Preparing for the Future with the Plusnet & Scouts

When I was in school, many moons ago now, I will be the first to admit that I wasn’t a fan of languages. You know yourself, they’re compulsory but we didn’t even get a say in which language we’d like to learn. For us? It was French. There was the odd after-school German class, which I obviously went too because I was that kid.

I couldn’t {for the life of me} grasp the multi-lingual ability at all, but that didn’t stop me trying. However, one day, during Science class, I noticed a poster on the wall by the door. It was a poster sharing how to recognise the alphabet in sign language.

Me being me, I was instantly fascinated. Perhaps this was a language I could get on board with. In no time at all, I was signing the alphabet and all from a poster in science class. From there I taught myself how to say the basics like “Thank you” and “How are you” as well as how to sign members of the family and so on.

I’m not fluent by any means, however, I love knowing the basics and through this collaboration with Plusnet and Scouts. So I’m hoping to share with you a little of what I learned.

Preparing for the Future

Plusnet partnered with Scouts for a one-off digital camp, where young people came together to solve the biggest problems facing this generation using technology in a ‘Preparing for the Future’ Hackathon. As part of the partnership, Plusnet created limited edition badges and a ‘Hack-at-Home’ toolkit (which is what we got sent to use!) that encourages everyone to get involved and take on the challenge at home

As a national internet provider and well-known brand that cares for its customers, Plusnet wanted to show how the internet can enable positive change through the Hackathon. I think sometimes we can take having the internet and technology so readily available for granted, forgetting how useful it can actually be not only in our day to day lives but also in how it can be used as a force for good.

At the Hackathon, the Scouts used computer coding and a number of other skills to drum up solutions to a selection of issues identified as mattering the most to the young people of today.

For example, some of the scouts thought that plastic pollution was our biggest problem, other Scouts mentioned bullying being the biggest cause of mental health issues and so on.

The other charity-based issues that were discussed at the digital camp were;

Supporting refugees and displaced children with Save the Children

Kindness in the community with British Red Cross

Better mental health for All with Mind

Protecting the environment with WWF

Ending homelessness with Crisis

Understanding disability with the National Autistic Society

The coming together of all of these amazing Scouts, who crave to learn is amazing. Another scout team designed a bin target that uses technology to stop littering. This idea all sprung from their knowledge of climate change. It just goes to show that when you bring in kids willing to learn and develop their skills together, amazing things can happen.

How do I think we can help?

Due to not being able to attend the Hackathon, we were sent a Hack-at-Home pack to help us get involved & see how the internet can help us work towards a solution of our own.

Being able to use your skills {and the internet} for positive change is a powerful thing. It’s also a good way to gain some organisational skills, by going through the step-by-step process of making your plan, laying it out, putting it into action and so forth. Being the big nerd that I am, I loved doing this!

What is the Hack-at-Home pack all about?

The Hack-at-Home pack is a useful step-by-step guide to help you utilise your skills and help you use the internet for positive change. You don’t have to just use coding {breath of relief from us – even though my daughter Ellie has a little coding knowledge herself!} because you can take all kinds of routes to create your plan of action & achieve your solution.

This can be through art, designing or writing. For us? We went down the digital creation route, which I guess is down the art & craft pathway. I personally make free printables all the time, for all kinds of reasons. Whether it be for Party planning, daily cleaning checklists and even Elf on the Shelf free printables, too.

The Hack-at-Home pack is also available to download, for free, over on the Plusnet Newsroom website.

Our decision (inspired by the invention of a digital diary which translates emotional words to emojis for people with autism which came out of the Hackathon) was to create a collection of basic sign language flashcards for people that suffer from hearing problems.

Our reason behind creating these was because we came across those with hearing loss or impairments quite frequently where we live, and we wanted to do our bit to help people understand disability. We thought it would be a great idea to not only teach ourselves more of the basics but also create these flashcards to also help others.

These basic sign language flashcards are free to download. You can also laminate them {which I am a big fan of doing} and use them as you wish.

Sign Language Flashcards

I love that my girls and I have taken the time to learn more sign language together with the Hack-at-Home pack and that we’ve been able to take inspiration from the digital camp to design our own small collection of sign language flash cards. It was also pretty special watching my eldest Explorer scout teaching her little Beaver scout sister how to sign the alphabet. Ellie is already keen to design a sign language alphabet poster to take into her troop. She feels that it is a vital language to learn because you never know when you might need it.

I cannot begin to imagine what being deaf or living with a hearing impairment feels like however imagine it can be pretty lonely. So, being able to use the internet to teach others how to sign things like “How are you?”, “thank you” or “your welcome” is one easy way to aid communication and help solve this problem.

Something so simply made can have a huge impact on someone else. If that isn’t a problem solved, I don’t know what is.

You can download the Basic Sign Language flashcards here:

· Basic Sign Language flashcards

· Sign language alphabet flashcards

· Basic Sign Language flashcards 2

Overall…

We really enjoyed putting these basic sign language flashcards together. I really do think they’ll be so handy to have displayed at my daughter’s scout troop and to also have displayed around the house for my children to learn from, too.

The Hack-at-Home pack has been such a useful tool to use in this project and I’m sure it will come in handy with future projects too. It really helped my eldest daughter take on an organised approach with how we created our project.

Visit the Plusnet Newsroom to download your own Hack-at-Home pack and get involved. You can also share any of your own Hackathon ideas, solutions and even your projects over on social media by tagging @Plusnet. Use the hashtag #Plusnet & #PlusnetxScouts to get involved and stay up to date.

Can you think of any issues that you could solve?

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Disclosure: This is a collaboration post with Plusnet x Scouts.