Friday 24 July 2009, 9.45am to 1230pm

Renaissance House, 20 Princess Rd West, Leicester LE1 6TP


When Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report was published in June 2009 it drew together a number of important policy issues which will impact directly on all UK citizens. Whilst NIACE welcomes the potential benefits of Britain developing world class digital networks, there are real challenges if we are to ensure that all adults have the access to learning they need so that they can keep pace with change.

‘Digital Life Skills’ are central to the success of this plan and the report takes account of Baroness Estelle Morris’s independent review of adult ICT skills which recommends an ‘entitlement’ to nine hours of training.

One of the ‘digital dividends’ resulting from the roll-out of digital audio broadcasting will be the freeing up of FM capacity making way for ‘ultra-local’ radio stations. This will widen further our access as citizens to the airwaves. Added to this is the explosion of opportunities for people to publish for themselves online. In order to be active participants in community life, it is increasingly important for adults to be able to acquire not only the technical and language skills needed to create communications in a variety of contexts but also to recognise the rights and responsibilities associated with making adults’ digital voices heard.

This policy briefing will offer a chance to explore these questions and more.
· How can we engage with the 17 million people who are still excluded from digital technology?

· How will the nine hours of Digital Life Skill entitlement be funded and how can we be sure that the support will meet the needs of people who have been the last to join the digital world?

· Will the quite reasonable attempts to protect Intellectual Property have a perverse effect and restrict reasonable access to materials by learners?

· How will we make sure adults have the skills needed to flourish in a digital world?

· With a predicted flowering of ‘ultra local’ sound broadcasting from 2015 and online publishing are we about to witness a new need for learning programmes which reflect the rights and responsibilities of citizen publishers?

· How will teachers of adults maintain their knowledge and skills in the world of increasing

· technological diversity?

· Will provision of superfast broadband to urban areas actually lead us to a new urban / rural digital divide?


Audience
This event will be aimed at anyone with a professional or personal interest in the impact of digital technologies on the future of adult learning in Britain – including adult learning practitioners across all sectors, policymakers and opinion-formers, strategists and managers.
Please retain pages 1 -4

http://www.niace.org.uk/campaigns-events/events/digital-britain-implications-for-adult-learners-and-providers

Event fee per person per event: £85 (includes lunch, tea/coffee)
NB: NIACE does not charge VAT on conference and course fees

Enquiries to Gurjit Kaur in the Events Team – Tel: 0116 204 2833;

E-mail: gurjit.kaur@niace.org.uk

After its major consultation programme earlier this year the Big Lottery Fund has now published its forward strategy which contains some key aspects for third sector organisations -

- an extra £45m to help organisations through the recession

- at least 80% of funding will go to third sector groups (increase from 60-70%)

- increases in both the Reaching Communities and Basis programmes

Full details of the announcement and copies of the documents can be found at the Big Lottery website here -

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/index/bigthinking.htm

On 17 June the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) & The Office for the Third Sector (OTS) launched Funding Central, the new free website for comprehensive information about national, local and regional government funding, national, local or regional charitable funding, and EU funding.

Funding Central is a free smart website funded by the Office of the Third Sector which provides access to thousands of funding and finance opportunities, plus a wealth of tools and resources supporting third sector organisations to develop sustainable income strategies appropriate to their needs. The site provides a comprehensive list of funding opportunities (grants, grant in aid and contracts) available from government and government non-departmental bodies and agencies, local and regional government, charitable organisations and foundations, and the EU.

www.fundingcentral.org.uk

The long-awaited Government report on Digital Britain was published this afternoon, and launched by SW Minister Ben Bradshaw. You can view the full report using the link below. I would be very interested to hear from blog readers responses to the recommendations being made, and particularly about how third sector organisations could respond to the report.

www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx/

The Report is one of the central policy commitments in the Government’s Building Britain’s Future plan and draft legislative programme.

Digital Britain measures include:

• A three-year National Plan to improve Digital Participation
• Universal Access to today’s broadband services by 2012
• Next Generation fund for investment in tomorrow’s broadband services
• Digital radio upgrade by the end of 2015
• mobile spectrum liberalisation, enhancing 3G coverage and accelerating Next Generation mobile services
• robust legal and regulatory framework to combat Digital Piracy
• support for public service content partnerships
• a revised digital remit for Channel 4
• consultation on funding options for national, regional and local news

There are still places available on this workshop which runs on Monday 8th June, from 10am – 4.30pm in Langport.
Cost: £98.  Free carparking available.
 
The workshop is designed to help you market your organisation online.  If you are responsible for your website administration or marketing the day will be invaluable.  
 

• What can You-Tube or Facebook or other networking sites offer your organisation?
• What other technologies are available online to promote your cause?
  

Join us for a day of exploration and leave us at the end with ideas of how web 2.0 technologies can help you.
 
Call to book: 08453 580372 - Laura

Google are now demonstrating their latest offering – saying that its what email would be like if it were invented today… 

What is Google Wave?

Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

For more information about Google Wave, please visit wave.google.com.

The Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills have launched a £20 million Learning Revolution Transformation Fund to finance new projects for informal learning for adults. 

Three categories of bid are invited which are up to £10k, up to £100k and over £100k for what they term ‘showcase projects’. They have a system set up for ‘Earl Bird’ tenders which must be sent in by 12th June – designed to look at initiatives that you may already have plans drawn up for. All other bids must be sent in by 12th July.  As is flavoursome these days, they are stating that partnership projects will be particularly welcome.

http://www.dius.gov.uk/skills/engaging_learners/informal_adult_learning/transformation_fund.aspx

A few key points noted in the funding prospectus:

1. What’s the purpose of the Transformation Fund?

• encourage more and different people into learning, especially those who would not usually participate;
• open up access to learning in new places, in new ways and at more flexible times;
• make better use of broadcasting and technology to stimulate and support learning; and

2. What sort of projects can be funded?

The Transformation Fund can support a very wide range of projects and activities – and not just projects that deliver learning directly.

… we’re looking to fund creative projects that will develop strong, on-going partnerships across the private, public and third sectors.

The list below isn’t exhaustive, but it gives a good overview of the kinds of activity we want to encourage:

• development of the informal adult learning infrastructure, organisational capacity, knowledge transfer and information sharing (such as collaborations between organisations with good resources/facilities and third sector organisations with good reach into local communities);
• development and trialling of innovative ways of engaging new learners, particularly people from disadvantaged groups (such as a voucher scheme for taster activity sessions at local venues);
• development and trialling of innovative delivery methods (such as collaborations between community media organisations and adult education services);

• research and development to produce, and widely share, learning content, programmes or resources, particularly learner or community-generated materials (such as engaging learners in community website development, or in researching, recording and editing oral histories);
• collaborations designed to develop better linkages between different kinds of informal learning experience (such as a TV broadcaster or local radio station working with third sector organisations to signpost potential learners from a passive learning experience towards an interactive one);
• innovative use of broadcasting and/or technology to support learning (such as developing new open access blended learning content);

3. What can the funding be used for?

Funding can be used for full cost recovery for all the eligible, direct costs of the project, including:

• salaries and other costs e.g. NI or expenses of project managers, project workers and volunteers;
• overhead costs directly related to project delivery;
• staff training directly related to the project;
• monitoring and evaluation of the project;
• marketing and publicity for the project;
• professional and legal fees associated with expenditure on the project; and
• capital, though we would not normally expect capital purchases to exceed 20% of the overall project cost.

The latest edition of the NCVO ICT Newsletter is now available online - 

NCVO ICT Newsletter

For further information about any of the features and articles please contact

ictresources@ncvo-vol.org.uk

Louise Brown
ICT Development Officer

The Nominet Trust is a charity created by Nominet, which maintains the .uk register of domain names and is one of the world’s largest Internet registries.

The grants scheme aims to back programmes and organisations using IT to benefit society.

What for?

Helping to make the Internet a better place.

• for innovative projects which strive to improve and encourage the safe use of the Internet for educational, inclusion and other charitable purposes.
• for innovative IT-related projects can make a positive difference to these groups – in the UK, developing countries and around the world.
• for a vision is of a world where the Internet is a trusted space, which everyone can be part of and has a positive impact on people’s lives.
• to help disadvantaged and vulnerable groups to use the Internet – young people, the elderly, the disabled and sick, and people in deprived areas.

More Information

http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/index.php

Media Trust has now announced details of the Digital Mentors programme.

Please visit www.mediatrust.org/digital-mentors  for more information.