Welcome to the ‘Transform IT’ web portal
Transform IT adopts ‘Online basics’
New IT courses to give thousands of adults the skills and confidence they need to go online will be piloted from today (11 January 2010), Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced at the Learning and Technology World Forum.
The development of Online basics by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UK online centres and Becta forms part of the Government’s response to Baroness Estelle Morris’s Review of ICT User Skills, published in June 2009. The report recommended support for the 11.6m adults in England of all ages and all levels of education who do not have basic IT skills to help them get to grips with technology. This complements the Government’s national roll-out of Home Access for children in years three to nine (aged around seven to thirteen) also announced today by the Department of Children, Schools and Families.
Online basics will give beginners the skills needed to get going online.
People can do the short, free courses at their own pace, either at home if they have a computer and the internet or at a local UK online centre by logging on to www.onlinebasics.co.uk.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said:
“Everyone should be a confident user of the internet if they are to participate fully in today’s digital society. Being online brings a range of personal benefits, including financial savings, educational attainment, improved salary prospects and independent living for older people.”
"Online basics will mean more people accessing vital IT skills, enhancing their working lives and making digital literacy as important a skill as basic literacy and numeracy. We’re also investing £30m extra in UK online centres to support digital participation, with the aim of getting more than one million people online in the next three years.”
Online basics include five key modules covering the basics – using a mouse and keyboard, looking at the internet and keeping safe online. There is also guidance for people supporting those using the course: from tutors in learning centres to family members helping someone at home.
Transform IT has adopted Online basics as the core learning modules being implemented at all the learning centres the project is involved with.
What's Transform IT all about?
You may have come here because you are on an IT course at an adult education centre, you’re taking part in informal IT learning and this site was suggested to you, or you may have simply discovered it via Google. Whichever is the case, this site is an essential part of any IT learning in Surrey.
Clicking this link will take you to YouTube and play a video about why the Internet is so important in everyday life.
For learners, the site provides learning content (eResources), guidance on finding a learning centre, help on finding a tutor and links to an ePortfolio where learners will be able to record their achievement and storing their work.
For learning providers, ie tutors, mentors and learning centres, the site provides eResources, downloadable toolkits and a means of sharing of ideas and information and keeping up-to-date on current eLearning.
The underlying principle is that basic IT tuition for adults is offered free of charge whether you are learning independently or in a community group and the emphasis is very much on exploiting the latest web media – for example Youtube and Videojug videos, sharing photos on Flickr, downloading podcasts, using the BBC iPlayer, iTunes and LastFM, making free telephone calls using Skype, and keeping in contact using Facebook, Twitter and social networking sites. Online shopping and banking and keeping safe on the internet will also be explained.
Learners will be facilitated as they explore their own areas of interest on the Internet, and take part in guided learning on using computers in order to bring learners pleasure and a sense of personal success, as well as fun and personal development through broadened horizons and engagement with technology.
For more information about the project click here.
