ADA LOVELACE FOUNDATION

DIGITAL HEALTH INEQUALITIES

 

by Brian Scott

 

Hi, guys I’ve been asked to produce a short blog outlining the field research being done between the APLE Collective and the Ada Lovelace Foundation.  So who are the Ada Lovelace Foundation?  

Well, they put it a lot better than I can:-

About Ada Lovelace

The Ada Lovelace Institute was established by the Nuffield Foundation in early 2018, in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute, the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Royal Statistical Society, the Wellcome Trust, Luminate, techUK and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Ada Lovelace (1815–52) has been adopted globally as a trailblazer for women in maths and science; the daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron, she was educated by her mother Anne Isabella Noel Byron to excel in mathematics. Her most influential work and writings were produced in relation to Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, designed in 1837.

The Project is looking at the Digital Divide and the issues raised, and problems encountered during and post Covid Pandemic for example, when trying to contact your GP and other health services in the community.

The participants have been asked to be Peer Researchers which means that for us taking part, we take an active role in collecting data through interviews which are very much interviewee-led and then passing the information to the researchers at the Ada Lovelace Foundation for assimilation in their overall research. (very Borg-like statement (Trekkie reference or to be really annoying a ‘Trekker’ reference).

We have already had 2 workshops already, one face-to-face (good pens and notepads but rhubarb flavoured shortbread!!!!).  The second was held over  Zoom.

The first meeting was more of an overview and introduction to research and icebreaker between all the participants.  The second we a more in-depth look a:-

u what questions to ask

u how to ask the questions (open questioning rather than closed questioning)

u how to make the interviewee comfortable and turn the interaction into more of a conversation rather than a Q&A session.

As the research goes on than I’m sure myself and the other participants will keep you up-to-date with how the research is going and, you never know, if you’ve been really good and not ended up on the ‘naughty list’ you could be asked to be interviewed or even become a Peer Researcher yourself.

 

Brian Scott

May 2022