now, we have 14 training smartphones – 12 for learners, 1 for the projector, 1 contingency. We think we can double the size of smartphone courses as we learn the best way to utilise the main hall, perhaps as soon as February.
4 Monday afternoons — January 2023 — at Mildmay Community Centre.
NB: this course has finished.
A step-by-step practical guide to finding incredibly useful things to do on the World Wide Web – and how to do them on a phone – safely and sensibly.
As always, you will start with your priorities and ambitions – and you will finish with important digital skills that perhaps you didn’t know existed.
Just as important – you will be more confident in your own ability to keep exploring and learning.
For your personal security – you will not use your own device, your own email address or your own phone number as part of the course.
Everyone will use our safety-first smartphones – set up for older people who don’t have a lot of internet experience – so we can all focus together on what is really important.
You are welcome to bring your own device if you want to – but we cannot offer 1:1 help with it as part of the course.
See also page: Learning – courses and workshops
A beginner-friendly course at Whitmore Community Centre, Friday afternoons in December 2022
NB: this course has finished.
You are an internet citizen now, so wouldn’t it be nice to spend your online time in those parts of the internet where there are no risks, no exploitation, no deceit?
It’s easily done, because that is still most of the internet. It’s still about contact and communication with friends, family and people you could never have met in any other way — inhabited by optimists who are expanding their horizons and learning more about the real world that they return to safely when they switch off their device.
Join our course, and use our safe smartphones to explore and understand how the internet works – for you.
This is about your safety concerns, not about devices. For your personal security – you will not use your own device, your own email address or your own phone number as part of the course.
Everyone will use our safety-first smartphones – set up for older people who don’t have a lot of internet experience – so we can all focus together on what is really important.
You are welcome to bring your own device if you want to – but we cannot offer 1:1 help with it. That’s because we don’t have time to help individuals when there are 11 other people on the course. This approach always works best for everybody.
Venue: Whitmore Community Centre
See also page: Learning – courses and workshops
A really interesting online research project that needs your help and participation.
We (Collective Act) are based at Hackney Downs Studios, and we recently launched The Perception Census – a new scientific study into the unique ways we each experience the world around us. Led by world-leading academics Professor of Neuroscience Anil Seth from the University of Sussex and Professor of Philosophy Fiona Macpherson from the University of Glasgow.
The online survey is made up of fun interactive tasks exploring how participants perceive colour, music, time, illusion and more.
By taking part, participants will learn about their own powers of perception while helping our team of scientists and philosophers uncover why, and how, we all experience the world in unique ways.
The Perception Census is made up of 10 topics. Each section takes approx. 20 minutes to complete, and we recommend starting with The Fundamentals of Perception. To begin, participants need to create an account and navigate through the prompts on screen.
You might have seen an article by our Lead Scientist on the Perception Census, Anil Seth: The big idea: do we all experience the world in the same way? I think this gives a great bit of additional framing for the project.
I have been thinking about our engagement of people over 60 and have got approval to run a focus group. I am looking to recruit a small group of over 60s. The focus group discussion will happen online and everyone will be paid £25 for their participation
I have more information and a place where people can register their interest in participating here: Perception Census Over-60s Focus Group.
We hope the Focus Group session will be an open and dynamic discussion where everyone is welcome, regardless of background, experience, ability, or expertise.
Ahead of the discussion, please visit the Perception Census landing page
Our discussion will focus on how accessible the website and the task are, and the language we are using to describe it. You may find it helpful to make notes as you move through the visitor journey.
We are offering a £25 voucher (Amazon, Sainsburys or Tesco) or £25 paid via invoice to every participant as reimbursement for taking the time to participate in the task and the focus group. We will confirm details of this after the session.
People are also welcome to email me directly with any questions or to register their interest – jane.wells@collectiveact.co.ukÂ
NB (15 March): winter has officially finished, so has the funding for this winter project.
This is a perfect fit to our Wednesday afternoon Digital Drop-in, 1 to 4 pm.
The food is served in the café area, next to the kitchen (not in the Main Hall).
Our suggestion – get there early at 12:30 – replenish your vitamins and build up your stamina for the drop-in starting at 1 pm.
The free food is organised by Mildmay Community Centre, not by Fifty-Plus Digital.