Technology Sessions at Winnebago's Grand National Rally

Bettyann and I were at Winnebago's Grand National Rally in Forest City, IA.  We were the instructors at 2 of the session and participated in a forum discussion in two others.  Volunteering to teach is a difficult but fun task especially, when you need to get service on your motorhome and also participate in all the other activities.

Bettyann is the club president of our RV group, the Ontario Trillium Travellers and had lots of events to attend and things to accomplish as "Head of Row"

My first session was "Windows - Back to Basics" and it was very well recieved.  At the end of the session people came to thank us for a great talk and many signed up to be NetWit members after the session.  I also participated in the iPhone - iPad session lead by Stephen Pacheco.  Although, all the computer session were topped out, the iPad session was by far the most popular.  We were only allowed 50 people in the room and there were a large number of people who were left out of the more popular sessions.

Windows 8 was a highlight for us - Bettyann started the session talking about the conversion from Windows 7 and I followed up with the technical - how to get around and manage Wiindows 8.  There were lots and lots of questions and many people took the time after class to come up an complement us and confirm to us that spending time was certainly worth the effort.  Thanks to you all!

RVers Trending to Tablets

Last year it was eReaders.  It seems that RVers couldn't get enough of Kindles and Nooks.  Rvers, especially the retired ones, are avid readers and can't get enough books.  Although, I have been teaching how to use computers, I spent a great deal more time, then previously, talking about reading technology.  I remember after one of the classes a majority of the attendees went out and purchased Kindles and asked that I teach the same class again the next week.

It seems now though that using technology for just reading is not enough. RVers want to surf the web, get email and access Facebook.  Reading is still a big part of what they want though.  At the last couple of outings of our Ontario Trillium Traveller (OTT), people took advantage of the low price at Costco and sprung for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.  

I spent part of our outing helping set up the tablets and teaching folks how to use it.  The funny thing is that the first thing they wanted to do was get books on to their tablet but what they spent most of the time doing was reading and responding to their email and surfing the web.  

After reading, getting email, and browsing the web the most popular uses were Games (Solitaire, Sudoku, Crosswards), Skype for communicating with loved ones and weather apps.  Music and Movies were also high on the list.  

We ended the instruction session browsing apps on the Google Play Store and everyone seemed very excited and wanted to spend time exploring new horizons.