Help At Hand For People Frightened By New Technology

A research group at the London School of Economics worked with residents and community organisations at the St Martin's Estate in Lambeth.

They found that people who have trouble with IT tend to be poorer, older and less well-educated than average. But their fears about IT were reasonable ones. They did not know how to get help with computers, or how to protect them from viruses. They were alarmed by media stories about the hazards of computer use.

Additionally, according to researcher Mike Cushman, they were often prevented from using IT effectively by poor spelling. He says: "Many of the things people want to do with computers involve using search engines, which are very intolerant of words that are misspelt. Even with spellcheckers, that can mean people having a disappointing experience when they search online."

The researchers involved in the Penceil project found that most of the courses available to potential computer users fail to help students do the things they most want. Top of the list are communicating by email, finding information online, and shopping via the web. They developed and taught a course to help them do this and to overcome their fears about using computers.

The LSE and NIACE researchers also developed more advanced material on topics such as contributing to blogs and online forums, as well as thinking about online privacy and the accuracy of the information found online.

Mr Cushman said: "Most of the ICT training material we saw is designed to help people at work, not at home, and concentrates on word processing or spreadsheets. Too little is directed towards home use. This can worsen social exclusion. Governments want to deliver more services electronically, but few of the people we encountered had any awareness of this change. Our research has shown that it is possible for IT skills to be taught and for people's confidence as IT users to be enhanced."

Study details

The main phase of the project consisted of interviews with 47 people in and around St Martin's, an area of high but not extreme social need, low income and educational attainment and high linguistic and ethnic diversity. The project had an advisory group from local community groups and education providers. Of the 47 sample, three were over 80 and 19 were born outside the UK. This part of the project was followed up by the development and delivery of the course Living with Computers in 12 one-hour lessons.

Funding: The Pencil project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the ESRC's e-society programme. This £6.5 million initiative ends in October 2007 and is the UK's biggest-ever examination of how society uses and is changed by modern communications technology. The research was carried out by Dr Ela Klecun, Mike Cushman of the London School of Economics and Dr Alan Clarke of The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.