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Three Awesome Games That Help Kids Make Games

Three Awesome Games That Help Kids Make Games
By Tanner Higgin, Graphite Some of the best games for learning aren’t developed with schools in mind. But these more commercial games can be tough to wedge into a classroom. Summer break presents the perfect opportunity for students to dig into games and build skills that’ll reap huge rewards when they return in the fall. 1. LittleBigPlanet 2 (PlayStation 3) on the one hand, is a side-scrolling platformer in the Super Mario Bros. mold. LittleBigPlanet 2. For those students that love games but are a bit intimidated by the technological chops it takes to make one, Pixel Press Floors (iPad) is perfect. PixelPressFloors 3. Many students will likely be familiar with Portal 2 (PC and Mac), a joke-filled, brain-breaking physics puzzler that has sold millions of copies. Portal2Puzzlemaker What’s particularly great about all of these tools is that they achieve something that’s hard to do: connecting the classroom to the home. Related

Story Starters: Creative Writing Prompts for Kids If you’re looking to inspire your students’ writing and creativity, turn to these fun and exciting writing prompts. Perfect for overcoming writer’s block or even starting a brand-new short story in a different narrative, creative writing prompts can help students begin a new piece with confidence. Plus, these story starters can also encourage students to explore different genres while honing their writing skills. There are a lot of ways you can use writing prompts in your classroom. Try: Reading a book in a genre, then having students use a story starter in that same genre. Take inspiration from classics like Treasure Island and newer popular series like The Bad Guys to explore how to write thrilling adventure stories. You’re part of a pirate crew in search of a long-lost storied treasure trove. Get students excited about adventure stories with these great books: If you’re looking to inspire your students’ writing and creativity, turn to these fun and exciting writing prompts.

Become a Web Designer, Start Here Beginner A Beginner’s Guide on How to Become a Better Graphic Designer I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.- Pablo Picasso (click to tweet) To be a great web designer you need to learn the basics of graphic design, which entails learning Adobe Photoshop (highly recommended) to a masterful degree. If you have little experience with Photoshop or graphic design, we highly recommend reading this first. Design a Custom Twitter Header in 8 Simple Steps This tutorial is for people with basic Photoshop skills and want to learn more techniques. More articles worth reading: Intermediate Quick and Easy Stylish Design Agency Landing Page In Adobe Photoshop Hard work beats all the tonics and vitamins in the world.- Colonel Sanders (click to tweet) This tutorial is for graphic designers, web design students, and hobbyists who have intermediate knowledge of how Photoshop works, including basic understanding of color theory. Enjoying Photoshop? Advanced Resources

New to Web Design? Start Here. Welcome to Webdesigntuts+, an online resource dedicated to teaching and encouraging web designers of all skill levels and experience. Whether this is your first time here, you've found yourself dipping into our content in the past, or you're a regular visitor, this post will help you find the best of our content. Contents Here's a quick breakdown of what you'll find on this page.. Designing Your First Website Getting to grips with designing a website is about understanding what you're aiming to achieve and how you can solve problems through design. Beyond creativity comes the actual designing. And if you're a developer, coming to web design from a coding background? Coding Your First Website Planning, sketching, wireframing and mocking-up visuals are all important aspects of web design, but what about actually realising those designs for the browser? With a fundamental understanding of HTML and CSS you can now start to translate your static visuals into living, breathing web pages. Emmet

Teach Coding in the Classroom: Resources from ISTE '14 I was super excited to attend Hack Education (originally called “EdubloggerCon”), an all-day unconference held the Friday before the formal start of ISTE 2014. This interactive day of learning, now in its eighth year, was touted to me as the event to attend in Atlanta, and it did not disappoint. The informal, small-group conversations were inclusive and welcoming. In an attempt to heed Dave Guymon’s call to share the ISTE learning (see his blog post on Getting Smart, "Don’t Leave Your Learning Behind: What To Do Now That #ISTE2014 Is Over"), here are some resources discussed by a group of elementary and secondary educators during a morning session on coding in the classroom. Coding Curriculum, Activities, and Projects Code.org: If you didn’t have a chance to participate in “Hour of Code” this year during Computer Science Education Week, consider participating with your class next year. Applications for Programming and Teaching Coding Related Blogs on Coding in the Classroom from Edutopia

Web design training: the top 20 online resources | Web design Web design can be daunting. Just the sheer amount of new techniques and acronyms appearing every day can make it seem scary and confusing, even if you're a professional web designer, let alone a beginner. But don't worry - help is at hand in the form of easy-to-understand web design training resources on the web. There are many approaches to web design training - some paid, some free; some interactive, some not; some based on text, others on video. Which means it can even be an uphill struggle working out where to go and what to learn. Don't miss this! To make things easier for you, we've gathered the best 22 web design training resources on the web. 01. While many web training sites look colourful, attractive, and welcoming, with video and colourful graphics, W3Schools looks a bit flat and boring at first glance. Yes, yes, we know: there's been some criticism of the site, which has pointed out some technical errors in some of its lessons. 02. 03. 04. 05. 06. 07. 09. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

iPads in schools! They just play games! | IPAD 4 SCHOOLS 20th Century pedagogy + iPads = Gaming So, you’re in your classroom and annoyed that the kids are playing games on the iPads. You have devised a strategy and at random intervals, you ask them to double-click the ‘Home’ button to see the last apps used. writing their notes;Reading their e-textbook;completing their essay or‘Researching’ on the Internet. The only step forward you’ve really seen is the ability to use that Shakespeare app or Dissecting Frog app. The parents too, have complained that all they seem to see is game playing and maybe your school is considering limiting the apps allowed on the devices. Well done on introducing iPads. Now you have introduced a radically new and powerful learning device, you need to update your pedagogy to match it. Why are these issues the most important? Like the iPad, learning is personal As I have previously mentioned, you can’t encourage the idea that learning is a lifetime occupation, if you centre your education delivery around the teachers.

7 Excellent Tools to Publish Students Work There is nothing much rewarding for students than to see their accomplished work being published and celebrated with others. This is very much motivating and is a strong impetus for them to achieve more and work harder. There are several online tools that you as a teacher can use to host your students work and share them with the whole class and as well as parents .Below are some tools that can help you do that. Check them out : 1- Flipsnack Fipsnack is an online flipping book software that allows you to convert PDF documents into Flash page flip digital publications ideal for publishing students work. 2- Issuu This is another popular website where you can upload and share your students work very easily and for free. 3- Tikatok Tikatok lets you easily create an unlimited books online . 4- Mixbook Mixbook lets you make completely customizable photo books, yearbooks, cards, and calendars and many more. 5- ePub Bud 6- Lulu Lulu is a website that lets you publish print books and ebooks for free.

Reading Without Tears: Use the iPad to Encourage Reluctant Readers By Emily | October 18, 2012 | 2 comments If your child has a meltdown when it’s time to “drop everything and read,” consider using the iPad to build good reading habits and to help your child find content that interest him. Of course parents can tell a child that “there’s no iPad until you’ve done your reading.” And, there are many, many high-quality kids book appsavailable that encourage children to read, for some kids reading remains a chore. Look for apps which, while they aren’t books, still require reading. Let your child watch BrainPop with the mute button on, so he has to read along on his own. Make reading more like a game. Work more reading into a child’s play time. Track a child’s progress. Do you have a reluctant reader at home? Photo courtesy of Flickr user Creative Donkey.

How To 'App Smash' And Implement Digital Storytelling On The iPad App smashing, the process of using more than one apps in conjunction with one another to create a final product, is a concept that allows students to create engaging educational projects and illustrate their creativity in multifaceted ways. One of the most gratifying and effective ways to use app smashing in the classroom is to create digital storytelling projects. The concept of digital storytelling is emerging as a form of personal and collective expression of knowledge, ideas, and perceptions. Here is an iPad app smashing activity you can use in your classroom in order to create professionally looking digital storytelling projects. Getting Hands-On: The Project A typical app smashing activity has four steps: First, you start with the end product in mind. Objective To create a Digital Storytelling project that illustrates knowledge in effective and appropriate ways. Apps We Will Use Workflow Short Tutorials Here is a short video on how to use Tellagami Some Final Thoughts

Spriting Guide | The Cave of Dragonflies I care about the truth, and I strive to keep the information on this website accurate and up-to-date. For instance, where possible, I have taken pains to personally test claims about the video games before making them. However, doing so is not always feasible, occasionally I manage to be wrong even when I think I've confirmed something, and with a website of this size, it's difficult to keep track of every single piece of information anywhere on it that might need to be changed or updated. Pokémon, Pikachu and all other Pokémon characters © 1995-2015 Nintendo, GAME FREAK and Creatures, Inc.

Make Games - Pixel Art Tutorial Second Life Official Site - Virtual Worlds, Avatars, Free 3D Chat Room Escape Maker - Create Escape The Room Games For Free Basic information ROOM ESCAPE MAKER is a free online application to create Escape The Room games. Build challenging casual point and click games with puzzles, hidden objects, safes with combination locks, and much more. YOU are game designer. The community You are more than welcome to be a part of the project. Fan of Room Escape Games in general? Help creating games If you need to know more about how to create your games, we recommend you to watch this amazing tutorial created by PhantomDarkness135. Do you still have questions? Publishing conditions When you send a game to review, be sure you don't have anything else to change about it. While on review, these are the reasons that may prevent us from validating your game: Irrelevant title, keywords or description. Also, avoid having items to be added to the inventory during your game if these items are not going to be really useful. Application compatibility ROOM ESCAPE MAKER was tested on Bug report

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