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Information Technology & Computing for beginners

Computer Access

Open computer access is available as follows:

 

Main Hall.

Tuesday 9.30 am - 11.30 am.

Friday 2.30 pm - 4 pm.

Free access to wi-fi is also available during these times if you bring your own machine.

 

Local Food Café - Internet.

One laptop is available for Café customers to use free of charge between

9 - 11.30 am and 2.30 - 4 pm Monday to Thursday and 9 - 11.30 and 2.30 - 3pm Friday.

Free access to wi-fi is available for Café customers who bring their own machine.

 

A variety of software is available on our machines, including Microsoft Office Suite; there is a charge of 20p per page for colour printing.

Shropshire Heirloom Project

The Beechtree Centre is excited to be working in partnership with 4 other Shropshire Broadplaces to deliver this project which has now been running for some months.

 

The idea is to encourage people who have little experience of using computers to record their memories and research their local or family history. Digital heirlooms are being created from personal recollections of participants' lives and the areas they live, and from family history projects and photos.

 

Members of the project who have been working at the Beechtree Centre put together a display of their findings which was exhibited to the public at the Centre on the 12th June 2013. It is planned that the exhibition will now tour the other partner centres.

 

Here are some photos taken at the exhibition.

Phillip, Margaret and Maurice - 3 of our project members

 

If you are interested in researching your family history it's not too late to join us at the Whitchurch project, either as a learner/participant, a volunteer helper or as a tutor, please get in touch with Joan Mowl, tel: 01948 666612, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or just come along to one of our sessions in July. The group will meet every Wednesday in July at 10:00 am - 12 noon.

 

You can read all about progress with the project at our blog here:  http://shropshireheirloom.wordpress.com/

eBay course

This is a 4 week course which covers:  registration for eBay and PayPal; searching on eBay; selling on eBay; and buying on eBay.  You will take digital photos of the items for sale and you will upload them into your listing.  You will have the opportunity to take part in a real time auction.  In the fourth week we will support you to put your own items up for sale on eBay.  Cost £20 for the four 2 hour sessions.

Course dates can be found on our IT Session times  page and on our calendar.

 Tel 01948 666612 for more info.

Digital Photography

In this 4 week Digital Photography course we cover the basics of how to use a digital camera; how to download your photos onto a computer; how to manipulate your images to crop and improve their appearance; and how to print and store pictures.  In weeks 3 and 4 we look at how you can improve your photography techniques when taking portrait and landscape pictures.  You will also learn how to insert images into word documents.  Cost for the four two hour sessions is £20. 

Checkout the Beechtree Calendar or the IT session times page to find out when the next course is running.

Websites created by our students

Here are some links to websites that have been created by our students.

 

www.grindlestonekennels.co.uk

Click to Go

Click To Go

A project to help those between 19 and 59 seeking work. We can help with all sorts of computer related issues such as setting up an email address, scanning documents and lots more. Plus we can help with preparing for interviews or carrying out on-line research. Click here to read our information leaflet (this is a pdf document and you will need to have Adobe reader installed on your computer to open it. You can download Adobe Reader free here), or ring 01948 666612 for more information.

Beginners IT

We run short courses for complete beginners.   We show you how to switch on and make your first click.  You will learn to use a keyboard, cut and paste, insert images into documents, use email and explore the internet.  You will be able to register for Go-on, a UK online training programme, which will help you continue to learn at home or using the computers at our centre.

Course dates can be found on our IT Session times  page and on our calendar.

 

Comments from previous IT users.....

  

“It’s only in the last couple of weeks that I’ve sent my first email without help. It was to my grandson, who said ”Granddad if there is anything you need to know about computers give me a ring” 

 

 

 

“I now use my computer for emailing my relatives and chatting using my webcam”

“ It’s another world”

“I was a bit frightened at first, I didn’t know what button to press or what it did, but you get more confident”
 

Computer "Health Check" Course

Like servicing a car it does your computer good to give it a “spring clean” This 3 week course will show you how to go about doing this. Over the 3 weeks we cover:

Hardware - terminology, input and output devices, what's inside the box, differences between laptops and desktops, physical cleaning of hardware, viewing computer properties and hard disk properties.

Maintenance - How data is stored on the hard drive, De-fragmenting the hard drive, Check disk, Disk clean up and windows memory diagnostic.

Software - Anti-virus, firewall, on-line security features, on-line email scams.

 

Course dates can be found on our IT Session times page and on our calendar.

Book in advance by calling the centre on 01948 666612.

Website Design for beginners

Starting Your Own Website.
Using Serif WebPlus free Starter edition software.

 Do you work from home?
Do you run a small business?
Do you want more visibility for your organisation or group?
This course is for anyone - small business, community group or
personal or family interests such as genealogy – who would like
to set up a website.
By the end of the day you will have created a simple site, which
you can save and take away.

 

The cost of this course is £30 and includes a buffet lunch, tea & coffee.
Please check our IT session times page or our calendar for the date of our next course. Booking is essential, please ring 01948 666612 to book.

Some prior IT skills are required to make the best of this day. You should be familiar with basic word processing and basic use of the internet. Photo manipulation skills are also desirable but you should at least have access to non-copyright images for any website you eventually create. (We can provide images for practice purposes).

Please also note that this software is most appropriate for sites which are managed and maintained by a single individual. If you require multiple individuals to be able to maintain the site from different locations you should consider CMS (content management system) software such as Joomla. We may run Joomla courses in the future.

 

As our students start to develop their websites, we will be adding links to them here.

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