Digital Wings

As I wrote in my previous blog entry, I am now a Digital Eagle. Part of the Digital training Barclays are offering is Digital Wings (https://digital.wings.uk.barclays), which is open to anyone that signs up to the site (not just Digital Eagles).

Having a bit of spare time this evening I decided to, ahem, spread my wings and delve into the virtual training offerings. The training is split into different sections covering a variety of topics, and I pecked away at several (pretty sure this is my last bird related pun).

I’m not going to cover them all but here are some snippets;

Teach me the basics is exactly what it reads like; a great introduction to hardware & mobile devices, the Internet, Google, gaming and digital identity.

Social media introduces social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and also covers using social media for business purposes, a nice way for businesses to explore the various opportunities that social media can bring them,

Business tools covers e-commerce and CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

Programs and software looks at Software & operating systems and keeping in touch with Skype.

Staying safe online starts with online security and fraud then specialises with courses in mobile security, digital identity, keeping children safe online, avoiding scams and cyber security – in my opinion it is always worth checking out security modules just to see if any new threats have emerged that may have slipped past my normal news readings.

Coding and computing was the module I was most looking forward to as it has courses covering Coding (in association with CoderDojo), Coding for parents (in association with Code Kingdoms) and Building an app (in association with Apps for Good). As regular readers know, I enjoy coding and have fun running a Code Club for young people. Although the module has some great info, I did feel that parts of it were teaching current “buzz words/phrases”, or talking about organisations rather than information about coding.

At the end of each course is a multiple choice based quiz which earns the user points; the faster the correct answer is chosen the more points gained (with 0 points for a wrong answer). All the points add up to level up the user, a lot like achievements on Playstation / Xbox.

The leaderboard seems pretty well populated and if you are a little shy then you can be anonymous, although personally I went with my websites name. The leaderboard/points system is a good idea as it makes the site a little competitive in a fun way.

If enough questions on a subject are answered correctly then you can also gain a digital badge to show off that you have the knowledge in that subject area.

The badges are image files that can be saved and then uploaded to a website, posted on social media or e-mailed around.

I think Digital Wings, like other online/virtual training options, is a good idea and hopefully further modules will be come available in future. I also hope that the source material is updated (e.g. the social media course refers to Twitter having a 140 character limit in tweets, and this is no longer the case) especially as the digital world moves at a breakneck pace and out of date information can be as dangerous as no information.