Where I cover:  East Norfolk – from Bacton to Hopton, North Walsham down to Mulbarton, Wymondham, Dereham and Thetford.

To contact Geraldine click here

Availability:  I can work weekdays, evenings and Saturdays to fit in with you.

What I teach:

• The basics
• Emails – set up an email address, send and receive emails
• Security – firewalls and anti-virus software
• Surf the web – using Google, etc to find your way around
• Trace your family history
• Manage digital photos
• Setting up a website
• Online shopping and banking
• Online selling – Ebay and Amazon
• Word processing and desktop publishing
• The list is endless – just ask if what you require is not listed here

About Me:

I have lived in Norfolk for over 25 years and am originally from London.  I live with my husband and we have a son and daughter and two gorgeous grandchildren.  I enjoy family history research and my family tree has grown many new branches as new sources become available online and new contacts are made.

I started work as a secretary and used an old manual typewriter.  I don’t think I would have the strength now to bang those keys down – it is surprising how much effort it took to use one.  It is so much easier just to glide your fingers across today’s computer keyboard. 

I trained to teach shorthand and typing and it was a natural progression to move on to teaching computer skills.   I have also been an assistant examiner for GCSE and NVQ in both Business Studies and ICT. 

I work part time in my husband’s business and work involves graphics of all kinds, producing interactive multimedia, video and DVD production.  I am also the one who upgrades, repairs and rebuilds all our computers.

I enjoy meeting people and helping to introduce them to the benefits computers can bring.  It is not scary and you will wonder why you did not do it a long time ago.

My burning ambition is to show you how your life can be enhanced by the purposeful activities you can perform on your computer. My method is patient and understanding tuition in the comfort of your own home.

Where I cover: North Norfolk including Sheringham through to Cromer and around to Mundsley. Down to Norwich across to Dereham around to Fakenham then back up to Sheringham and all villages in between. But I will consider going further afield. Just ask!

To contact Dave, click here.

Availability: I am very flexible and I will work weekdays, evenings and Saturdays.

What I teach:

• The basics – let’s demystify it all
• Sending and receiving emails
• Online shopping and banking
• Word processing and desktop publishing – create stylish letters, newsletters or documents
• Surfing the web – research your hobbies and interests and look up old friends
• Buying and selling on eBay and Amazon
• Using social network sites like Facebook and Twitter
• Managing and editing digital photographs
• Transferring music on vinyl or cassette to CD or any digital format
• Transferring video tapes to DVD and producing DVD and CD sleeves
• Save money by upgrading and repairing your PC
• Setting up your own website
• and so much more – just ask!

About me:

I live in Briston in North Norfolk with my partner Sally. I have three boys who live in Kent and London and I visit them as often as my work permits. I enjoy walking; listening to music, especially live music; computing; internet research for family history; photography and video recording. I joined a local amateur drama group where I work backstage. I also volunteer at a drop-in centre where people can drop in for advice or just a chat.

I left school in 1965 and became a computer operator with Post Office Computers, now BT, working on the telephone billing system. Then each phone call was a series of punched holes on a 40 column card and they were all hand fed into a card reader. That was the first part of my computer operator’s career!

18 months later I became a computer engineer working on the first commercial computer in the UK, the LEO III, for English Electric Leo Marconi. EELM soon became ICL. I worked for 2 other companies, Texas Instruments, where I trained in Austin, Texas, and BASF where I trained in Germany. I became a self employed video producer in 1988.

Computers in the early days were housed in very large air conditioned computer rooms. If anyone is interested I give a talk about the history of hard drives using PowerPoint and photographs of the older equipment. I have also produced a DVD about early computing. (Please look at my website for further details:  http://www.david-parkhouse.co.uk" href="http://www.david-parkhouse.co.uk" target="_blank">http://www.david-parkhouse.co.uk)

When I started work disk drives were very expensive and few companies had them. So paper tape, magnetic tape and punched cards were the way data was input or output. There were no screens or keyboards.

Part of my computer engineer’s job was to train other engineers.

I started a video production company in 1981 working in parallel with my engineer’s job and in 1986 I bought my first PC, an Amstrad 1512. It had a mono screen, no sound, no hard disk just large floppy disks. I bought one because my handwriting wasn’t very good (it still isn’t!) and I wanted to produce professional looking letters and brochures for my video production company. I used a dot matrix printer.

I used an Amiga 2000 computer for video titling and I ran a course for the Amiga showing how to use it effectively.

I use three PCs for my business. One for all my letters, brochures, accounts, DVD covers etc, one disconnected from the internet for video editing and DVD production and a laptop for general things and when I am away working. I upgrade, repair and maintain all three PCs. I also help other people with their PCs. I quickly became known as Mr Fixit amongst friends and family.

In 2009 I took the PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) City and Guilds course 7303, a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening course showing how to teach adults. I was appointed as an IT Pool Tutor for the Norfolk Adult Education Service in July 2009. I also took a Foundation Course in amateur radio.

I love meeting people. In my life I’ve met and helped, in one way or another, many, many people. I hope that I meet many more. My belief is that technology is for everyone, so let’s remove the fears and get started – Together we’ll open doors you probably didn’t realise were there!