Travel the Trail

Technology, isn’t it amazing?

Flashback
White knuckles at the Apple IIe, I feverishly push the up, down and over keys to point my trigger. A bunny is hoping from the right and a deer is coming at me at 10 o’clock. I go for the deer. The outcome of this move could mean the life or death of my family…more meat means everything. Dang nab it, I missed. Looks like my family is a goner, I’ll wait for the dysentery to take us all…it’s a hard fate to accept when you are 10.

Flash forward.
A lot has changed since playing Oregon Trail game years ago. (you still can still play at http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html). My family gathered around my laptop and I shared its rocking dotted graphics, tinny music and humorous head stones. Apparently the excitement of the journey still grabs my 5 and 8 year-olds, however they are much more sophisticated than I was in grade school.

My kids know their way around a computer and it’s mostly because of their experience. They have so much more offered to them at this age…it’s mind boggling. I only wish I could have made videos at that age, recorded music or surfed the internet. And having a one-stop-shop of free software apps would be so very awesome. Something sophisticated enough for adults but also friendly enough for those who aren’t so knowledgeable.

Well…look no further. Meet Tech Tool Tutorials (http://techtooltutorials.weebly.com/index.html) My friend Angela created a site that not only connects you with the best technology, but also helps train you, using friendly, video tutorials.

Some of my favorite freeware is featured. Remember this stop motion video I made the other day? (indeed this is a shameless plug but I’d love for you to click and vote for me at funny or die)

I used freeware featured on Tech Tool Tutorials to make this video. First I used audacity to record and mix both my ukulele background and lyrics together to create the soundtrack. Then I took digital pictures with my camera and threw them into Windows Movie Maker to create the video.

My next project will be teaching the kids to create a movie of their own, with a little help of Tech Tool Tutorials of course. The possibilities are limitless. Watch out world, here we come! We are ready to travel the trail.