Making the Most of the Internet

Starting in August - 'Tech Savvy Seniors'

1/8/2015

At our last Meet and Mingle we discussed a new group proposal which may interest 'Making the Most of the Internet' participants – working title ‘Tech Savvy Seniors'.

"Are you reasonably ‘Tech Savvy’, keen to continue developing your knowledge and skills and to assist others to develop digital literacy? Then ‘Tech Savvy Seniors’ may be of interest to you. Monthly meetings will include sharing of ideas and pearls of wisdom; news of the latest in IT development and presentations on topics of interest by informed group members and guest speakers. Meetings will also provide a regular forum for sharing and problem solving for class members working on developing and maintaining the web site; procuring and maintaining IT resources and participating in projects which help to increase the digital literacy of other U3A members."

A ‘taster’ session will be held on the second Wednesday in August (Wednesday 12th) from 10 am to 12 midday in W4. For more information contact Bev on 5762 8171.

Ian McLeod and Lorraine Knox at Meet and Mingle in July. Ian's 'tech savviness' proved most useful in linking the laptops to Wi Fi so we could run a Treasure Hunt in small groups. The Treasure Hunt - designed to help members get to know the website - was originally Lorraine's idea and she happily acted as a guinea pig in trying it out. Thanks Ian and Lorraine.

Our final class - thanks Ian!

21/6/2015

The Semester 1 'Making the Most of the Internet' course finished on June 9. Our tutor Ian McLeod's internet knowledge has provided the basis for a great course, but he would like to 'regroup' before running another course. Ian's approach has been most engaging and he has left us with lots of ideas, handouts and Youtube links to follow up as lifelong learners. The final session included a presentation on the many features offered by Windows Club; an introduction to Windows 10; Open Office and Google Maps. Youtube videos drawn on during the session will continue to be available on 'Ian's Blog' to help us to continue to 'Make the Most of the Internet'. Thanks Ian for all your work!

Another interesting mix of topics...

14/5/2015

A very perceptive and comical Youtube clip 'A Senior Moment' featuring 'seniors' in a residential setting texting on their mobiles, (and even, somewhat comically, 'sexting' in error...) was a highlight at the start of this month's class. We had a great laugh together. (There is a link to this video on Ian's blog.)

New internet tools introduced this month by Ian, again focusing on the freely available, included using a general search title in Youtube such as 'Classical Music' to stream playlists of music throughout the day; the Rainlendar desktop calendar; the Gadwin screen capture tool; Paypal (which is preferred by eBay); and Picasa3 for storage and organisation of photograph collections using the cloud.

Class member Margaret Jenkin, from Investment Group 2, gave us a most informative presentation on the use of the internet when investing in the stock market. Margaret began by reflecting on the benefits on-line banking and the ways in which the banking system works to ensure online security, then described her practice of using a separate bank for her online purchases. Using the ComSec website, Margaret introduced tools available for analysing trading possibilities such as indexes, charts; price; volumes; stock announcements; peer guides; comparative trading ranges; watchlists; tools for managing orders and more. Margaret explained that each of the major banks has a similar website; and Ian added that the ASX site also provides similar information.

Class member Bev Lee then provided an introduction to developing a free website using www.weebly.com, the platform chosen for this website. Neville was happy to throw his hat into the ring in setting up a website address - after which a theme was selected; pages were added and moved around; a title and some text were added using the 'drag' feature in the build page, and the tool bar was used to change font colours and sizes. We finished with a demonstration of how easy it is to delete - in this case the dummy - website! The class handout; information on the 'Website' page under 'Newsroom'; the two blog entries below and the resources and videos in the support section on Weebly.com will hopefully be useful to clss members keen to 'have a go'. Bev is happy to provide support and mentoring.

DIY Websites (2) Weebly

13/5/2015

Weebly has been used for the U3A Benalla and District website. It is similar to Microsoft Word to use and people who use Word usually feel comfortable with it. It is also very user friendly as the layout of the page can be viewed as it is being built up.

The www.weebly.com web site has excellent support resources, including the following Beginner's Guide to Weebly.

Preparation: Before you start -
*   make notes on content you'd like to include
*   gather documents to draw content from
*   map out up to ten pages for top menu
*   gather jpeg photo files you'd like to add

Handouts:
Creating a Website Using Weebly
(abridged version)
(extended version)

DIY Websites (1)

9/5/2015

Developing a web page, until very recently the province of specialists using complex file management systems and sophisticated platforms, has become a more democratic process.

Today, user friendly web platforms are available from which we choose the design.  Files are stored and managed automatically in the 'cloud'. Most offer a 'free' component, usually of a set number of pages (5 or 10) or a set file size eg 3G.

Learning some basic skills using one of these is worthwhile as most will be transferable to other platforms.

If you have used word processing many of the skills will be familiar - eg highlighting text then bolding or italicising; cutting and copying then pasting; moving highlighted text by holding the cursor down.   Sometimes you will learn a new name for 'Save' - eg. 'Update' or 'Publish'.

You will also learn or become more skilled at other skills eg. hyperlinking text to the internet; uploading and downloading documents; copying and pasting web addresses and - a particularly important one - resizing or compressing photographs for web pages so that they don't take too long to load when people are using your web page.
The three free web platforms which follow are good places to start.

Weebly

Local example/s: Swanpool Community Development Association
Blog Example/s: President's page and group pages on this web site
Other U3A example/s:
Dorchester and District U3A (UK)
Free platform: www.weebly.com

WIX

Local example: Shepparton Bridge Club
Patchwork group Example:
Sunraysia Patchwork Friends
U3A example: U3A Adelaide Hills

Wordpress

Local Example/s:
BEAM: Mitchell Environment Group
Grey Gypsies (trial site)
Blog example: 'Spry and Retiring-time to write' U3A Example: Hepburn U3A
Free Platform: www.wordpress.com

There are others - for example, on the JOOMLA web platform you can find the website of Horsley U3A in the UK - it also has pages for each group, for example... Astronomy, Music Appreciation, Wine Appreciation... and more.

Interested in finding out about some others?   Check out ''Top 10 - Best Website Builders 2015 Edition":

'Google Glass', malware, do it yourself web sites and more

5/5/2015

Our toolbag of new ways in which to make the most of the internet continues to grow! Ian began the session showing us visions of the Future with a you tube video on older people responding to the use of Google Glass. I had to do some googling at home then watch the second video before I accepted Ian's Google Glass video wasn't a joke! (Both videos take about 10 mins).

It's always good to have a reliable reference source - Ian recommended Koroush Ghazi's 'Tweaking Companion' 'the complete system customization and optimization guide for all Windows users'. There is a free Regular Edition and a Deluxe Edition which is available as a PDF E-Book 'for around the price of a cup of coffee'.

Safety issues were further explored, beginning with an introduction to malware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0's free product and Wickr, a combination of messaging apps which doesn't keep a record of users' communications.

Netflix has arrived since we last met. Ian gave us an article comparing different streaming services then demonstrated his trial subscription to Netflix - he's finding the quality good, no buffering, smooth streaming. We can subscribe for one month free - if we don't want to keep it, we need to make sure we set a cancel date before the end date. According to Ian, it's worth $9 a month not to have ads!

Subscriptions to a streaming service such as Netflix and/or to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) both reduce the possibility of being found guilty of illegal downloading or 'pirating'. This has become of increasing concern to downloaders with producers of the Dallas Buyers Club winning a case (to be appealed) against internet provider IInet this week.   Ian showed us examples of correspondence likely to be received by people found to have breached copyright by downloading files illegally.

Broadly speaking, Virtual Private Networks (VPN's) don't record who has been doing what and when. They circumvent 'geoblocking'. With a VPN network subscription of around $40 pa we can go to a server in most places in the world - in London, for example - to select and watch eg. BBC I-view which would otherwise be geoblocked.

In the final part of the session, Bev introduced three easy to learn web design platforms - Weebly, Wix and WordPress - available in free versions on the web (see Bev's notes and links).    Our U3A Benalla website is currently being redesigned using Weebly, which is easy to manage and learn by anyone with word processing skills.    Bev provided an overview of the website and encouraged class members to have a look at it-- the web address is http://u3abenalla.weebly.com.  Feedback is important and welcome! Next session will include some time spent learning how to develop a simple web 'blog'.

Finally, on an ironic note as Benalla awaits the NBN, we read that Simon Hackett, the NBN Co director employed by the LNP Government to implement its cost saving change to fibre to the node technology, recently said he is a strong supporter of connecting premises directly to fibre!

Making the most of the internet--our second session

27/3/2015

''Making the Most of the Internet' toolkits continued to grow during our March session. Again prioritizing resources feely available on the net, Ian began by introducing free music streaming available at Radio Tunes (his particular favourite is 'Classical Guitar') and Tune In (which also has links to radio from around the world).

The remainder of the session focussed largely on learning needs identified last session. Ian explained that he particularly values and recommends 'YouTube' as a resource for lifelong learning. He demonstrated how YouTube videos can be used to address learning needs such as 'How do you attach photographs to an email' and 'What is the Cloud?' Viewing 'What is the Cloud?' led on to an informative discussion about Internet security and 'The Cloud'. .

'Metadata and data retention changes' Ian explained the role of ISP providers, demonstrated how to access our Web Address, related web addresses to their use in the storage of data and reflected on questions the prolonged storage of metadata raises for him.

'Social Media - Twitter' Admitting to not using his account a lot, Ian took us in a humorous, interactive way through Twitter's features, drawing on his own Twitter site, Malcolm Turnbull's site and a parodied site 'Elizabeth Windsor' (the official site for the Queen seems to come under https://twitter.com/BritishMonarchy).

Questions related to computer speed concern many class members, particularly those living in outlying areas. Ian introduced CCleaner, a freely available program he uses almost continuously to ensure his computer doesn't become clogged up with extraneous files and slow down. When all else fails, it seems the Library and Macdonald's have publicly available WiFi (sorry, no cafe's), with motels usually having WiFi for travellers.

Other topics included 'Memory and Storage', 'Streaming and Downloading', Ad blocking, Password Managers; Netflix; Picasa and more - there's never a dull moment!

Next session - VPN (Virtual Private Networks) and an introduction to freely available, easy to use web page programs.

Making the Most of the Internet - our first class

7/3/2015

An interested group keen to 'make the most of the internet' met with new U3A tutor Ian McLeod for the first of sessions on 11 February. Terry Case introduced Ian, reinforcing to the group that Ian's course is for those keen to venture beyond basic use of the internet.

Ian engaged us in exploring the nature of the internet; web browsers, Wikipedia and YouTube to establish a shared understanding of these topics. He focused on what is available free of charge on the net, including links to international newspapers (www.newspaperindex.com), I-view (www.abc.net.au/iview), SBS on demand (www.sbs.com.au/ondemand) and 'apps' he uses which the group might think about using, such as Adblocker to filter ads Lots of valued information was introduced along the way in response to questions and comments.

A quick survey of learning needs of members resulted in a list of topics including strategies to reduce the frustration of using the internet when living in outlying districts; WIFI (what it is and how to access it); the 'Cloud'; internet safety and security and social media. There was also some interest in how to supplement retirement income by making money using the internet! Such topics, together with Ian's own plans for the course, will make for an interesting six sessions!

'Making the most of the Internet'...

12/1/2015

The graphic in the banner above maps the 'botnet' web at a point in time. It and another dynamic mapping of the internet are included in a fascinating article titled 'This is the Most Detailed Picture of the Internet Ever'. You might like to check it out!

Ian's Blog

About 'Making the most of the internet"

Designed by Ian McLeod and offered initially in Semester 1, 2015, 'Making the Most of the Internet' is a course for those who want to venture beyond the basics, 'Making the Most of the Internet' looks at the Internet, rather than dealing with devices, hardware or software. The aim is to better understand what the internet can do by discussing topics such as Wikipedia, Metadata, Torrenting, Youtube, VPN, ISP, ADSL, NBN.

Meeting times

To be advised

Convenor and contact details

Ian McLeod