Agewell Social Network at The Lawns.

City & Guilds StartIT ‘World Wide Web and Email’.

The City & Guilds ‘StartIT’ certificate is a basic qualification for beginners — designed and taught specifically for older people with little or no previous experience of computers or the Internet. It is one of the most successful and popular activities we have offered at The Lawns. It is funded by the Hackney Learning Trust, and led by Hackney supertutor George Llewellyn. The venue will be our main centre: 52 The Lawns, N16 8QB.

Dates and times.

• Seven weeks, every Monday and Wednesday (10 am to 1.30 pm).
• Started: Monday 13 June 2011.
• Ended: Wednesday 27 July 2011.

For more information – especially about how to enrol – please visit the Hackney Silver Surfers Courses page.

Our beginners’ session on Tuesday 15 March 2011 will be a special introductory taster for some of the people who have signed up for our next First Click course beginning 22 March 2011.

The taster will be specifically and exclusively for people who are genuinely absolute beginners — never used a computer before, never touched a mouse, never seen the World Wide Web — except on TV.

If you are interested in the First Click course, you must first sign up for it. Then, if you are a real beginner, we will invite you to the pre-course taster.

Getting online one click at a time.

First Click is a major BBC campaign to encourage people who do not yet use the Internet to understand and enjoy its benefits. Using computers to get on the Internet is easier than you think. Why not take your first click with the BBC?

If you are a Hackney resident aged 50 to 65, your nearest free First Click course provider is us, the Agewell Computer Club – specialists in explaining all things digital to people in the mid-life pre-retirement range. We provide free computer training and free Internet access – and we have friendly weekly sessions for continued learning or support.

If you join our First Click course, we can help you learn all the skills you need to feel confident about using the Internet – to improve your employment prospects, become more involved in the community, have more frequent contact with your friends and family, learn about online shopping, pay bills, access information about health, travel, hobbies, council services and anything else you are interested in! All the other learners will be older people just like yourself – and the tutors too.

The Agewell Computer Club is recruiting now for our next First Click course in March 2011 – one session each week for six weeks (plus a two-week break for Easter).

• The first session will be on Tuesday 22 March 2011.
• The final session will be on Tuesday 10 May 2011.
• Session times will be 1.15 to 2.45 pm.
• The venue will be our computer centre at 52 The Lawns, Matthias Road, N16 8QB.
• Participants who are genuine absolute beginners will be invited to an optional pre-course taster on Tuesday 15 March 2011 (1.15 to 2.45 pm).

If you are a beginner yourself, or know somebody else who would like to come to this series of Tuesday afternoon classes – please keep yourself in the loop by leaving a message at The Lawns (phone: 020 7254 2183) or send an email to acc@lawns.org.uk .

Getting online one click at a time.

First Click is a major BBC campaign to encourage people who do not yet use the Internet to understand and enjoy its benefits. Using computers to get on the Internet is easier than you think. Why not take your first click with the BBC?

If you are a Hackney resident aged 50 to 65, your nearest free First Click course provider is us, the Agewell Computer Club – specialists in explaining all things digital to people in the mid-life pre-retirement range. We provide free computer training and free Internet access – and we have friendly weekly sessions for continued learning or support.

If you join our First Click course, we can help you learn all the skills you need to feel confident about using the Internet – to improve your employment prospects, become more involved in the community, have more frequent contact with your friends and family, learn about online shopping, pay bills, access information about health, travel, hobbies, council services and anything else you are interested in! All the other learners will be older people just like yourself – and the tutors too.

The Agewell Computer Club is recruiting now for our next First Click course in January 2011 – one session each week for eight weeks. The first session will be on Tuesday 18 January 2011 (1.15 to 2.45 pm). The venue will be our computer centre at 52 The Lawns, Matthias Road, N16 8QB.

If you are a beginner yourself, or know somebody else who would like to come to this series of Tuesday afternoon classes – please keep yourself in the loop by leaving a message at The Lawns (phone: 020 7254 2183) or send an email to acc@lawns.org.uk .

Workshop: Tuesday 16 November 2010 (11.30 am to 1.30 pm).

This workshop will be a continuation of the interrupted course ‘Computer images for beginners’. It follows the previous workshop ‘Editing images online’.

Why would anyone want to store images online?

Because sometimes online is the most convenient place to keep some of your images. Photo album sites such as Flickr, Picasa Web Albums or Photobucket have become very popular as a way of sharing your photos – either with the whole world, or privately with a restricted group of friends and family.

Online storage is a good solution for images that you might want to post on the World Wide Web, for example: a blog or social networking site. Many of the images on this site are stored on Tinypic.

What we will do.

• Upload at least one image to Tinypic for online storage.
• Register with either Picasa Web Albums or Photobucket, then upload at least one image to your account.
• Make a blog post with one of your online images embedded in it.
• Create a ‘globally recognized avatar’ at Gravatar.com.

What else we might do if we have time.

• Look at sources of free photographs and other images, for example Morguefile (where we found the images in this post).

What you should bring to the workshop.

Some photos of your own.

Also on the same day …

• Our beginners’ session will start at 10 am. We will do more email practice.
• Come early if you want to pick up a Ubuntu CD, or have us check your laptop to see if it is suitable for a Ubuntu upgrade.

Workshop: Tuesday 9 November 2010 (11.30 am to 1.30 pm).

This workshop will be a continuation of the interrupted course ‘Computer images for beginners’.

We will look at some of the resources available for basic image editing online. By ‘basic editing’ we mean common transformations such as cropping and resizing to make a digital photograph suitable for the WWW or email. Doing it ‘online’ means we upload the image to a website for editing, instead of doing it with a program on your computer.

There are now several websites which offer free basic editing. The one we like best – so far – is Picnik. The results are not as good as you would get from a program like Irfanview (the default image editor at the Agewell Computer Club) – but they are acceptable, and Picnik is very easy to use.

What we will do.

• Upload at least one full-size digital photograph (or scan) to Picnik.
• Crop it and resize it to make it web-friendly.
• Download the edited image back to your computer.
• Email the image as an attachment.
• Register with Picnik (optional).

What else we might do if we have time.

• Add a resized image to a blog post or Facebook profile.
• Create a ‘globally recognized avatar’ at Gravatar.com.
• Get started on the topic for the following week: ‘Free online image storage’. You might already have a Picasa Web Albums account for storing your images. We also like Photobucket and Tinypic, both very suitable for storing images which you want to post on blogs.

What you should bring to the workshop.

At least one full size digital photo or scan (we have plenty of spare photos, but it’s better to have your own if possible). Also a digital photo of yourself, if you have one. The images could be on a flash drive, a laptop, or attached to an email – the important thing is that you should know where they are!

Also on the same day …

• Our beginners’ session will start at 10 am. We will do whatever the beginners want to do.
• Skype on a flash drive (memory stick) – this is a regular request now. If you would like Skype loaded on your flash drive, please bring it before the workshop starts. Your flash drive should not be the U3 type.

St Joseph’s Hospice and Social Action for Health are offering free photographic workshops on 4 consecutive Wednesdays: 22 and 29 September, 6 and 13 October 2010 (2 to 3.30 pm).

To build on skills of using digital cameras, editing, cropping photos, handy hints whilst building up a short slide show using hospice computers and projector, of your current photos and new ones, possibly to be included on the Celebrating Community Day on 9 November. You’ll need to bring along your digital camera, or borrow one.

Spaces are limited. To reserve a place please contact:

Vivi Boucher,
Community Engagement Co-ordinator for Hospice Project.
E-mail: vivienneb@safh.org.uk .

Course: Wednesdays 14 July to 11 August 2010 (10.30 am to 1 pm).

This will be a short course on 5 successive Wednesdays, 14 July to 11 August.

The course will be an introduction to doing things with digital images (probably mainly photographs) and managing the results. Course topics will include:

• Learn how to use Irfanview — the free image program we recommend and use at the Agewell Computer Club.
• How to make digital copies of old photographs using the image scanners at The Lawns.
• How to process and manage photos from a digital camera.
• How to upload photos (and other digital images) from your computer to a website, or attach them to an email.
• Finally, we will get you to do something with the results – for example, put your images on a website, add to a Facebook photo album, create a Flickr album, get started with HistoryPin – something useful to you.

The course is for beginners, but not absolute beginners. You should at least be able to send an email without help. You do not need to have your own computer at home.

We can manage 12 participants in the teaching area, so that is the maximum number for the course. You can ask to reserve a place (for the whole course, not individual sessions) by sending an email to acc@lawns.org.uk .

As always, you should be a Hackney resident aged between 50 to 65.

Historypin.

This short course is part of a longer course using Historypin which we would be halfway through if we had not been sabotaged by our ISP. Find out more about Historypin at:

• A Short Introduction To Historypin (YouTube).
• Historypin home page.

The full Historypin course will happen, probably September.

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 2010.
• 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.

A new Monday morning Hackney Zoomers course.

The course is for people who are

• unemployed,
• or working part time up to 15 hours each week,
• or retired.

The main aim of the course is to provide practical help to people who are either actively looking for work now, or who think they might do so in the future (including people who are considering self employment).

• Course title: ‘Internet for job seekers over 50’.
• Date & times: 5 Monday mornings, 16 November to 14 December 2009, 10 am – 1 pm.

Job seekers with little or no Internet knowledge are seriously disadvantaged. They are often expected to do things they have never been shown how to do, for example …

• Find websites of which they have only partial knowledge or understanding.
• Use a web search engine.
• Navigate a complex website.
• Register with an email address and password.
• Fill in a sequential web form.
• Edit personal statements.
• Download documents they do not know how to open.
• Attach documents of their own to a job application.

If you are in that situation, we would like to hear from you. In 5 sessions we can’t make you an Internet expert – but we might be able to help you get closer to the job you want.

As with all Hackney Silver Surfers activities, there is no charge for this course.

Places on the course are limited so if you are interested, please contact us to book a place as soon as possible …

• by writing to Hackney Zoomers (52 The Lawns, Matthias Road, N16 8QB)
• or by email to workshops@lawns.org.uk
• or by phoning 020 7254 2183 .

By the way — you do not have to be a Hackney resident to join this course. Residents of other London boroughs are welcome.

About Hackney Zoomers.

Hackney Zoomers is a new program at The Lawns on Monday mornings.

It’s for people who are 50 years old or better — interested and actively engaged with the world you live in and helped to shape — and intending to stay that way.

We are going to start with a new course: ‘Internet for active senior citizens’.

‘Internet for active senior citizens’.

This is a course for beginners — though perhaps not absolute beginners. The entry level is about the same as for our City & Guilds StartIT course. If you join the course, we will assume that you already have some basic computer skills, but not much more than that.

The idea of the course is that you should begin a learning journey to enable you to use the Internet to participate as an active citizen rather than as a passive consumer. We will get you started with email and the World Wide Web (WWW), and if you have already started with those, we will take you a bit further.

We will be paying particular attention to web sites that are used in normal everyday life — for example, government and council services, job search, financial advice, education, health — to make sure that you know how to find them, and know how to use them.

We can’t turn you into an Internet wizard in only four sessions, but we can make you a confident beginner.

At the end of the course, you will be able to …

• Use a web browser.
• Use email.
• Search the World Wide Web for sites that are important to you.
• Find your way around typical web sites.
• Understand how to use web sites that require you to register with a user name and password.

At the end of the course, we will …

• Give you a Certificate of Completion.
• Help you progress to more advanced courses if you want to.
• Help you find further professional advice if you need it (eg: for job search, or understanding benefits).

Course dates and times.

The course will run for four consecutive Monday mornings, 10 am – 1.15 pm, 14 September to 5 October 2009. The Lawns will be open only for Hackney Zoomers at those times.

How to ‘enrol’.

There is not much paperwork involved in this course, but we do need some way of enrolling people in a sensible manner, especially as we expect to have many more applicants than places. So, if you can commit yourself to those four Monday mornings, please tell us you are interested as soon as possible — tell any staff member or helper, or send an email to workshops@lawns.org.uk . Make sure we have your full name, your phone number, your postal address, and your email address (if you have one).

By the way — you do not have to be a Hackney resident to join this course. Residents of other London boroughs are equally welcome.

ALISON (Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online) was our Website of the Week 7 March 2009. Several people have mentioned their interest in these free online courses, so we have picked out what seems to be the most appropriate ALISON course to kick off our online support program.

‘ABC IT’ is a free online course which we think is suitable for older people who have already mastered basic computer skills, and now wish to take their learning to a higher level by working independently at home, or anywhere else they have access to the Internet. It seems to be particularly suitable for people who are still in the job market – either working now, or hoping to get back to work soon.

The ALISON home page URL is http://alison.com and the URL for the ABC-IT course is http://alison.com/full/resource/view.php?id=528 . Read that page carefully, including the sections ‘What is it?’ and ‘Who is it for?’

Most ABC-IT online learners will work independently, perhaps at The Lawns (which has all the software you need). We will not offer classes of our own, though we might run occasional workshops if there is enough interest.

If you are interested in taking this further, your next step would be to read our online document ACC and ALISON Basic Computing.pdf , which contains the ABC-IT course outline and an explanation of how to register.

By the way — ABC-IT is not suitable for absolute beginners! You should first become confident with using email and web browsers. As a guide to the minimum level required, you should be able to use email on your own (eg: at home) without help from anyone else.

ALISON — free online learning.

ALISON (‘Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online’) is a free online learning resource for basic and essential workplace skills. Course categories include …

• Digital Literacy & IT Skills,
• Enterprise & Business Skills,
• Financial & Economic Literacy,
• Health & Safety & Compliance,
• Health Literacy,
• Language Skills,
• Personal Development & Soft Skills.

They all look worthwhile, and ‘Digital Literacy & IT Skills’  is precisely what we do at Hackney Silver Surfers. We have picked out 3 free courses from this category which seem particularly relevant to our learners …

• ‘ALISON Basic Computing (ABC) IT’ is for anyone who needs to learn basic computing skills, or has a need to demonstrate to an international standard that they are fully competent in the use of a personal computer and common computer applications.
• ‘How to use Gmail’ uses the Web-based e-mail service from Google called Gmail or GoogleMail, to introduce you to the basics of e-mail. Gmail is an e-mail service which is accessed directly via the Web, and is not dependent on your using software loaded on your own personal computer (though it can be used in that way too). Our own seniors.org.uk email is a branded version of Gmail.
• ‘Identity Theft’ is particularly relevant to consumers anxious to protect their confidential information. It is also important to professionals in the insurance, banking, education, law enforcement, retail and healthcare fields who have a legal responsibility to protect their clients personal data.

We are trying to encourage more online learning, and this looks like a good one. Online learners generally work independently, either at home or in a drop-in computer centre like Hackney Silver Surfers. Anyone who would like help in moving to a slightly more advanced level – working independently online – should contact us at workshops@lawns.org.uk .

URL: http://alison.com/ .