DIGITAL LITERACY AGE EXCHANGE

In order to widen the project's engagement with the community in East Cardiff we arranged four Digital Engagement sessions in partnership with ECLP. We took over four existing digital drop-in sessions for older adults and, with the help of students from the Cardiff University SHARE project, we helped older adults learn how to scan and save their precious photographs and documents from their time as schoolchildren.

The sessions took place in The Powerhouse, Llanedeyrn, Rumney Community Hub, Rumney John Reynolds Centre, Llanrumney.

Each session also provided an opportunity to interview participants (on audio and/or video) to collect their memories of their time as young people and their experiences of school.

Participants at the sessions were very enthused by their engagement and brought a large number of their photographs for scanning and were more than happy to be recorded reminiscing about their younger days in East Cardiff.

The community tutor at the John Reynolds Centre digital drop-in session was very pleased with the outcomes and stated his intention to carry on exploring their scanning skills and extending the groups' learning. This included how to use Photoshop, and other editing software, to "repair" their photographs and crop them nicely for participants to make new, improved, prints for their families.

Final year Cardiff University students volunteered to help at each session. This was facilitated by the University’s SHARE Volunteer programme. Students helped participants scan and save images, engaged them in conversation and recorded some reminiscences.

As a result of the enthusiasm shown by the group in the John Reynolds Centre we decided to donate our scanner to them for the group to continue to develop their digital skills and gather, and store, community memory.

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