Other discussion topics

Carry was conducting interviews this evening, so I plan to arrive a little later. Delayed by traffic I arrived even later than expected and when I walked in, clearly, I interrupted, a session to microphone, which was unfortunate, because it appeared to destroy the intimacy of the session. However carry her to leave soon so all was not lost. We proceeded to have a discussion, and there seemed to be no urgency to lay out the laptops. The main topic of the discussion was a funding bid that Marian wanted to put in but around this was woven several other topics as is the usual nature of these sessions. Marrian seemed to be very clean to fill in the bid document electronically rather than filling it in by hand, but all she had was a paper copy and I had forgotten to bring at the software. I had to order about to be able to do this. However, I figured out another way, which was to scan the bid document, and then put the images into a Word document. This seemed to work okay, but there was always a risk of the image becoming displaced whilst over typing. I therefore adopted another method which was to make each image, a watermark in individual documents which could then be over typed.

Here’s some of what we came up with.

The Village Association is in partnership with a UK on Line project, who have funded a BT line and internet connection until 31st March 2008. Who have also provided laptops on loan on a sessional basis.

During training we have created our own Web site www.margrovepark.com. Which to date has had 1970 visitors. Currently the site is very much a Heritage site, includes history and images, and is attractive to visitors.

We would like to continue this kind of work in order to attract visitors to the website but we would also like to extend the site to serve the community. For example, we would like to run a computer club whereby the community could come into the centre and be assisted in using ICT for job search. This is important to Margrove Park because being a rural community. There is no other way that people could find out this information without a visit to Loftus or Guisborough etc. We would also like to extend the usage of the website to include the promotion of local businesses and in this way promote economic growth in the village by encouraging people in the village to use businesses and services that exist in the village and nearby.

Services available online include, Job search, Renew Road Tax, passport or TV License. Contact your Council, NHS Direct, Consumer Direct. Citizens could club together and place grocery orders with one of the supermarkets doing home delivery.

In a village that has no shops or post office by providing services shopping, Training and job search online the village hall could become a virtual post office, corner shop, job shop, and schoolhouse.

I shot these two videos a few weeks ago and it's taken me until now to upload them. They relate to This session here that I was about to deliver. The first video has me deciding to run the session in a different way and the second traces my journey from that decision to the session.

A Short Break

The Road To Magra

Got off to a slow start this week. One of the laptops has a broken display. We've all forgotten how to do things. First of all I asked Marian and Margaret to write a brief report on what they did in the "club" but it turned to be a very brief report.

Margaret is continuing to write her history of the village in Google docs. Jean wanted to check her email. Both were having trouble as did Marian as GoogleApps is playing up a little. Google alters (upgrades?) their apps often which can be confusing when things change all the time.

Marian uploaded a picture but Jean spent all her time on a website devoted to where she came from Failsworth. (True worth never fails is the motto) Trish has been exploring the waterways of England via the British Waterways website (she was born on a canal)

They all tell me about an event where the whole community brought in pictures. These were never scanned and it would be great to do this again to build an archive.

Last week the Margrove Park Community Media Club met in my absence. Neil Harland delivered the laptops and the group proceded with their session whilst I was sunning my self in Majorca. To produce a report on last weeks activities I'm going to call upon ......

Marian and Margaret ..........

Margaret and I attempted to access our gmail on Margrove Park.com,but for some reason, we where unable to read email, sceen keept saying Loading, but nothing updated.

We visited second Life, but without other visiters it became boring. Trish was absent as she had visiters from spain.

Last night was the "final" session of MyWeb2 at Margrove Park. I say final but next week whilst I am away Neil Harland is going to deliver the laptops so that they can continue the "club". Paul Davies of Destinations is purchasing a steel cabinet from the SID project funds so that the Laptops can stay at Margrove overnight and then Neil will collect the laptops and take to their next destination on the Friday.

When I'm back next week I promised to run another session where we will focus on images for the website. I determined that all sessions should revolve around the website because it gives focus to the activity and does not limit their learning experience in any way. After the next two weeks we propose that they will continue the Laptop Club and I’ll support from a distance and make occasional visits.

Low numbers again last night and then Jean had to leave early leaving just me, Marian and Marget. (A combined age of 198)

Marian (64) has sold her car on ebay but needs to buy a new computer. Margaret (79) is bemoaning the fact that she wishes she had not sold her laptop as her computer is in the bedroom and she’d prefer to use it like a common household gadget around the living room (this is what a lot of people do now I think, almost like the laptop is the new TV)

They really liked the idea of my taking remote control of their PC using a free application called Crossloop http://www.crossloop.com/ - It would allow me to see what’s happening on their home PC screens as it’s frustrating when they learn something in the Village Hall and then try to describe how it looks entirely different at home.

We experimented on two laptops but to no avail. Then computer whiz Margaret said "are you sure that laptop was online". Quite a logical question really and since Neil had only recently added the mac address to the wireless router for that particular Laptop could well be the problem. Margaret was, right the laptop was not connected. When we connected it we were able to hook up the computers quite easily so could control Marians laptop from mine. They saw the possibilities of running distance courses. The host computer could be hooked up to a screen and the controlling laptop could send voice via Skype. We must try this out some time.

Then Magaret wanted to know how to put a "trail" on the mouse for visibility so I showed her. She then set up Mrians laptop with a mouse trail.

Since Jean had to go early it was just me Marian and Margaret. We just set up 3 cosy laptops on a round table. Margaret has put a tail on the mouse of the third laptop for good measure.

My plan for the session was to ask each participant to reflect on the past 8 weeks of workshops by writing to the website but we decided to "play silly sods" as they call it and visit second life. Margaret is Fredster Fouroux and Marian is Urilla Upshaw.

We spent ages in SL and had quite a laugh. See below pic of me Marian and Margaret relaxing in a bar after our SL explorations which were hilarious.

SL was great fun - Margaret and Marian were bang into it but they kept flying off and getting lost. We also bumped into a few other people.

Then we did some “proper” work. They wrote a short piece on the workshops. I created a new page and moved the "about our village" stuff to it. Marian wanted to add a currency conversion widget to her googel apps. Mararet wanted to understand how to develop a story in her google docs and then add it to the Margrove website - quiet sophisticated I think -particularly so for a 79 year old. I said that we ought to make the website the focus of everything they do as it is the tool that produces their learning. Terry called in briefly again.

Last night was the "final" session of MyWeb2 at Margrove Park. I say final but next week whilst I am away Neil Harland is going to deliver the laptops so that they can continue the "club". Paul Davies of Destinations is purchasing a steel cabinet from the SID project funds so that the Laptops can stay at Margrove overnight and then Neil will collect the laptops and take to their next destination on the Friday.

When I'm back next week I promised to run another session where we will focus on images for the website. I determined that all sessions should revolve around the website because it gives focus to the activity and does not limit their learning experience in any way. After the next two weeks we propose that they will continue the Laptop Club and I’ll support from a distance and make occasional visits.

Low numbers again last night and then Jean had to leave early leaving just me, Marian and Marget. (A combined age of 198)

Marian (64) has sold her car on ebay but needs to buy a new computer. Margaret (79) is bemoaning the fact that she wishes she had not sold her laptop as her computer is in the bedroom and she’d prefer to use it like a common household gadget around the living room (this is what a lot of people do now I think, almost like the laptop is the new TV)

They really liked the idea of my taking remote control of their PC using a free application called Crossloop http://www.crossloop.com/ - It would allow me to see what’s happening on their home PC screens as it’s frustrating when they learn something in the Village Hall and then try to describe how it looks entirely different at home.

We experimented on two laptops but to no avail. Then computer whiz Margaret said "are you sure that laptop was online". Quite a logical question really and since Neil had only recently added the mac address to the wireless router for that particular Laptop could well be the problem. Margaret was, right the laptop was not connected. When we connected it we were able to hook up the computers quite easily so could control Marians laptop from mine. They saw the possibilities of running distance courses. The host computer could be hooked up to a screen and the controlling laptop could send voice via Skype. We must try this out some time.

Then Magaret wanted to know how to put a "trail" on the mouse for visibility so I showed her. She then set up Mrians laptop with a mouse trail.

Since Jean had to go early it was just me Marian and Margaret. We just set up 3 cosy laptops on a round table. Margaret has put a tail on the mouse of the third laptop for good measure.

My plan for the session was to ask each participant to reflect on the past 8 weeks of workshops by writing to the website but we decided to "play silly sods" as they call it and visit second life. Margaret is Fredster Fouroux and Marian is Urilla Upshaw.

We spent ages in SL and had quite a laugh. See below pic of me Marian and Margaret relaxing in a bar after our SL explorations which were hilarious.

SL was great fun - Margaret and Marian were bang into it but they kept flying off and getting lost. We also bumped into a few other people.

Then we did some “proper” work. They wrote a short piece on the workshops. I created a new page and moved the "about our village" stuff to it. Marian wanted to add a currency conversion widget to her googel apps. Mararet wanted to understand how to develop a story in her google docs and then add it to the Margrove website - quiet sophisticated I think -particularly so for a 79 year old. I said that we ought to make the website the focus of everything they do as it is the tool that produces their learning. Terry called in briefly again.

The first session took place today with FORCEM at Laburnam Rd Library. I discussed web 2 with the guys and talked about forcem.co.uk emails and google docs but it was going over their heads. Their focus was clearly the Cemetery and their website so we got right down to it. They created a home page, a news item and two grave records. Two down only 14000 to go! That's right there are many more recorded graves than there are headstones. Some of it comes into data protection territory but clearly the visible headstones are public and can be recorded on the website without too much fuss. The rest can come later. When I explained to them about global positioning and media scapes to chart the cemetery and they got very excited about that.

View the website here.

The first session took place today with FORCEM at Laburnam Rd Library. I discussed web 2 with the guys and talked about forcem.co.uk emails and google docs but it was going over their heads. Their focus was clearly the Cemetery and their website so we got right down to it. They created a home page, a news item and two grave records. Two down only 14000 to go! That's right there are many more recorded graves than there are headstones. Some of it comes into data protection territory but clearly the visible headstones are public and can be recorded on the website without too much fuss. The rest can come later. When I explained to them about global positioning and media scapes to chart the cemetery and they got very excited about that.

View the website here.

These sessions are drawing to a close and I can't make it next week so Carrie (researcher) is going to conduct some interviews. I'll add one extra session after that and this effectively ends the run of sessions.

I said at the outset that the sessions would react to whatever the participants want to do but I have been surprised at the range of things they have wanted to do.

This week with sessions drawing to an end I decided we needed to get back to the "program". I figured the participants may resist this and figured on some slack to pursue the other things they may wish to do. I also decided that we needed to deal with once and for all the problem of forgotten usernames and passwords and a method was put in place (can't really post details on this public blog) The groups website is driven by an open source CMC/Blog system with an "intranet" of google apps. This requires logging on more that once so we needed uniformity of usernames/passwords.

Surprisingly, the group did not balk at the idea of a slightly more "driven" session and said they enjoyed it.

We looked at personalising their own pages within the Intranet and they had quite an adventurous time exploring the google widgets. We then moved on to google docs and they seemed quite naturally to slip into using docs. Marian was able to share her doc with everyone and they collaborated on a Limeric. The spent a surprisingly long time on this - editing and re-editing.

There was a young man from Newcastle
Who thought carrying the coals was a hassle
He left everyone cold when he dropped his load
Said to to "hell" with the coal and Newcastle

An hour later and I've created all the Google Apps and altered the MX records for the domains. Whilst I was at it I threw in saltburnarts.org.uk and loftus.org.uk - that's a lot of MX records. Now I must wait 24 to 48 hours and see if these have "took". If not then it's a case of deciding whether to wait a little while longer or start the process all over again. Oh what fun!