Get Online Week 2020 Update
Get Online Week 2020 was a challenge with all the restrictions in place due to COVID-19. However, our fantastic trustees, staff and volunteers managed to pull it out of the bag. They organised a: quiz, virtual coffee afternoon, get online bingo and a general chat session.
Mike Ellis, Executive Director, “attended” each of the events hosted by our online groups giving him the chance to catch up with folk.
He offered, “We were modest in our expectations of visitors but I’m delighted that 5 people joined a group chat for the first time and each are keen to be part of new groups that we are setting up”.
The group chats give people some much needed company and help them find out what else they can do online. The five first timers described themselves as ‘beginner’s’ or ‘not very confident’ in that respect.
The week unfolded with an online quiz session. Some of the participants had not competed in an online quiz before but they soon got the hang of it. They enjoyed the chat as well as the challenging questions set by the quiz masters, Samuel and Maggie, and hope to join in again.
Next up was an “open house” group chat which meets regularly. They opened the “door” to curious newcomers. The group were pleased to welcome a “visitor” and it was his first experience of chatting to folk online. He will be back!
The virtual coffee afternoon gave a member the opportunity to get some help with using Zoom, a popular online platform and they all generally had a good chinwag. The coffee wasn’t too bad either!
We ended the week with “Get online Bingo” which the participants very much enjoyed. Again, for one of them, it was their first ever group meeting. As well as discussing all the tasks they had achieved in the run up to the event, they also learned about a few new avenues they could explore online.
Ian, who attended this session, told us how Lesley (-who’d organised this event) had shown him how to email and this had been a potential ‘lifesaver’.
A few weeks ago when his phone system, including his falls alarm (-he lives alone and has mobility problems), went down, he managed to email his sister via mobile broadband to alert the Community Alarm service of the issue. Without Lesley’s help, this would not have been possible.
All in all, Get Online Week 2020 was a great success and we look forward to welcoming our new found friends back to our Tap into IT chat groups.
