52 The Lawns, Home of Hackney Silver Surfers.

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.

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.

'Applying for a job' clip art.

Are you an unemployed older person trying to get back into work?

We have arranged another series of workshops – starting Wednesday 10 March – for older people (50+) who are either

• Currently unemployed, and actively looking (or at least hoping) for work or training opportunities.
• In employment, but worried about your prospects in the near future.

The tutor will be Crystal Butler from the Hackney Learning Trust. The venue will be 52 The Lawns. Here are the workshop dates, times and topics …

• Wednesday 10 March, 3 to 5 pm. Making your CV employer-friendly.
• Thursday 18 March, 10.30 am to 12.30 pm. Online applications.
• Tuesday 23 March, 3 to 5 pm. Online course and education information.

For more information, or to apply for a workshop place, please contact Sadia Hussain …

• Phone: 020 7254 2183 .
• Email: SadiaHussain@ageconcernhackney.org.uk .

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.

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!

Three dogs being sociable.

What?

This workshop will be about Socialising online safely. Socialising online can mean many things, but for most of our learners it means social networking sites (eg: Facebook), chat rooms, and forums — online places where you can ‘talk’ to other people — family, friends, or people you are never going to meet in person.

When?

Friday 8 January, 2.30 - 4.30 pm (after the StartIT class has finished).

What will we do?

We will focus mainly on security and privacy issues — often confusing even to quite experienced web users. We will use Facebook as an example. Facebook is the most popular social networking site used by our members, so we know there is a ready audience for this workshop. We will show you how to sign up, give you a few ideas on how to use it to stay in touch with your family and friends — and most of all, we want to make sure you understand the security and privacy controls built in to Facebook and other social networks.

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.

Laptop, chained and padlocked.

When?

The next Friday afternoon workshop will be about Internet safety and privacy.

Friday 18 December, 2.30 - 4.30 pm (after the StartIT class has finished).

What?

This workshop is for anyone who uses the Internet — so that includes all Hackney Silver Surfers — not just those who have computers at home.

Are you worried about computer viruses, spam, phishing, identity theft, trojans, malware, scams?

You may have heard that there can be certain risks for Internet users. They are sometimes difficult to understand, so it is not surprising that some people can get caught out occasionally. What can you do to make sure you are not one of them?

Fortunately, there are many ways to protect yourself. You can set up your computer to make yourself more secure, and there are some simple rules which you can follow to minimise risk. That is what we will be talking about at the workshop.

Some topics.

• How to safeguard your privacy and the privacy of your friends.
• Understanding security software.
• Using email safely.
• Using the World Wide Web safely.
• Common scams and tricks to watch out for.

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.

Puzzled senior man looking at a computer screen

When?

The next Friday afternoon workshop will be Understanding home computers.

Friday 11 December, 2.30 - 4.30 pm (after the StartIT class has finished).

What will we do?

We will focus almost entirely on how to buy a computer — everything you need to know, understand or think about before coughing up your cash. For example …

• Do I really need a computer at home?
• Second-hand or new?
• Desktop or laptop?
• Online or high street retailer?
• What is the meaning of all the jargon?
• How much should I spend?

What will we not do?

• We can’t recommend particular brands or retailers (the final choice must be yours, not ours).
• We won’t have time to guide individual people who want to order a computer online at the workshop (too time-consuming).
• We probably won’t have time to discuss problems with computers that you already have at home (we can do that in future workshops).

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.

directgov logo.

When?

The next Friday afternoon workshop will be Public services online (national government).

Friday 4 December, 2.30 - 4.30 pm (after the StartIT class has finished).

What will we do?

We will show you how to find 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.

Try searching the directgov site using the keywords ‘over 50’ (this is the search link). The first 2 pages give us these results …

• Job programmes for over 50s,
• New Deal 50 plus,
• Guide to health issues for over 50s,
• Changes to age discrimination law for over 50s,
• Tax credits information for the over 50s,
• Guide to leisure pursuits for over 50s,
• Becoming self-employed if you are over 50,
• Over 50s retirement contacts,
• Guide to greener living for over 50s,
• Over 50s learning and technology contacts,
• Guide to health and fitness for over 50s,
• Guide to volunteering for over 50s,
• Free prescriptions and sight tests for over 50s,
• Guide to concessions and other help,
• Over 50s work and career contacts,
• Qualifications and courses for over 50s,
• Internet use and computer training for over 50s,
• Older women’s health,
• Improving your CV after 50,
• Staying physically active,
• Breast screening,
• Flu jabs and immunisation,
• Keeping mobile and preventing falls,
• Healthy eating for over 50s.

That’s only the beginning. There are more than 500 other search results.

Come to our workshop to find out how to search for information on DirectGov, and understand it when you have found it.

You can reserve a workshop place by sending an email to hss@lawns.org.uk, or by asking Sadia, Michael or Rick.