The Dorsett/Ellis Family

The Dorsett/Ellis family is mother and father Sarah and Dave followed by Molly (17), Libby (14), Rosie (9) and last but not least Jacob (7).
Do they deserve the title of June's Digital Family? They most certainly do. This great family has fully embraced the digital age.

Dave uses 'digital mapping'. He has access via his phone to the Ordnance Survey maps of the whole country (the 1: 50,000 Land Ranger maps). This allows Dave to indulge in his hobby of mountain racing. This involves receiving an online message on a Thursday giving the co-ordinates of a race meeting on the Friday and the start time for the weekend.

While Dave gets on with his adventures digital education appears to dominate the worlds of the other members of the family. The younger children Libby, Rosie and Jacob are all heavily involved in using the internet as a homework resource. Rosie at the young age of nine years is already producing PowerPoint presentations linked to homework tasks on the Tudors and one on climbing which incorporates her own photographs while climbing with her father.

There are other interests. Jacob is immersed in online football with his Nintendo and enjoys cutting and pasting footballer images into PowerPoint. However, Libby is more interested in real football and as the captain of her school's football team is obviously a very skilled player. It could be argued that 'real' football was analogue rather than digital however Libby redeems herself with a Facebook account which she regularly uses to keep in contact with her friends and team members. She has also met something called a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Moodle which her school is using. The VLE is used for homework, lesson notes and revision and seems to have a lot of potential for the students of today and the future.

The Wii plays an important part in the family's lives. The whole family use it keep fit and Sarah readily admits that she is exhausted after a family dance session. Maybe this is something that we should all try to have a go at.
Molly had just returned from a driving lesson and said how useful the online support was for the theoretical side of the driving test. Molly also stressed how important the digital resources were for her college work and the ways in which it supported her interest in photography. However it was apparent that one of the most important resources that the internet had provided was Skype. Skype gave Molly and Libby regular affordable video conversations with their father who now lived in the USA.

Sarah stressed how important the digital world was to her work. As a school cluster co-ordinator the information, communication and teaching capabilities of digital devices could not be ignored.

This is a family where the digital world has been adopted in such a way that it seems completely natural. It coexists with their analogue world, each world bending seamlessly into the other. This is a truly digital family.

More on this thing called a VLE. A VLE or Virtual Learning Environment is a special online environment that a school will use to support the pupils learning. It allows lots of things to happen. For example the teachers can give instructions about homework to pupils, provide links to support the work. Pupils can also submit their work online to their teacher. The teacher can publish lesson notes online which could include video, opportunities for chat, multiple choice support questions and lots of other interactive events.

Go back to the Birmingham's 2010 Digital Families