Digital Inclusion, Get on Line and Digital Champions

It would appear that today is "National Get Online Day'

Did you know that?
I didn't.

I discovered about today online, surfing the net, drifting in the flow of information and knowledge that streams across my computer screen.

I've been taking an interest in Twitter, investigating a range of Twitter tools and watching Political Twitter activity. I've been watching is called HMGOV, "an unofficial service of official news feeds from UK Government". I'm one of 161 people following this feed which to date has issued 10, 473 updates! I don't know who provides this service, or how. I guess it's a mash up of some kind, taking government news feeds and tweeting them.

It makes for interesting reading, BUT to be honest the output is overpowering. It is one of those feeds that may just need to be culled :)

Earlier today I noticed the following tweet :-

#WalesOffice Paul Murphy unveils new role of Digital Champion: A new high-profile Digital Champ.. http://twurl.nl/rj4rty

Following that link I discovered all sorts of interesting facts.

Paul Murphy is the Minister for Digital Inclusion, who intends to appoint a Digital Champion as part of the Government's Digital Inclusion agenda.

Do you suppose the Champion might become known as Cyberman or Cyberwoman?

The job description is a bit vague, in fact I don't think it's written yet.
They'd like a Champion but don't know what he / she should do.

“The post of Digital Champion will be independent of Government, but
will work closely with myself as Minister for Digital Inclusion, the
Cabinet Committee and the cross-Government Digital Inclusion Team. The
Champion will work as a high-profile public figure who can raise the
profile of this agenda, gaining support from industry, the third and
public sectors, plus central and local government, whilst maintaining
their independence.

“The exact role and responsibilities of the Champion are not yet
agreed, that is why we are asking people to respond to this
consultation to help us shape our plans for the future. We are eager to
hear people’s views on how this new post can work most effectively, and
indeed to suggest individuals or organisations to fulfil this role.”

There's a forum where you can discuss the main themes of the Digital Inclusion Action Plan.
No ones chatting there yet, but it's only been there two days ......

PS.
Paul Murphy can be found here and here.
Somehow I sort of thought that the Minister for Digital Inclusion might have had a news feeds, or a range  of digital media, or a Twitter feed.
Perhaps the Minister should follow the Foreign Office.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Oh to still live in Whitchurch! (and play with next generation Broadband)

I used to live in Whitchurch, owned my first house there, just round the corner from the exchange!

Oh to be living there now.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ivory Towers

I came across this earlier.

"Sometimes, it’s worth flashing a bit of a public reminder that even
though it seems like lots of us are deeply passionate about this space,
most folks don’t exactly understand what we’re talking about. That’s
because technically, they don’t need what we do to make money and go on
with their lives. They’re happy. Take a cab ride and ask them about
Twitter. Ask the folks at the grocery store if they’re on LinkedIn.
Check and see whether anyone at the local pizza place has a blog."

We should all remember it

Powered by ScribeFire.

On Social Networking and Plaid Cymru

I read that Dafydd Iwan folk singer and politician has been re-elected as president of Plaid Cymru.

A strange event to be worthy of comment here On the Hill except that Mr. Iwan, a clever, passionate influential Welshman has promised

"to bring the party into the 21st Century with an emphasis on making the most of social networking sites to build support".


I wonder how he proposes to do that in a country where the digital divide is still causes concern.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Digital Divide, what Digital Divide?

When some of us are still thinking about the digital divide in all it's many forms, it is somewhat refreshing to read a story like this one.

I don't suppose Cadwgan uses the internet.

Welsh Digital Divide?

The BBC continues to work hard to integrate its mainstream media transmissions with those of us that inhabit the web. There is doubt that their researchers, producers and managers are working hard to drag us into the connected twenty first century.

This morning on the Internet Blog, Max Gadney points us at the visualisation of comments from BBC News' Have Your Say. I've not watched any of the programs, but the visualisation tool on the top right hand side of the series page is superb.

I love the way the data is presented, I love the way it's colour coded and the way it moves.
It's almost impossible to look at the graphic without clicking, exploring and digging deeper.
If I have a criticism, it's shame that the key and FAQs sometimes obscures part of the display.

Max expresses a preference for exploring the Emotions displayed by the commenters but my attention was drawn to the "Regional Display"




Can someone tell me why are their so few comments from Wales?

Could be that we in Wales are not interested in the issues presented in the program?

Does the obvious lack of comments reflect in some way the "digital divide" and reveal something about the way that the Internet is used in Wales?

Today is BBC News School Report day.

This is another example of the BBC making every effort to not only engage with it's viewers but to give "12 and 13 year olds from UK schools the chance to make their own video, audio or text based news at school and broadcast it for real"

Today "schools around the country will take part in a News Day, simultaneously creating news reports and publishing them on their school websites, to which the BBC aims to link."

A quick glance at the School Report location map shows only eight participating schools in Wales, (five of which are I believe schools where teaching is undertaken through the medium of Welsh). Not one school in Cardiff seems to be taking part!

Can someone tell me why are their so few participants from Wales?

Could be that the majority of schools in Wales are not interested in providing pupils with the opportunity to speak to a wider audience through mainstream media and the internet?

Does the obvious lack of participants reflect in some way another "digital divide" revealing something about the way that the Internet is used / taught in Wales?

How do you say Digital Divide in Welsh?

On School Councils, websites, teachers, pupils and governors.

This is a curious story.

According to Estyn it would appear that School Councils have had "little impact on the running of Welsh Secondary Schools". Is that really so much of a surprise? Despite there being an obligation (since 2005) for pupil led councils to play an active role in schools, it seems that in pupil input has been limited to "minor improvements in the arrangements for uniforms, toilet facilities and meal choices"

For some reason the Welsh Assembly Government places importance on giving pupils a stronger voice in the running of their schools.
Despite the rhetoric I'm afraid I don't understand why.

But here's a quote from the report press release that may well be of interest those of us "On the Hill".

"Less than a third of teachers have used the Welsh Assembly Government website which aims to support the development of School Councils. The forum sections of the website have not been used by teachers, governors or pupils since it was created a year ago. However, most teachers surveyed feel that the website is easy to use and find the case studies the most useful aspect. Estyn recommends that the Welsh Assembly Government makes sure that the website, and other guidance, meets the needs of school councils that are already well-established."

Digging further in to the report proper, we find that

"Teachers responsible for the school council in about half of the schools surveyed are aware of the website, but less than a third have used it."

Its difficult to decide why this might be the case.
In fact there are a whole range of questions one could ask eg.

• Is the web site no use?
• Is the available material poor?
• Do the teachers concerned not have internet access?
• Do the teacher's concerned not have the time to use the web site?
• Are the teachers concerned interested?
• Do those involved in the running of schools actually think School Councils have a purpose?
• Are there any real statistics available about the way that this web site is used?

The report also clearly states that

"No teachers, governors or pupils have used the forum on the website."

Another sentence that raises even more questions?

• Do teachers, governors and pupils actually use on line forums?
• Do they have anything to talk about?
• Is there a need for this forum?
• Are there any similar forums not being used?
• How connected are our teachers, pupils and school governors?

Finally another question, Primary Schools have School Councils, ....... any news?

On Danah, Facebook and Wales.

Danah at apophenia has written an excellent blog essay, (a rough work in progress paper) which she has called "Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and MySpace."

Its an excellent read, far better than many of the press articles describing its contents.

Regular readers of Danah's blog are I think aware of the way she works. She finds her own observations "disconcerting". It is interesting to note how many of those who commented on her thoughts, choose to criticise her rather than her observations which suggest that

"Hegemonic American teens (i.e. middle/upper class, college bound teens from upwards mobile or well off families) are all on or switching to Facebook. Marginalized teens, teens from poorer or less educated backgrounds, subculturally-identified teens, and other non-hegemonic teens continue to be drawn to MySpace. A class division has emerged and it is playing out in the aesthetics, the kinds of advertising, and the policy decisions being made."

I need time to think about her observations as I'm not certain how her theories might translate to the UK, or to Wales. I'm not convinced that the urge to Facebook or MySpace is as central to UK student life as it is in America, but it is growing. In the last week I've noticed several relatively prominent Welsh bloggers writing about the use of Facebook by politicians (locally and nationally) and by journalists seeking copy.

Here are a set of notes made by a blogger who heard Danah speak at Harvard.
The blog provides a good example of how a blog can be used to present notes taken at a lecture, seminar or tutorial.

Out of curiosity I've explored Facebook this morning and looked at the regional and college statistics for Wales. These figures are correct as of today.

The WALES network has 65,952 members.

In hierarchical order the college networks (in Wales) have the following numbers of members.

Cardiff, 15,104
Swansea, 6,447
Aber, 5,995
Bangor, 4,145
Uni Glam, 2,243
UW Institute Cardiff, 1,653
UW Newport, 716
Swansea IHE, 481
Lampeter, 469
Trinity, 333
RW College of Music and Drama, 332
NEWI, 356

A total of 38,274 facebook memberships.
(How many students are there in Wales?)
(How old are these networks?)

To make sense of these figures, some statistical work will be required to show the number of facebook memberships as a percentage of the student population of each of the colleges, as we are not really comparing like with like here. (I suspect that Cardiff on Facebook includes the College of Medicine.)

I wonder if I can find similar figures for Bebo or MySpace?

On email, addiction and statistics.

A poll by ICM research (prepared for Nasstar) presents some new statistics about email use in the UK. It appears that up to half of us depend upon email or are addicted to email.
I'm really not certain that the survey shows evidence of email addiction, but it makes for a good headline and who am I to criticise how the BBC might use language?

41% of teenagers indicated that they were reliant on email
50% of 25 - 34 year olds indicated that they were reliant on email
44% of 35 - 44 year olds indicated that they were reliant on email

I can't locate full set of figures but the press release suggests that email usage is lowest in Wales with only 34% of people saying that email was vital to them, as compared to 43% of people in the South East. No surprises there, just a little more evidence of the growing digital divide in our country.

These dependency figures probably say something about digital natives.
Some might argue that teenagers as digital natives don't send emails, I don't think the average teenager has much need to send emails. Communication between teenagers is far more likely in the form of short texts, instant messages, or twitter like communiques within social networking sites.

The 25 - 34 year olds are more likely to be in the sort of environments where emails are essential for work and business. In fact I suspect they may well be using email in addition to other methods of "electronic communication".

As is ever the case statistics never tell us the whole story.

On Internet Use, Social Networking and Age

In their May press release Nielson/NetRatings tell us that 18% of online Britons are women aged between 18 and 34.

Looking at the graph, it appears that the split between male and female users of the internet is fairly equal, but in the over fifties more men than women are active online.

In the words of Nielson's chief analyst

"The Internet is no longer dominated by young male adults times have changed considerably and many will be surprised to see that women aged 18-34 are now the most prevalent group online and that a quarter of the online population is at least 50 years of age."

The BBC report on this story suggests that young women visit a variety of sites including those dedicated to fashion, family and lifestyle issues as well as social networking sites.
They're shopping!

I have to confess that I find the figures for the under 18s surprisingly low, or is my perception of internet use amongst teenagers wrong?

In the light of the Nielson data it might be interesting to examine the age profile for male and female users of social networking sites.
Rory Cellan-Jones writing for the BBC suggests that as a 40 something Technology Correspondent he found it difficult to find friends in MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and Twitter. He concludes his article by deciding that he is too old to Twitter and too mature for My Space.

In the interests of research I have profiles in several social networking sites.
I have to agree with Rory.
I'm just too old and mature (and I'm older than him).

LOL

Internet Inequality

Sarah Richards' report "Internet Inequality in Wales Update 2006" is now available from the Welsh Consumer Council. I mentioned it earlier in the week, but since then I've been able to read the original report. For those of us working / thinking / learning in Wales it makes for interesting reading.

• Data for March 2006 showed that 47% of Welsh homes had an Internet connection. In 1999 that figure was 10%.
• The likelihood of home connection is unsurprisingly still related to social class, 64% of ABC1s are connected 67% of C2DEs are not.
• Of particular relevance to us at Treforest is the low connection level in the Valleys, 40% as opposed to 53% in Cardiff. (I wonder how many of our students actually come from the valleys?)

The figures relating to students are curious. The report states :-

"Students are by far the most likely to personally use the Internet with 94% doing so compared to just 23% of people who are wholly retired or not working. Interestingly, only 72% of students have a home Internet connection but 94% personally use the Internet, suggesting that they use computers in locations outside the home and / or mobile technology instead of a home connection."

This raises all sorts of questions for HE planners.
(I wonder what the definition of home might be halls of residence, digs or real home address).

I suspect that these figures suggest that student Internet access is done from on campus, it would be interesting to discover just how much time students spend on line. Perhaps they are really not that connected!

This an excellent report, clearly and precisely written.

Kudos to the Welsh Consumer Council for reminding us that

"it is important to note that over half the population of Wales still do not use the Internet".

Those of us who access it daily would do well to reflect upon that.

Non Web Users

The BBC writes of the work of the Welsh Consumer Council today. This is obviously breaking news as I can't find the original report. (or my search skills are not as good as I'd like to think they are!).
15.02.07 The report is now available.

I don't think there is anything new in the report in which we are told that
"53% of all adults in Wales still do not have access to the Internet."........."at home, at work or in public spaces like libraries"

I believe that the population of Wales "in the 2001 census was 2,903,085, which has risen to 2,958,876 according to 2005 estimates."

A careful look at the figures does show a change since 2005, particularly in the Welsh valleys where the percentage of home Internet connections seems to have risen from 26% to 40%. The same figure for Cardiff has risen 5% to 53%.

Tellingly the report tells us that many of those not connected to the Web
"do not think being online was relevant to them or an important resource."

The Consumer Council advise that these figures show that public bodies should maintain face to face and telephone advice information systems.
No they don't.
Public bodies should maintain face to face and telephone advice information systems whatever the take up of Internet access.
There's a difference between being connected to the Internet and being able to use it.
The time has come to start considering how effectively those that are connected, use the available resources.

Their Space!

It is just over six months since I read "Everything Bad is Good for You" by Steven Johnson. At the time I mentioned the book to my tutors and we discussed several of the key ideas so ably identified by Johnson. The book is an easy and entertaining read, with a clear argument suggesting that popular culture is far more complex and intellectually challenging than we might have suspected.

Demos "the think tank for everyday democracy", drawing inspiration from Johnson's work have spent time exploring the relationship that children have with the Internet. It makes for fascinating reading. In fact I think that it should be read by anyone with an interest in learning. Demos spent nine months observing, researching and recording online activity and now have published their findings in the wonderfully named "Their Space: Education for a digital generation."

In this report Demos suggest that "the use of digital technology has been normalised by this generation (of children) .....and integrated into their everyday lives."

They find that

• the majority of young people use new media as tools to make their lives easier, strengthening their existing friendship networks
• almost all children are involved in creative production - eg. uploading /editing
• children are capable of self regulation when informed of risks contrary to popular opinion
• create their own hierarchy of digital activities when assessing their potential for learning......in contrast to their teachers and parents they were very conscious that some activities were more worthwhile than others.

The report identifies a number of user types

• digital pioneers
• creative producers
• everyday communicators
• information gatherers

(I am not certain as to how creative some of the uploading / editing activities actually are in practice. Digital dexterity sometimes obscures lack of knowledge, but that's nit picking)

As might be expected the report highlights the conflict between our existing education system and the world of this generation of children "who can't remember life before the Internet and mobile phones" . Some of us now working in Higher Education are aware of this challenge and are actively seeking ways of bridging the gap.

"Their Space" makes a number of important proposals.
In fact I believe the Demos proposals could and should be applied to all sectors of our rather formal education system.

• "The Children’s Commissioner should convene a working group of children to advise on children’s use of technology
• The development of a national strategy, led by schools in combating the ‘digital divide’, with schools responsible for delivering access to hardware such as a laptop, tablet or mobile device for every child
• Measures should be taken to tackle a divide in knowledge, with schools working with parents to develop the skills to help all children interact with technology confidently and safely
• Children should be given the opportunity to build up a ‘creative portfolio’ alongside traditional forms of assessment, access to which would be determined by the children themselves"

I like this report, everyone should read it. Its nice to read a report that's not produced in America. But are the proposals really new?

It's not been that long since I left the world of Primary Education. In my school we kept creative portfolios in which the children self selected work to be displayed, shared and celebrated between Key Stages and on transfer to High School. We worked with adult education and community groups to enable and facilitate interaction with technology by children alongside their parents. We worked at diluting the digital divide offering community access to the Internet whenever practicable.
What we didn't have was a laptop for every pupil.
What a difference that would have made and would make now.

Try transferring or translating the proposals to Higher or Further Education :-

• a working group of students to advise on the use of technology
• a laptop for every student
• tackle the divide in knowledge between lecturers and students (in both directions) to help students and lecturers interact with technology
• students should be given the opportunity and actively encouraged to build up creative portfolio in digital form

Now there's another report!

Digital Bits

More reading from my bookmarks for the week, now deleted.

Pupils to Get Home Internet Access
Seems like a good idea to me, but why just pupils, what about pensioners, students, teachers, nurses, why not everyone?
That would fix the digital divide in one fell swoop

The Government are to Close 551 Web sites. Is this wise? If they were post offices, there'd be a fuss but they're not and I suppose we won't notice any difference to the service offered. The full list of the culled web sites can be seen here. Any of your favourites going?

Whenever I need anything on a Government website, I look for what I need through Google. Doesn't everyone else? This may not be the best move for a Government that has strugged with digital initiatives. Forcing everyone to access Government service via two entry points might just lead to system failures and queues at times of crisis. Remember what happened during the last food scares?

In contrast here is an excellent idea. Government Data Shake Up. Well done everyone involved. Perhaps now they will consider making the registers of births, deaths and marriages free as well.

While reading about Government I stumbled upon the brilliantly named
They Work For You, another Web 2.0 application which is "a non-partisan website run by a charity which aims to make it easy for people to keep tabs on their elected and unelected representatives in Parliament, and other assemblies."

Enter your post code and check out what your MP has been doing. Check out the numerology section, where all sorts of statistics on MPs can be found. I particularly enjoyed discovering how hard my MP, Julie Morgan works; and that that she has used three word alliterative phrases 144 times in debates; which is above the average amongst MPs. Well done.

Try the website, read about your MP, check out the numbers and then read the explanation which explains of the dangers of using statistics. All statistical web sites should carry health warnings.

I look forward to the day when this outstanding site includes the National Assembly in its output. Then we'll be able to check up on her husband too!

Education, education, education.

Writing yesterday, I explained how I suffer from my eagerness to bookmark.

This evening while culling bookmarks I came across all these links to the excellent reporting of educational issues from the BBC that I stumbled upon over the Christmas break. I shall note them here and then press the delete button.

E-mail school reports considered.
I like these ideas. I'm not certain about the sense of sending reports via mobile phones, but maintaining contact with the home by informing parents of absent, misbehaving or unpunctual children would be so easy by text message. I would also want to send praise messages informing the home of good work or behaviour.
As ever the issue of the digital divide needs to be considered! Despite what they say, this is undoubtedly about middle class parents getting an easier service.
I know of one school in Cardiff, where a blog is used to provide information about a particular course of study and where the PTA contacts those parents with email addresses in the name of fundraising.

Stars must "check science facts"
as must the rest of us!
Especially when writing on publicly accessible blogs.
This is a message that has to be brought to the attention of a minority of student bloggers.

Change on the way in tests and tables (in England).
and about time too. How lucky we are to be in Wales where league tables no longer exist. What worries me here is the use of the word "personalised" as if it were something new. In the primary school before the introduction of SATS education was always personalised. Teaching to the tests reduced personalisation, the introduction of literacy and numeracy strategies reduced personalisation. Now it has become the new buzz word. We hear it mentioned in Higher Education, e-learning, blended learning, individualised learning, private learning etc. etc. Learning has always been personal, it can't be sold, bought, traded or centrally imposed.
Equally we have to grasp the fact that not all children are actually capable of achieving the jump between levels of attainment required by our political masters. When will they learn?
Equally dangerous is the way that no one really knows what personalised learning means. Beware the emperor's new clothes.

Finally
GP launches YouTube health films.
I love this. Web 2.0 at its best, providing a personalised service to the residents of rural Wales (but again we need to consider the digital divide). I'm not sure I'll be watching the cervical screening film but I might need the others one day.

More Statistics

My tutor suggested that I read a relatively short document entitled
Internet Inequality in Wales Update 2005. This short report written by Sarah Richards is published by the Welsh Consumer Council.

I would never have thought of looking here for statistical information about the Internet.
But what a gem this report is. Short, concise, well written and informative. Every page a rich source of information.

The report is available to buy or as a free pdf . Guess which option I chose?
The report is short, five chapters and an appendix.

• Home internet Access
• Broadband
• Individual Access inside and outside the home
• Internet Usage
• Conclusions and Recommendations

Each chapter provides food for thought....

As might be expected the report relates to Wales but the issues are global; indeed reading the report I have been reminded of the Digital Divide which is clearly demonstrated here within fifteen miles of my home. In fact the statistics are staggering :-

In 2005 the percentage of adults with a home internet connection in the regions of Wales was as follows

• 51 % in North Wales
• 34 % in Mid / West Wales
• 39 % in South /West Wales
• 26 % in the South WalesValleys
• 48 % in Cardiff / South East Wales

Look at the 26% figure......thats staggering. I want to see the 2006 figures, when will they be published?

How many digital natives live in the valleys?