Shifting the ways we think about digital literacy (interventions)
ABSTRACT. A decade ago mobile phones were mostly used to make calls and the idea of Artificial Intelligence was something only science fiction novels discussed as a feature of everyday life and objects. Digital inclusion was mostly discussed as access to and use of PCs and websites. Much has changed; we are swiftly moving towards embedding of technologies in and connection of everything, from production processes to the most intimate of relationships. Our thinking about digital literacy or what it is that one needs to survive in this world, should shift alongside this towards emphasising the tangible outcomes of the engagement with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) rather than their use in and of itself.
Digital literacy is often equated with the digital skills required to use ICTs but in this keynote, I will argue that it should include more than that. The definition of digital skills has expanded from a more technical focus to incorporate softer, interaction and creative skills. Nevertheless, this rather functional, individual understanding of literacy does not equate full participation in the types of digital societies we are moving towards. Data from around the globe will be used to back up the argument that digital skills on their own do not lead to digital literacy. The proposed shift in how we think about digital literacy requires a rethink about what effective digital policy and interventions look like. Organisation and cultural changes need to accompany individual skills training if businesses, governments, organisations and countries really want to make sure that everyone is ready for a digital future.
ABSTRACT. How digital exclusion affects the employment chances for economically inactive, unemployed and low-paid workers
Employment initiatives with a ‘digital spin’ at The Hyde Group
Research shows a clear digital divide in our nation which has a huge impact on job seekers and low-paid workers who are often excluded from the digital world.
At The Hyde Group, we offer three employment programmes which are targeted towards different individuals and communities. In London our focus is on economically inactive, long-term unemployed and unemployed individuals. Based on the data we have collected over three years, we identified that a big percentage of this cohort struggles with their digital skills when it comes to applying for jobs using apps or via email. We have also found that a lot of people still don’t have access to a computer, the internet or even a mobile phone.
Hyde has a Charitable Trust, which provides grants to residents enabling them to purchase laptops, tablets or other digital requirements that can support their journey towards sustained employment.
We developed a pioneering partnership with Three Mobile to become the only housing association in the UK to offer the ReConnected scheme (http://www.three.co.uk/reconnected#thereconnectedteam). This offers a three-month loan of smart phones and SIM cards to clients who have a genuine need for a smart phone. Reconnected has helped a wide range of individuals, including those who are homeless, have financial constraints to the most vulnerable ones who wouldn’t have access to a smart phone otherwise. (https://www.hyde-housing.co.uk/news/work-money-and-benefits/reconnected-with-three-uk/)
At the conference we would like to present a case study looking at how participants benefited from these projects and demonstrate the importance of working together with other community organisations.
Policy, research and digital design interventions to improve fair payment practices for UK small businesses
ABSTRACT. The UK has 5.7 million small business with many of these being sole traders. Many small business owners have expertise in their area of trade but are not experts in other essential portions of their business such as business or digital literacy. As such, while small business owners may be proficient at their work, many face cash flow issues due to these gaps in their business and digital literacy. In particular, these gaps are exposed when invoicing larger businesses for good or services rendered, with the smaller business often falling foul of predatory late payment or non-payment practices. These late payments cost the UK economy approximately £2.5 billion each year.
In this case study, we describe a research and design intervention that took place in 2017 to establish the digital presence for the Small Business Commissioner - ‘an independent public body set up by Government under the Enterprise Act 2016 to tackle late payment and unfavourable payment practices in the private sector.’ This website aimed to increase the business and digital literacy of small businesses so that they could understand and assert their rights when invoicing and pursuing payment from larger corporate clients.
The case study uses qualitative data from in-depth interviews and usability sessions with small business owners from a range of sectors to demonstrate that may literacies in addition to digital literacy are required to make the future of work equitable for all. In this case study, we show how policy, research and digital interventions can take steps towards ensuring small business owners are well informed about their invoicing rights and therefore, able to ensure their cash flow remains steady.
The effects of digital divide among married female immigrants in Korea on cultural adaptation in new media age
ABSTRACT. As the widespread use of new media among immigrants, the new digital device has become the major tools to maintain pre-existing social networks with people in their native country and create new connections with people from host country and ethnic groups in host country. Thus, the skills to utilize digital devices can hold great potential to facilitating cultural adaptation. However, the research on digital device use and the gap in digital literacy among immigrants in cross cultural adaptation process lack a theoretical framework, Thus, this study employed Kim’s (2009) integrative communication theory of cross-cultural adaptation (ICT) as a theoretical framework, incorporating digital device use as an interpersonal communication tools into the framework.
Based on the ICT, this study examined the relationship between digital divide among immigrants in Korea. This study focused particularly on married female population among immigrants. As it is hard for low-income rural single men in Korea to find domestic partner, the rural bachelors have sought to find their partner in underdeveloped countries abroad since 2000. As a result, the international marriage rate in rural area has rapidly increased up to 18.2% currently. Such a rapid inflow of the female immigrants in Korean rural area caused the issue of social discrimination and social integration of the newly immigrated women, and digital inclusion has emerged as a critical policy means to incorporate the female immigrants into Korean society. Consequently, this study examined how social inequalities related to access to digital equipment and infrastructures and the level of the efficiency of use of digital devices affected the female immigrants’ adaptation to Korean society. The results and implication of the study will be discussed.
Fijian women leader's governance capacity development using coherent, technology inclusive, strategies
ABSTRACT. Utilizing a case study approach, based on the theoretical frameworks of inclusive innovation, post-development theory and participatory communications, a 3 phase, post-pilot, qualitative, study was carried out that investigated the way in which women in rural Fiji use mobile devices to interact with community radio for the purpose of enhancing women's participation in governance structures and resiliency to extreme weather conditions. Various elements of this study have been shared, at various phases. This presentation will reflect, in particular, on how 2 platforms - women's weather watch, a mobile phone based, techno-social network, and mobile suitcase radio, a mobile radio platform, alongside monthly women leader's gatherings, have specifically enhanced Fijian women leader's governance capacities, and impacted community development outcomes through the combination of the use of the various platforms and increased 'voice' and capacity development through the women's own initiatives to address community issues and highlight various community development requirements in both existing governance spaces, and spaces created by the women leaders, and the Fijian women's community media organization, femLINKpacific. Examples of this include, provision of water supply to one village, electricity provision to a women's owned co-operative, salaries for a nursing network, and information regarding educational programs and scholarships to women in the femLINKpacific network, as well as increased capacity to local government women advisory councilors.
ABSTRACT. In the era of the Internet of Things it has become apparent that access to Information and Communication Technologies crucially impacts our everyday lives, opening up opportunities at different levels otherwise unavailable.
This phenomenon is talked about in discussions spread across digital media through an array of terms such as “digital literacy”, “digital divide”, “digital equity”, “digital exclusion” and “digital inclusion”. The definitions of these terms are quite blurred (e.g. what is the difference between digital exclusion and digital divide?): despite attempts of standardization by institutions, the scope of these terms is continuously negotiated in online polylogues, featuring as players scientists next to policy makers and the large public. The semantics of such terms has a pragmatic counterpart in the way public surveys and, hence, policies are designed to cope with digital inequalities.
On this backdrop, the present study shows what are the definitional traits of the umbrella term “digital inclusion” emerging from online debates comparing and contrasting the ways the term is talked about by tech-corporations, governmental institutions and public users.
It does so through a linguistic investigation of the term in a corpus collected through Google Alerts taking “digital inclusion” as keyword (ca. 170.000 tokens). The collected news are clustered depending on the source type and the authors to account for differences in visibility across different publics. The semantic analysis is two-fold: first, an overview of contextual patterns of occurrence of the term will be provided through Sketch Engine; second, a qualitative content and argumentative analysis will reveal what actions are generally advocated when the issue of digital inclusion is discussed.
As a result, a visualization of the semantics of “digital inclusion” as intended by different stakeholders is provided using Open Semantic Search.
The ‘Multimodal Model of Creativity’: a toolkit of skills to enable digital inclusion now and in the future
ABSTRACT. This paper presents findings from a programme of research designed to identify a toolkit of skills that will enable digital inclusion and establish a tried and tested method of teaching the skills necessary to ensure it. It addresses these two linked questions: what type of skills do people need to ‘be digital’; and, how can we foresee what skills will be needed for future work? To do so, it presents new empirical, focusing on a small scale case study whereby a single Creative Writing assignment, the ‘Multimodal Model of Creativity’ accompanied by evaluation sheets, was utilized with a diverse range of students at a UK University Oct 2017-present.
The ability to move between types of writing and technologies, often at speed, is increasingly essential for everyone in our digital age. Yet, such flexibility can be difficult to achieve (Wilkins, 2014), and, how to teach it is a pressing challenge (Dean Clark 2015, Kress 2010, Yancey 2014). In a 21st century writing and publishing landscape characterised by fast-paced change, it might seem that no single model of creativity can help. This paper proposes that adopting a multimodal model of creativity can help build writerly resilience, enabling effective and productive negotiation of the wealth of affordances new media technologies provide.
Though the assignment emerges from the field of Creative Writing, an aim of the pilot was to test whether it may be of use more widely. The paper shares best practice and research insights arising from empirical research and practice interventions.
Drawing on a programme of research including a PhD by Public Work (Barnard, 2015), a set of linked pedagogical pilots (see Barnard 2016, 2017) and a monograph (Barnard, forthcoming), this paper considers what constitutes a multimodal model of creativity, why it is prescient and how it can be taught
References:
Barnard, J. (2015) ‘The Multimodal Writer: One Practitioner’s Experience of Moving Between Different Types of Writing for Different Modes of Dissemination.’ (Unpublished PhD thesis). Middlesex University, London.
Barnard, J. (2016) ‘Tweets as microfiction: on Twitter’s live nature and 140 character limit as tools for developing storytelling skills’, in New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, Routledge, DOI:10.1080/14790726.2015.1127975, pp. 3-16. (Selected by Taylor and Francis for additional promotion: period of Open Access; press release and blog.)
Barnard, J. (2017) ‘Testing Possibilities: on negotiating writing practices in a “postdigital” age (tools and methods)’, in New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 14: 2, Routledge, DOI: 10.1080/14790726.2016.127802; pp. 275-289.
Barnard, J. (forthcoming) The Multimodal Writer: Creative Writing Across Genres and Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Dean Clark, Michael; Hergenrader, Trent; and Rein, Joseph. 2015. “Introduction.” Chap. 1 in Creative Writing in the Digital Age: Theory, practice and pedagogy edited by Michael Dean Clark, Trent Hergenrader and Joseph Rein, 1-5. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Kress, Gunther (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge
Wilkins, Kim. 2014. “Writing Resilience in the Digital Age.” New Writing: The International Journal forthe Practice and Theory of Creative Writing 11 (1): 67–76. doi:10.1080/14790726.2013.870579.
Yancey, Kathleen Blake (2014). ‘Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key’. In Claire Lutkewitte, ed. Multimodal Composition: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston, New York: Bedford Books pp. 62-88.
ABSTRACT. The Lloyds Bank Consumer Digital Index is the largest measure of financial and digital capability of people in the UK.
Now in it’s third year of publication, the Index combines consumers’ actual behavioural data with survey research to understand the attitudes behind their behaviour.
For the first time, the report brings to life new details on Basic Digital Skills, digital skills in the workplace, new demographic data, money management attitudes and research on 11-18 year olds.
Rethinking the Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS): How we captured the state of the Internet in Britain in 2019
ABSTRACT. The Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) is a random sample of the British population measuring about 550 variables related to the Internet in 2019. It attempts to measure all important aspects of the Internet in Britain. This presentation describes the design decisions, tradeoffs and theoretical thinking that went into the construction of this survey. It identifies a number of key areas where we added questions because we felt that more in-depth research is needed. The rpesentation will be valuable to people who are thinking about the theoretical and practical issues of designing and analyzing a large-scale survey of Internet activity.
A goal of the survey was to pay special attention to both continuities from previous surveys and topics of current special interest. Continuities include scales that have proven highly predictive in the past like technology attitudes, content creation activities (Web 2.0), and political activity. New or expanded topics include mobile use, social media use, political opinion formation (with special attention to the role of search engines), and concerns about data privacy and targeted advertising. We paid particular attention to asking questions that address theoretical issues identified by Uses & Gratifications theory, Media System Dependency, and Domestication theory. OxIS 2019 is the latest of a series of surveys of British Internet use that began in 2003.
Re-thinking Development and Implementation of Institutional Framework for Internet Inclusion in Nigeria
ABSTRACT. Nigeria maintains the largest economy in Africa, with a population of about 170 million. Following the digitalization policy of telecommunications sector, Nigeria witnessed exponential growth in the ICT sector. She ranks high among the developing countries that have adapted clear ICT development policies and regulation. Currently, there are over 90 million internet users in Nigeria. However, 20% of the Nigerian land mass with population estimated at thirty-six million (36, 000, 000) people has no access to basic telephony; and 53% of Nigerians lack internet access. Internet connectivity ranks with basic infrastructures like roads and power in engendering economic development. Hence, universal and affordable internet access is essential to enable citizens get on board the global economy. Using document analysis complemented by semi- structured interviews, research seeks to investigate the Nigerian institutional, and regulatory frameworks for the USPF[1] initiative and how stakeholders’ participation arrangements have been defined to ensure equality and internet inclusiveness for the marginalised communities. This study is guided by multi-stakeholder engagement framework, which provides optimal scale for assessing the discourse on internet-inclusion. The study identified gaps in policy and implementation frameworks for achieving internet inclusion in the unserved and underserved areas in Nigeria.
No one-size-fits-all: From digital inequality profiles to a customized digital inclusion strategy
ABSTRACT. The causes of digital exclusion are too easily brought back to a series of socio-demographics such as income, jobs status, education level or gender. A study by van Deursen and Helsper (2015) shows that digital inequalities depend upon life stage, social environment and psychological characteristics. In 2015, Mariën and Baelden developed a renewed conceptual model for those at risk of being digitally excluded. The model consists of eight profiles of digital inequalities based upon five risk factors in the social field (cf. income, education, participation, agency, wellbeing) and eight risk indicators in the digital field (cf. access, attitude, digital skills, soft skills, media richness, autonomy of use, user practices and support networks), mapped across a continuum ranging from deep exclusion to deep inclusion. In Flanders and the Netherlands, this renewed model has proven to be successful for the development and deployment of customized digital inclusion strategies. This contribution presents the practical application of the eight digital inequality profiles by civil society organisations, policy actors and an educational institution. It addresses why and how the profiles were transformed into accessible and ready-to-use physical cards, graphically designed showing key features and how these cards were subsequently used by civil society organisations and policy actors to incite self-reflection processes and co-create customized digital inclusion approaches for each profile. In addition, it explains how the model was translated into an accessible self-assessment instrument, allowing ROC Leeuwenborgh, a vocational training centre, to map the distribution of their students across the eight profiles. In a following phase, participatory workshops will be conducted with the students and their lecturers, aimed to build a digitally inclusive and customized approach suited to each profile. This article brings a significant contribution to existing research by arguing that achieving better digital inclusion strategies necessitates to engage in a shift from a sole technical approach and its focus on infrastructures and the provision of equipment, to take into consideration the social processes in which digital media are embedded.
Building Digital Citizenship on the Web: The webinars CO(i)NCIDIR
ABSTRACT. This presentation analyses the process of foundation and development of a series of webinars – CO(i)NCIDIR - which main subject is “building digital citizenship on the web”.
The CO(i)NCIDIR is one of the ongoing projects in the ObLID network (http://contemcom.org/), a research and intervention group for literacy and digital Inclusion that brings together a community of collective and individual agents, oriented towards research and intervention in the field of Citizenship and Digital Participation. Located in the LE@D - Universidade Aberta, the ObLID Network is run by researchers from the Universidade Aberta (Portugal), the Deusto University (Basque Country, Spain) and other researchers from different social and educational backgrounds.
The CO(i)NCIDIR series of seminars (http://coincidir.contemcom.org/en/presentation/) aims to create online contexts for discussion about the research and practices on the field of digital citizenship. In this communication we analyse: the CO(i)NCIDIR project design, issues, presenters, participants, the dissemination process and the partial impact.
Grossly Underestimating 2019 Baseline Digital Skills
ABSTRACT. Digital Skills are straightforward and digital tools are becoming easier to use, with more powerful results, and all the important ways free to adopt.
In the past digital tools have been divided between consumer packages and professional systems, this gap has now been fully bridged. The remaining gap is one of awareness and this applies all levels of status from budget holders and policy leaders to those experiencing multi-generational deprivation.
In my presentation I show that tertiary education providers lack basic digital skills, that they lack knowledge of current requirement of students for curriculum content, that no enrichment offer includes digital skills (which would complement every mainstream course), and that the substantial Government funding increase for digital skills in 2020 will have an extraordinary impact on student outcomes.
I introduce a framework for digital skills that is based upon years of volunteering to teach adults of all abilities, traditions and levels of educational attainment, how to build websites, and all that this can include:
1.Hardware – Keyboard Shortcuts
2.Software – Operation of Menus & Tools (Chrome
3.Search Engine – Framing questions to access answers
4.Hosting & Website CMS – Testing ideas and offers in the public forum
5.Analytics – Performance Monitoring & Presentation
I show that these digital skills are straightforward and that there is no barrier to acquiring and applying them except awareness of the education providers of their own need and that of those that would wish to be taught them. I show that the enrichment provision can quite quickly ‘wag the dog’ as the capacity of digital tools and the skills to use them is realised takes precedence over the mainstream course subject.
Finally, I demonstrate the requirement to employ a substantial number of well paid entrepreneurial educators with digital skills to facilitate workshops for education provider staff, stakeholders and students.
Digital Life Kenya: A digital inclusion case study from Kenya
ABSTRACT. This paper considers the case study of a digital inclusion pilot in Kenya, led by Good Things Foundation in 2017 and 2018. There are 3.9 billion digitally excluded people worldwide (53% of the world’s population) Although 47% of the world’s population are internet users, this number drops to 28% of the population of Africa. The aim of the Digital Life Kenya pilot was to test Good Things Foundation's social digital inclusion model and resources in a developing country, working in partnership with a network of local organisations - in this case Kenya National Library Service (knls). 10 libraries received face-to-face Digital Champion training, and 52 received training and information digitally. Over 1,000 library customers were supported to gain basic digital skills, however the pilot did not reach the most socially and digitally excluded people in Kenya. Kenyan libraries are mainly used by young people to support their formal education. They are motivated by employment and earning money. Some use the library computers to earn money. Government services are going online, and more and more people are coming to the libraries to engage with eGovernment services. But education is a divider, and basic literacy is a barrier for many adults. A lack of English is a barrier to engaging with libraries and learning digital skills. People are busy earning money to spend on domestic duties, and don’t have the time to learn, or the 20 Kenyan Shillings a day to use the library. Libraries have unstable internet connectivity and some librarians found it hard to advocate the benefits of digital to others. Recommendations for future work in this area include working with a more varied network of community partners, co-designing approaches to teaching people basic digital skills, and working more closely with people or organisations on the ground in Kenya.
DIGITAL INCLUSION AND DIGITAL MOTHERHOOD: EVALUATING WOMEN’S PRIORITIES IN TERMS OF PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR MOTHERHOOD ROLES
ABSTRACT. Nowadays, women have started to participate in digital communication media and produce content for motherhood practices by making use of digital communication tools Women's participation in digital media for various purposes according to motherhood practices means the popularization of motherhood narratives by means of digital media, as a result of which values and norms related motherhood are constructed technologically. As the digital contents created in these media are shared and popularised, women who have access to this content come up with new information or suggestions related to their parenting roles and they are introduced to different motherhood models. In this regard, investigating the digital transformation of mothers' communication with each other and with their children based on the mothering role, which is not independent of the cultural codes of social structure, is considered important. In this context, this study aims to present the priorities of mothers, who are both the producers and consumers of the digital content related to motherhood practices, about the use of social media, and how such priorities differ according to the structure of each social media. In accordance with this purpose, it is aimed to determine how women's ways of participation in social media vary according to the structure of the medium and socio-demographic characteristics of women based on the data, which will be collected through the means of interviews. It is considered that determining mothers' ways of participating in social media according to their socio-demographic characteristics may constitute a basis on which women's strategies of making use of digital media and applications and arrangements resulting from such strategies can be developed.
Exploring the digital divide; digital exclusion and variations in levels of online engagement, participation and critical understanding
ABSTRACT. The internet is increasingly ubiquitous and is playing a central role in many aspects of people’s lives. But that’s not the case for everyone and the picture is really different depending on who you are. This presentation will tackle a number of important questions:
• How many people are not currently online and how has this changed over time? Who are they? What’s the impact of age and class?
• What about those who are online? Is everyone using the internet to the same extent? Is everyone able to make critical judgements about the content they consume online?
For non-users of the internet we will explore:
• the incidence within the overall adult population and how this has changed over time;
• their demographic profile;
• whether they have asked someone else to use the internet on their behalf; and
• their reasons for not going online.
We will also look at the incidence and demographic profile of newer and narrow internet users.
Finally, among those who are online, we will look at a range of online activities and behaviours and how these differ by age and class, including:
• the devices people use to go online;
• the extent to which people transact and are able to compare deals online;
• use of the internet to access Government or other public or civic services;
• whether people understand how online content is funded;
• attitudes towards and behaviour around online privacy;
• whether people know when they are being advertised to online;
• how people decide what content to trust.
The paper will present data from Ofcom’s major annual quantitative adults’ media literacy tracker survey, providing data on changes in adults’ media use and attitudes since 2005.
We will illustrate our findings with compelling video footage from Adults’ Media Lives, a unique ethnographic research project consisting of in-home video interviews with largely the same 19 participants every year for 14 years.
Co-developing Policy and Digital Literacy Interventions with Remote, Northern and Indigenous Partners: Examples of Digital Inclusion Projects from Canada
ABSTRACT. Diverse rural, remote, Northern and Indigenous communities in Canada, like many regions of the world, are facing a variety of challenges and opportunities associated with the development, deployment, and adoption of rapidly emerging digital technologies. While governments, companies and civil society organizations are all paying increased attention to the potential of digital content/connectivity, gaps remain with respect to under-served populations. In this context, it is essential to ensure that these groups are engaged in decisions regarding digital inclusion policy and practice, so that developments reflect their unique circumstances and build on community assets.
In this context I will discuss the formation and activities of the First Mile Connectivity Consortium (FMCC), a national association of First Nations technology organizations that has intervened in a number of policy and regulatory proceedings. The FMCC argues that conditions must be put in place to identify development goals through structured planning and dialogue: leaders and administrators from these regions must substantively engage in strategic planning regarding how digital connectivity is built, set up, owned, paid for, distributed, managed and used. This engages a diversity of users to make decisions on how infrastructure and bandwidth delivers essential services and supports digital economies.
After providing an overview of the FMCC’s work, I will present examples of digital literacy initiatives involving the Piikani Blackfoot Nation in southern Alberta and the Dinjii Zhuh (Gwich’in) communities of the Northwest Territories. A strong desire to document and share culture and language using newly available digital tools is tempered by limited access, high costs of services, and the negative impacts that can accompany increased access to digital content/connectivity. I will discuss two ongoing participatory action research projects that aim to co-develop digital literacy workshops and associated learning resources that are grounded in the interests, desires and needs of the Piikani and Dinjii Zhuh peoples.
Policies and practices of internet connectivity efforts in African refugee camps
ABSTRACT. This paper presents preliminary results from ongoing research into the policies and practices that shape the quality and extent of internet access available to refugees living in camps across Africa, with a particular focus on the case of Bidi Bidi, a camp in northern Uganda for refugees fleeing conflict in South Sudan. This research comes from the belief that in order to build successful interventions that stand a chance at successfully improving digital inclusion, careful empirical research into what goes into shaping those policies in some of the world’s most complex and precarious contexts is acutely necessary. For many of these camps, the factors that affect internet access availability are multidimensional. These range from government policies, like Uganda’s recent social media tax to NGO partnerships with tech companies to use technologies like TV white spaces, satellites, and mesh networks to get internet infrastructure to the camps; from policies that restrict access particularly for refugees to certain kinds of content to socio-economic factors that limit the kinds of devices refugees have or how they are able to use them. For this first phase of the research, we conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with an array of stakeholders involved in making decisions about internet access in refugee camps, including technology companies like Microsoft and CISCO, NGOs like UNHCR or NetHope, as well as policymakers. By focusing on the case of Bidi Bidi, we will illustrate the role that a multi-stakeholder consortium has played in shaping the internet landscape in the camp.
‘Doing’ Digital Inclusion: A Participatory Action Research Approach to addressing the digital exclusion of people experiencing homelessness.
ABSTRACT. Digital inclusion amongst hard-to-reach populations- such as those experiencing homelessness- requires a multi-faceted approach, with activity led by trusted intermediaries and peers, recognising the relevance, interest and motivation of those experiencing exclusion in order to meaningfully address digital disengagement. It also requires those intermediaries and peers to understand and engage with the impact of digital exclusion, and for those individuals to take on the role of ‘digital champions’ within the organisation.
This research presents the early findings of a participatory action research approach to address digital exclusion amongst individuals experiencing homelessness who engage with Streetwork – an Edinburgh based charity which is part of the Simon Community. The doctoral research, supported as part of SCVO’s One Digital programme, enables a research/practitioner approach to understanding barriers and motivations for individuals experiencing homelessness, evidencing disparities between digital skills and digital understanding, as well as key motivations for individual engagement, including ‘negative’ motivations such as Universal Credit and house bids, and ‘positive’ motivations such maintaining personal relationships.
The research also presents the challenges specifically related to those digital champions engaged with the project, offering insight and points of action for the organisation itself to test and learn. These challenges and opportunities include issues such as organisational readiness, training needs, concerns around client welfare and the need to identify and address priorities for engagement, with useful suggestions offered as part of the iterative process.
As part of a wider approach to social inclusion, the three year project uses the essential skills framework as a baseline, and essential digital skills are built into a wider personal development plan, recorded as part of everyday data collection, enabling longitudinal understanding of impact, which will provide a useful addition to research in the field.