Learning

Google Photos workshop, part 2 – Monday 28 Oct

Posted on by moderator

How to manage your photo collection – in practice

The first of a new series of Agewell Mobile workshops

I have installed the Photos app on my device. What should I do next?

The workshop last week (Google Photos workshop part 1) was very successful — so successful that we didn’t have time to finish, and we didn’t even start on some of the most important points. We under-estimated the interest in this topic and the number of questions that would be asked. We will continue next week — and we have space for a few more people who are not complete beginners.

Where and when?

  • Whitmore Community Centre, 2-4 Phillipp St, N1 5NU
  • Monday 28 October, 2 to 5 pm (the door will be open at 1:30 pm).

How to get on the workshop or ask a question

  • We have now filled all available workshop spaces!

Workshop links

  1. About Google Photos
  2. Google Photos support
  3. 30 tricks to master Google Photos
  4. Beginner’s guide to Google Photos
  5. Wikipedia – Google Photos

Google Photos workshop, Monday 21 Oct

Posted on by moderator

Is this the solution to your photo storage problem?

The first of a new series of Agewell Mobile workshops

How can I manage thousands of photos, and how do I get them off my phone?

Google Photos is Google’s considerable foothold in this particular world of digital confusion. It’s an app that works on all devices. It offers free and unlimited cloud storage for all your photos and videos. It automates the upload from your device to the cloud storage area. It helps you organise your photo collection, and it helps you share it with your friends – or keep it as a private library.

It’s surprisingly easy, so at the workshop we will all install the app, upload some photos (which we will provide), and admire our results and how Google has organised them.

Does Google really love us as much as that? Is there a catch?

There are certainly some issues that can’t be ignored. We can talk about those at the workshop.

What about other ways to store and organise our photos and videos?

We have plenty of choices – but few, if any, are as convenient as Google Photos. We can examine them at the workshop. For example …

  • Cloud storage that is not free.
  • Transferring your photos to an external hard drive.

Where and when?

  • Whitmore Community Centre, 2-4 Phillipp St, N1 5NU
  • Monday 21 October, 2 to 5 pm (the door will be open at 1:30 pm).

How to get on the workshop or ask a question

  • You can just turn up on Monday afternoon (just before 2 pm).
  • Better – because we have only 15 places – tell us you are coming. Phone / text 07761 887927 – or email workshops@hellohackney.net

Cloud for Community (working title)

Posted on by moderator

A course for adventurous oldies

Every Wednesday morning during September

Learn how to use apps for communication – slides, flyers, poster, video calls, messaging (and maybe improve your email skills).

You will be using our classy new laptops, exploring ways to be useful with the help of simple and free software.

At 3 of the 4 sessions, we will be joined by teams of young volunteers from the City.

Finish with a sense of achievement, knowing that you have learnt something new, and a certificate to prove it.

Update 26 September

  • The course was full, and has now finished.
  • We dropped the working title in favour of a title that describes what we did — an introduction to G Suite apps (everybody with a Gmail account has most of them already, and some of you have more).
  • We might repeat it.

Laptop Workshop in the Community Room (29 August 2018)

Posted on by moderator

How to use our Chromebook laptops

Our new laptops are Chromebooks, providing very safe and very fast access to the Internet. So far, people using them have logged in as Guests.

But we can offer you a better way to use our laptops. A User login would allow you to personalise your Chromebook experience and save your workspace, so next time you log in (from any computer), you can carry on where you left off.

If you have an email address at Gmail, seniors.org.uk or bold.org.uk, you are ready to be a User now. If you have an email address somewhere else, we can give you a free G Suite account at either seniors.org.uk (if you are retired) or bold.org.uk (if you are still in the job market). Or, if you prefer, you could just create your own standard Gmail account. Either of those options would allow you to add yourself to our Chromebooks as a User.

So the workshop on Wednesday morning, 29 August, will be about claiming a G Suite account, adding yourself as a User to our laptops, understanding how everything works, and maybe exploring G Suite features. It’s really very easy. The workshop will be short: 10 am to 11 am. Of course, afterwards you may continue using the laptops until 1pm.

When and where

Understanding Dementia

Posted on by moderator

Free online course for people who need a better understanding of dementia

Rick’s Hackney Dementia Week idea

I discovered this while I was searching for useful dementia resources on the web. It’s listed by Class Central in its Top 50 list, with 1415 favourable reviews. So I looked carefully at the course description and signed myself up.

The course is delivered by the University of Tasmania, and seems to be less demanding than a normal University course. It’s obviously aimed at a wider community, but people who do it get a certificate.

Community learning

It’s a relatively advanced course, but there are many drop-in contacts who could do it if they were able to commit three hours each week for seven weeks. People who are new to online learning might need support to navigate the system — but that is what we are here for. The IT Room desktops would be ideal for a small group of people willing to accept the challenge — community learning in practice — in my opinion, what the IT Room should be used for.

The course starts 10 July, so you don’t have to make a decision immediately. If your family is affected by dementia, this is worth looking at — even if only for a glimpse of the real Internet.

Click on the button below to visit the course web site. If you are not sure how to follow the enrolment procedure, please grab a helper.

Understanding Dementia course

Wordpad for beginners (28 Feb)

Posted on by moderator

Learn simple word-processing with our volunteers

Wordpad

Wordpad is a basic word-processor that has been free with every version of Windows since 1995. It’s also very good — so if you have a Windows computer, it’s worth searching for.

Our volunteer team today will help you get started with Wordpad — and help you do something that looks difficult, but is really quite easy — adding photographs to your document.

Voice Recorder

Voice Recorder is a very simple Windows app for recording voice — yours and anyone else close to the microphone. Our volunteer team will show you how to do it.

Blog your efforts

You can blog your photos easily. Blogging documents and voice recordings is not so easy, but we can do it for you later.