Projects → In Production → World War II Remembered
In Production
World War II Remembered
World War II Remembered encouraged older people to interact with the BBC's People's War initiative by supplying training and computer access to help them join in and contribute their stories.
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar
Many older people used technology for the first time when they took part in this project
- More than 87,000 took part in the People’s War
- The project helped 11,000 people over the age of 60 to increase their understanding of the internet and improved their ‘online confidence’
- More than 23,000 stories were submitted to the People’s War website
World War II Remembered was produced in partnership with the BBC, the charity Age Concern and the Museum, Libraries and Archives Councils. Inspired by commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Culture Online funded the appointment of outreach officers across four English regions – the West Midlands, the East of England, the South West and Yorkshire. The aim of the project was to breakdown some of the barriers that prevent older people from participating online by providing them with the skills and confidence to take advantage of the benefits offered by activities on the internet.
Using local community resource centres as a base, outreach officers organised a rich series of learning events for local communities and in particular older people. These workshops provided participants with the opportunity to learn basic computer skills, pursue their interest in modern history and share their memories of war time life with others. With the support of trained staff, new media beginners were transformed into online 'contributors' and many published their experiences on the BBC's People's War website.
Age Concern organised a number of mobile internet sessions to ensure the project was accessible to the broadest possible audience. Outreach workers and volunteer groups took computer equipment to residential homes and day centres to provide the more frail and infirm contributors with the support and opportunities they needed to join in the People's War community.
You can find out more about how the project was conducted and what was learned along the way by downloading the participants report WWII Participants Report PDF (1MB) and the practitioners report WWII Practitioners Report PDF (1.6MB).
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Hands on help
Reaching out to new web users