Digital Literacy in The Archers

An interesting post from John Popham at http://johnpopham.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/digital-literacy-in-the-archers/ – involving a milkman, a blog and a village wide-boy.

 Digital Inclusion/Participation makes it to Ambridge 🙂

Talk Talk announce Digital Heroes 2009

A Derbyshire woman has been crowned Britain’s Digital Hero and awarded a £10,000 prize for a community initiative that encourages schoolchildren to teach their elders how to use the internet.

Gill Farrington from the 50+ Forum in Swadlincote, Derbyshire was announced as overall winner of the TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards 2009 held at the House of Lords.

TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards 2009, in conjunction with digital inclusion charity Citizens Online, have been designed to celebrate the outstanding people who are using digital technology to bring about positive social change.

Regional Winners

o East Anglia: Amanda Smith, Cambridge Housing Society
o London: Bernard Wighton, Richard House Children’s Hospice
o York & Humberside: Dave Wooldridge, New Life
o East Midlands: Gill Farrington, Swadlincote & District 50+ Forum
o Northern Ireland: Sean Og Mac Braoin, Media Ireland
o North East: Paul Atkinson, Apostleship of the Sea
o North West: Paul McCann, Twin Vision
o West Midlands: Susan Smith, Guy’s Gift
o Wales: Helen Iles, Undercurrents Foundation
o Scotland: Wallace Blake, Soar
o South East: Teresa Nissen, The Access Corporation
o South West: Tony Walker, Wolf + Water Arts Company

The full press release is available on the Citizens Online Press Releases

MP launches UN petition to establish children’s rights online.

Labour MP Derek Wyatt has launched a petition calling on the United Nations to clarify its position on the rights of children on the Internet.

The petition was launched to coincide with the 20^th anniversary of the publication of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1989. The Convention provides a framework of rights that children around the world should be entitled to, such as the right to life, identity and protection from exploitation.

The full press release is available at www.citizensonline.org.uk

Digital Revolution

No one ever doubts the scale and impact of the industrial revolution, with the phenomenal growth in production and innovation. Our view of those times is always marred, however, by child labour, deaths in coal mines and the suffering of those working in mills.

We are in the middle of a digital revolution, perhaps more significant than its industrial predecessor. How history retells this period may also depend on how we handle the social consequences; that is the extent to which we make the digital era an inclusive one.  Whilst this is a social imperative, it is also an economic opportunity.