Two months ago we completed Changing Dorset, the second Digital Dorset podcast about digital skills. We had no idea, back then, how much Dorset was about to change or how vital digital skills would be to people’s ability to cope with lockdown.
In the past eight weeks, all our lives have changed completely. At the council, we raced to put solutions – many of them digital – in place to support people. My team launched the Digital Hotline (details below) to replace the digital champion support we normally offer in libraries.
Callers have had a huge range of questions including a steady flow from those wanting to use video-conferencing to see their partner in a care home while they shield alone at home. These tales of stoical folk, accepting that after years of resistance they need to leap the digital divide and join the online world to fulfil the basic human need of seeing their spouse, are humbling.
Our Changing Dorset podcast seemed irrelevant in these early days of emergency response and was consigned to the back burner. Yet as weeks turned into months and the value of digital skills in our new, locked-down world, became increasingly evident, we’ve decided to get it out there.
Judge its relevance for yourselves. This is what we thought then. How wrong (or right) were our original questions: What does digital skills mean to you? Should we collaborate and share more? What’s a digital superpower?
Our digital skills Avengers were:
· Louise Stokes, who helps the nation improve its digital skills through the national organisation Digital Leaders,
· Richard Burn who supports Dorset businesses develop their digital skills through the Dorset Growth Hub and
· Alan Frame who helps Dorset pupils and teachers improve their digital skills with Dorset Council.
They responded with talk of TikTok, Microsoft Teams, Artificial Intelligence, sharing data, the curiosity of children, design-driven outcomes in Dorset and more … and concluded that digital is not just about tech – it’s about communities and culture.
Dive into our podcast, listen to our conversation, cast your mind back to pre-lockdown days and ask yourselves, how would you respond to the same questions now?
Digital Hotline: ring 01305 221000 and select option 2 Mon-Fri 10-12:00 to have your digital questions answered. No question too small.
We look forward to more guests, more conversations, more Digital Dorset Podcast. If you’d like to chat in a future volume, please let us know.
Listen to the Changing Dorset podcast.
thanks Penny, really interesting. We have a great story from Carer Support Dorset (in Carers Week) about how the digital helpline was part of getting an isolated carer online for the first time and how the carer has been able to access the virtual cuppas and get some social / relax time as break from caring role and where all the support groups no long meet.
I know Carer Support Dorset are also very keen to hear about how we are helping the digitally excluded in the future as everything shifts online.
Is it possible to get a phone number so I can find out more about it as I have difficulties typing my telephone number (01258) 860966 appreciate comment
Thanks for your comment! You can call the hotline on 01305 221048 Monday to Friday 10 am till 12 noon (but not bank holidays) to speak to a digital champion. We will pass your contact details on and ask for one of them to call you to see if they can help.