directgov logo.
Friday afternoon workshop, 2 - 4.30 pm.
At the workshop, you will how to find, understand and use information published on Directgov — the huge official government website http://direct.gov.uk/.
The list below is just a sample of the range of topics which might interest you or affect you …
- Education and learning.
- Employment.
- Money, tax and benefits.
- Home and community.
- Disabled people.
- Travel and transport.
- Pensions and retirement planning.
- Caring for someone.
- Crime and justice.
- Environment and greener living.
- Health and well-being.
- Government, citizens and rights.
- Britons living abroad.
Please bring your questions to the workshop.
Reserve your workshop place.
Reserving a workshop place is essential.
The best way to reserve is by asking Sadia, Michael or Rick — because that way, you get immediate confirmation.
Alternatively, you can send your request by email to hss@lawns.org.uk — we will reply to you as soon as we can.
Rio Cinema logo.
A message from Jemma Buckley, Rio Cinema …
Hackney Home Movies.
An opportunity to see this special programme of films from the Hackney Archive, which also includes new footage collected during the Rio’s recent ‘Home Movies’ project. The original screening of this programme took place in January to a packed house. Now the Rio is offering three opportunities for the over-60s to see this material for free!
Part of a series of events to mark the Rio’s landmark 100th anniversary, this screening features footage of Hackney landmarks throughout the last century, enabling us all to relive the borough’s rich and vibrant history on the big screen.
Plus – free tea and biscuits!
Screening Dates.
- Wednesday 17 March: 11 am.
- Wednesday 24 March: 11 am.
- Wednesday 5 May: 11 am.
Doors open at 10.15 am.
For more information please call Jemma on 020 7241 9419 or email jemma@riocinema.org.uk .
Agewell in Hackney logo.
Agewell Computer Club, 8 March, 2.30 - 5 pm.
This is huge, so we are not going to attempt to cover all of it. However, here are some of the topics we are ready for …
- Downloading and installing a media or audio player on your own computer at home. We like iTunes for organising music files, and VLC as a general-purpose media player (it’s the default at the Agewell Computer Club).
- Understanding MP3 files (most digital music files are MP3 format).
- Where to find music to download.
- Legal and copyright issues.
Cartoon frog plays guitar.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop.
ACC members can reserve places on these workshops by sending an email to acc@lawns.org.uk (if you don’t trust your own email skills, please ask for help).
Note added 2 March: this workshop seems to be almost fully booked — perhaps one or two places available.
If you want to get started now, try the About.com Digital Music pages.
Other Agewell workshops.
There is more information about future workshops on our Agewell Computer Club workshops page.
See our main Agewell Computer Club page for more information about our Monday afternoon activities.
Agewell in Hackney logo.
Agewell Computer Club, 1 March, 2.30 - 5 pm.
At this workshop we will look at some of the things you might want to do after you have taken your digital photographs. This will not be a workshop about how to use your camera, or about photographic techniques.
Here are some questions we anticipate …
- How to transfer digital photographs from a camera to a computer hard disk or to a flash drive.
- How to see what the photographs look like.
- How to manage and organise thousands of digital photographs.
- How to backup and preserve important photographs.
- How to convert photographs to a format and size suitable for email and web sites.
Cartoon frog points a camera at you.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop.
ACC members can reserve places on these workshops by sending an email to acc@lawns.org.uk (if you don’t trust your own email skills, please ask for help).
Note added 23 February: this workshop seems to be almost fully booked — perhaps one or two places available.
Other Agewell workshops.
There is more information about future workshops on our Agewell Computer Club workshops page.
See our main Agewell Computer Club page for more information about our Monday afternoon activities.
MyGuide logo.
Friday afternoon workshop, 2 - 4.30 pm.
This workshop is for new learners who have registered with MyGuide. If you don’t have a MyGuide username yet, please ask a helper to show you how to sign up using the ‘Fast Track’ procedure.
At the workshop, you will learn the basics of searching the World Wide Web, for example …
- Understanding what search engines do.
- How to use the Google search engine.
- How to understand and evaluate search results.
- How to do more advanced searches if you cannot find what you are looking for.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop.
Reserve your workshop place.
Reserving a workshop place is essential. You can reserve by asking Sadia, Michael or Rick — but please note that you should obtain a MyGuide username before you reserve.
Agewell in Hackney logo.
Agewell Computer Club, 22 February, 2.30 - 5 pm.
At this workshop we will demonstrate a USB turntable that creates MP3 versions of vinyl tracks. Conventional turntables send a signal to speakers through an amplifier. This turntable sends the signal to computer software, which converts it to a computer music file.
MP3, by the way, is a very common way of encoding music and other sound files.
The USB turntable must (of course) be attached to a computer, so that the MP3 files can be saved on the hard disk. The default storage location is within an iTunes folder — if it exists (it’s not essential).
Cartoon frog with stack of old vinyl disks.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop. Bring some vinyl too — but the vinyl must be clean.
ACC members can reserve places on these workshops by asking Rick directly, or by sending an email to acc@lawns.org.uk (if you don’t trust your own email skills, please ask for help).
Other Agewell workshops.
There is more information about future workshops on our Agewell Computer Club workshops page.
MyGuide logo.
Friday afternoon workshop, 2 - 4.30 pm.
This workshop is for new learners who have registered with MyGuide. If you don’t have a MyGuide username yet, please ask a helper to show you how to sign up using the ‘Fast Track’ procedure.
At the workshop, you will learn the basics of using email, for example …
- Understanding your Inbox.
- How to read an email message.
- How to send an email.
- How to reply to an email.
- How to organise your mail.
- Understanding attachments.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop.
We will be demonstrating email with the seniors.org.uk email package that most new Hackney Silver Surfers learn with. People with email addresses at gmail.com or googlemail.com will be able to use their existing email system at the workshop, as they are so similar. Other new learners — we will set you up with a seniors.org.uk email account in time for the workshop.
Reserve your workshop place.
Reserving a workshop place is essential. You can reserve by asking Sadia, Michael or Rick — but please note that you should obtain a MyGuide username before you reserve.
Agewell in Hackney logo.
Agewell Computer Club, 15 February, 2.30 - 5 pm.
At this workshop we will try to …
- Make sure we all know what email actually is.
- Think about the importance of email in the world we live in now.
- Look at how Agewell Computer Club members use email to keep in close touch with all their family and friends, wherever they live.
- Show you how to read, send and reply to email messages.
- Show you how to save ‘attachments’ that have been sent to you.
- Show you how to send attachments to your own emails.
- Show you how to manage ‘address books’ and contact lists.
Cartoon frog with laptop displaying the '@' character.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop.
ACC members can reserve places on these workshops by asking Rick directly, or by sending an email to acc@lawns.org.uk (if you don’t trust your own email skills, please ask for help).
We will be demonstrating email with the seniors.org.uk email package that most new Hackney Silver Surfers learn with. People with email addresses at gmail.com, googlemail.com, or bold.org.uk will be OK. Others should definitely try to reserve a place, as we have to create a seniors.org.uk address for you in advance of the workshop.
Other Agewell workshops.
There is more information about future workshops on our Agewell Computer Club workshops page.
Agewell in Hackney logo.
Agewell Computer Club, 8 February, 2.30 - 5 pm.
At this workshop, we will show you how to use Irfanview — the default image editor and viewer at the Agewell Computer Club (that means it is on all our computers, and easy to find if you are logged in as ‘agewell’).
About Irfanview …
- It’s free (for personal and educational use), highly-regarded, has been around for years, and has a large user base.
- It’s used for viewing digital images, and performing basic image editing tasks such as cropping, rotating and resizing — all of which it does very well.
- You can download it and install it on your own computer at home.
- There is a ‘portable’ version which you can put on your flash drive.
- It has a simple interface to scanners — you can scan directly into Irfanview.
Screenshot of a photograph displayed in Irfanview.
Things we would like to do.
- Help you understand digital image file formats.
- Show you how to use Irfanview on our computers at The Lawns.
- Show you how to download Irfanview from irfanview.com, and install it yourself.
- Help you install Irfanview on a flash drive (don’t forget to bring a flash drive if you want to do this).
- Show you how to scan new images from our scanners directly into Irfanview.
- Show you how to process photographs to make them suitable for email and World Wide Web sites such as Facebook and Internet dating sites.
- Demonstrate Picasa — a free Google program for organising and editing images, and a good choice for anyone who has a lot of digital photographs to manage.
Things we might not do.
- Discuss email attachments — that it is one of the topics of the 15 February workshop.
- Discuss how to transfer digital photographs from your camera to a computer or other storage media — that it is one of the topics of the 1 March workshop.
Agewell in Hackney logo.
About the Agewell Computer Club.
The Agewell Computer Club is for Hackney residents who are between 50 and 65 and have little or no experience of computers or the Internet, but want to find out more. We also welcome other mid-lifers who have had a little experience, but who have been too busy to do much with it.
There is much more information on our main Agewell Computer Club page.
Our current program.
There is more information on our Agewell Workshops page.
Every Monday afternoon.
The Agewell Computer Club meets at The Lawns every Monday afternoon (2.30 - 5 pm). Mid-lifers (people in the 50-65 age range) are welcome to come to any sessions they have time for. As always, the front section of The Lawns is available for general drop-in by agewellers who prefer to do their own thing.
Rio Cinema logo.
A message from Jemma Buckley, Rio Cinema …
Thanks to grants from Film London and the Goldsmiths’ Company, the Rio is beginning a series of events to mark their landmark 100th anniversary celebration with a special screening of films from the Hackney Archives.
The event will also feature new footage discovered during the Rio’s recent ‘Home Movies’ project. The films are a rich source of memories, featuring footage of Hackney landmarks throughout the last century, enabling us all to relive Hackney’s vibrant history on the big screen.
- Saturday 30 January, 1.30 pm.
- Tickets: £4 (£3 Concessions & Rio Friends).
To book tickets, or for more information, please contact: Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High Street, Dalston, E8 2PB / 020 7241 9410 .
Clip art: cartoon frog holding a world globe.
What?
This will be a repeat of the 15 January workshop Using the World Wide Web which so many people could not get into. It’s the first of two ‘Using the Internet’ workshops — aimed at beginners, but also suitable for others who would like to refresh their skills and understanding. We will, of course, begin at the beginning!
We strongly recommend that you also do the second of these two workshops: Using email.
When?
Friday 29 January, 2.00 - 4.30 pm (note the slightly earlier starting time).
What will we do?
We will …
- Find out what the World Wide Web actually is.
- Look at some of the really useful and entertaining things you can do with it.
- Discover how to get into it — how to use a web browser to open up web sites, and then navigate through them.
- Get on top of some of the jargon which confuses WWW learners.
Please bring your own questions to the workshop.
Reserve your place.
You can reserve a workshop place by sending an email to hss@lawns.org.uk, or by asking Sadia, Michael or Rick.
People who had a place at the 15 January workshop — please don’t reserve — let the others have a chance!
