A Web Browser Designed for Kids

This is something I think I'll be trying out with my own daughter. It's a web browser designed only to access 'safe' websites. It's made by KidZui and there is the choice of a free version or you can have a membership subscription. The free version gives you reports on what your kids are using the browser for and what sites they are looking at.
The subscription version gives you the same but a bit more detail. It also gives you kids access to more accessories and Zui clothes!! (Think I'll go for the free option)

Anyway, if you want your kids to have access to 800,000 safe websites without having to look over their shoulder the whole time, then this looks like a good choice. Runs on PC and MAC.

Hope you enjoy it.

Best

Nik Peachey Read More..

Bring Your Kids Drawings to Life

I've just been playing around with a really nice site for kids. It's called Shidonni and it is similar to a paint program and allows kids to draw animals etc. The difference with this though is that once they have drawn an animal they then click a button and it comes to life!

There's more though. They can also draw items of food to put in the animal's fridge and draw habitat for it to live in. If that's not enough they can even play games of snakes and ladders with their animal and visit other planets where other students have created their own animals. So it's bit like a paint version of Spore for young kids.

• Watch this movie to see how it is done

I'm sure their must be loads of educational and language development uses we can put this to, so I'll be getting my thinking hat on. Until then I hope you enjoy getting your kids to create their own animals.


Nik Peachey Read More..

Video Dictionary 2.0

I've just been having a look at Wordia which is a wonderful new dictionary site. The entries are all video clips submitted by ... well anyone!
It's a bit like a YouTube video dictionary. I've just been having a quick browse and I love it. Great site for native and non native speakers of English. Also great collection of different accents. Even a few 'celebrities' thrown in!


Marvelous. Just love it. Read More..

Improve your Vocabulary and send Aid to Children

This is a wondeful idea and looks a little like Free Rice. The idea is that students work through vocabulary tests improving their vocabulary and with every correct answer .25 of a cent is sent to help impoverished children.
Seems like a great way to help epople raise money for a good cause. The level of the vocabulary is quite high, but would be fine for CAE, IELTS or Proficiancy level students, or even native speakers.

• http://www.aidtochildren.com

A very good cause too, so I hope you can spread the word about this.

Best

Nik Peachey

Related links

• Exam Practice
• Animating vocabulary
• Vocabulary and rice
• Multimedia wordsearch

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Free ebooks on elearning

There's a really impressive collection of free ebooks on the eLearning Guild website.

The latest one is Tips for Producing and Managing Flash-based e-Learning Content. In all there are eight ebooks there dating back to 2005 and they are all free to download.

Each book is a collection of tips and they cover topics from choosing the best LMS (learning management system) to tips on beingg an online trainer.

These all look well worth a read.

Best

Nik Read More..

Eco City Game

ElectroCity is an interesting online game designed for education. It's based around the SimsCity principle and users have to try to build a financially viable eco city where all the inhabitants can also be happy.

As I said the game was designed for education and there's a very handy teachers section with some downloadable worksheets. The producer put the level of the game at 7 - 9 year olds, but if you were using this with non English speakers for language development I think you could use it with any aga range and there would still be a good deal of motivation to try it.

There's also a downloadable version of the game for those with slower connections and wonder of wonders there is both a PC and a MAC version. It's quite a small download too ( 1 - 2 Mb). You can find these in the teachers' resources section.

You can also have a look at some of the cities other players have created.

If you register you can also enter your students in a competition to win a prize for the best designed city and students can keep track of how well there city is doing.

This looks like a really handy educational game.

Hope you enjoy it.

Best
Nik Read More..