South Lakes U3a page header

Computing

Skip navigation

Find an activity:


Meeting Details

Frequency Weekly (Autumn and Winter terms only)
Time 2.45 pm on Wednesday
Duration 1 1/2 hours
Location Beck Community Centre (Heron Hill)
CoordinatorFieke Harteveld

What we do

Our aim is to encourage members to discover the potential of a personal computer (PC) and to use it with confidence.

We do not offer taught courses but provide one to one support for finding your way around a PC, basic word processing, spread sheets, data bases, desk top publishing, using the internet including emails, and the opportunity to experiment with digital imagery. Members work at their own pace either on their own projects or using workbook materials that we provide. We have a team of tutors who are on hand to help.

Favourite activities include: writing letters, keeping your money in order, building an address book and producing address labels, making cards or calendars, shopping, keeping in touch, and playing around with your photos.

picture of computer group at work

The Computing group at work

We ask members who have their own laptop computers to bring them along to meetings, and we have a limited number of laptop computers for use by other members. Our meeting room has wireless broadband internet access.

Members range from complete beginners to experienced users wanting to learn something new or brush up their skills. It is possible to join the group at any stage of the term, and we can also sometimes offer a short notice place for one or two weeks in the absence of a regular member. We draw up a waiting list if the group becomes over-subscribed.

There is a charge of £1 per session, and we ask members to pay for each half-term session in advance to ensure we make a consistent contribution to the high cost of hiring the computer room.

Reports

October 2011

The computer group commenced at the end of September and our last meeting will be the 7th December 2011.

We were happy to welcome three more tutors, so we could start with more pupils than last year.

We still have some people on the waiting list. When a pupil does not need constant attention, a tutor can keep an eye on two pupils and there will be space for a few more members. I will contact people from the waiting list to join us. I hope to have places for everybody by the beginning of 2012.

Fieke Harteveld

March 2011

The computer group had its last meeting on the 30th March. As people will have other commitments in the spring and summer and cannot attend on a weekly basis, it is not of much benefit for somebody who is just learning how to use a computer. We will have a long summer recess and we will start the lessons again in the autumn.

I want to thank all the tutors and helpers, the old ones and also the new ones, who answered my cry for help in the last newsletter.

I also want to thank the pupils who let me know that they could not come, so I could give a tutor the afternoon off. Even if I received the message a few hours before we had the meeting, I was able to phone a tutor and tell him/her to stay at home and enjoy the free afternoon.

Look in the Newsletter of September 2011 for information about our lessons.

Hope to see you all back in September.

Fieke Harteveld