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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
Come and unleash your creativity in an eight-week series of creative writing workshops at the Geffrye Museum, with local resident and award-winning writer Donna Daley-Clarke.
This club is for any local resident over the age of 55 who is interested in writing — both beginners and budding authors. Use the Geffrye’s historic almshouse to trigger your thoughts, memories and inspire your writings.
Dates: Tuesdays 2 February, 9 February, 23 February, 9 March, 16 March, 23 March, 30 March and 20 April.
Times: 10.00 - 11.45 am.
The sessions are free, but places are limited and must be booked in advance. Tea, coffee and materials are provided.
Please contact: Sarah Fairbairn, Bookings & Information Officer, Tel: 020 7739 9893, email: bookings@geffrye-museum.org.uk .
Are you looking to get back into employment and want to develop your work skills?
Are you unemployed and looking for work?
Would you like to update your skills and gain a Level 1 qualification?
Would you like to have a chance to volunteer during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012?
Come and join Age Concern Hackney’s Personal Best Programme — a 12 week course (Mondays and Wednesdays) starting soon.
What’s it all about?
The training involves classroom learning, visits to community projects and a volunteer placement where you can put your new skills to practice. All of which can be added to your CV and help in your search for employment.
The course covers …
Understanding effective customer relations.
Understanding equality and diversity.
Developing team and interpersonal skills.
Emergency and basic fire awareness.
Public safety awareness.
Conflict resolution in a public setting.
Volunteering and the Olympics.
Preparing for, and reflecting on a volunteer placement.
Be part of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
70,000 volunteers will be involved in the organising of the Games in 2012. All participants that complete the Personal Best program will be guaranteed an interview to become a volunteer at the Games. Be the envy of your friends and family — get a head start at your chance of being part of London’s 2012 Olympic Games!
Dates and times.
The course began Monday 1 February.
Then every Monday and Wednesday for 12 weeks.
Times: Monday 10.30 am - 1.30 pm, Wednesday 10.30 am - 3.30 pm.
What to do next.
For more information about future Personal Best courses, contact Sadia: 0207 241 5902 or by email: sadiahussain@ageconcernhackney.org.uk.
On Monday afternoon, 18 January, ITV are going to bring Martha Lane Fox, chairman of the Digital Inclusion Task Force, to the Agewell Computer Club session at The Lawns.
ITV want to interview her about her role in an appropriate effervescent setting — so the feature will be about ‘digital inclusion’, not us — but of course, they will all be interested to see how we manage to be so successful, despite our tiny budget.
The weather forecast for the next two weeks is dismal, but it’s always sunny inside The Lawns — so we hope for, and expect, a good turnout for the event.
Agewell Computer Club regulars (and others who are not so regular) will be able to reserve places. We will announce how that is going to work soon.
