Thunder

I need to get a Glow account so I can get extra levels and points….

Last weekend I purchased Wii Fit for Steph, since returning from our weekend away we have had a great time using it.  The balance board measures your bmi, weight and centre of gravity to produce your Wii Fit Age.

Once you have set your profile up on the game you set a target weight and timescale, the game then keeps a daily record of your progress.  This works for me, I can see my target and get a graphical representation of the progress, or lack thereof, I am making towards it.

So after your body test, you can then do some training (notice the similarity to brain training etc).  There are 4 types of training - Yoga, Muscle Workout, Aerobic Exercise and Balance Games.  After making a set amount of progress or have banked FitCash (time training) more exercises are unlocked.

I am finding the game really motivational and have done at least a 30 minute workout every day, according to the game I have lost 4lbs since Sunday.

Apart from the cost (£70) I can see great potential for this in schools, health education and PE look out.

More information about Wii Fit can be found here.

Andrew Brown posted today…

If you’ve ever wanted to create your very own talking character from a photo or picture, then the guys at PQ DVD may have come to the rescue!

They are even offering the software for free to those that blog about it before Christmas. How’s that for a christmas present?

Half term is great, it allows me some time to play. The latest web based application I have played with is Animoto, animoto allows you to create a 30sec video for FREE, if you want it longer than 30secs then you have to part with some cash. Animoto allows you to upload photos to the site, or it will grab them from common web based picture sites i.e. flickr, once you have your photos you can put them into the order you require and select which you want to spotlight. The next stage of the process is to add your music, again you can upload your own music (bear in mind copyright etc etc) or use a track from the site itself. Animoto then renders and produces your music video.

You can then email your friends of post it online, it looks like there will be the ability to download it and export to ipods etc in the near future. As with most applications like this it is in ‘beta’ but the guys respond really quickly to any feedback.

Here is my first example.

Last week while I was in Staffordshire I was chatting to a couple of the delegates about gaming, as you do on a game design course. Tim from Ounsdale School mentioned that he had been playing on ‘Frets on Fire‘, this is an open source (FREE) version of Guitar Hero for the pc or mac. I have since downloaded it, it is very addictive and great fun, I would recommend it to everyone. I have passed the details on to Keith the Shropshire music advisor and we will see what he makes of it.

I have spent today in Staffordshire working with eight ICT teachers from across the county. The Staffordshire ICT consultant has accessed some funding for a study support project, the aim of the project is to participate in a Gaming Competition (details here). I was asked to deliver software training on Game Maker, the software to be used for the project. The project will conclude on the 4th December with the students coming to the training centre to present their games to the other students.

I have set up a blog that will be used to share ideas and work in progress throughout the project, the teachers have posted their initial plans for the project already. What was interesting is that the teachers were discussing how they will be using Game Maker in other contexts outside of the project, replacing Flowol with Game Maker was high on the agenda, iMedia was mentioned by several teachers, and using it from year 7 right up into the sixth form.

My ibook’s have gone mobile and have landed at Barrow CE Primary school, the pupils are busy playing around with Comic Life.  You can check out pupils progress on the school blog.

Being a very lucky boy, great dad and super husband I was lucky enough that my family bought me (at great distress) a Nintendo Wii for my birthday last week. What a great bit of kit the Wii is, for playing ‘proper’ games I still prefer my XBox 360 but what fun playing on the Wii is, and Jack my 3 year old can even have a go. The Wii has also awoken Steph’s competitive side and we are having so much fun.

Anyway to the point of my post, tennis is probably our favourite game - and I have lots of photos of Steph playing (give me an email if you want to see one). While playing tennis we have to move all the furniture back to allow us plenty of space. Unfortunately there isn’t much skill to my game I just whack it and hope it stays in, this being the case I decided to do some research to see if anyone can help me out. There are loads of websites out there but this has got to be my favourite - How to win Wii Tennis (at any cost)

If anyone knows of any good sites that provide useful tips for getting my ball to go back straight over the net and not cross court all the time please leave it in the comment section below Thanks

Search the Earth for giant toys.

Hello boys and girls. Ready to find some toys? Santa has hidden a treasure trove of presents somewhere in Google Earth (actually, it was a few of his elves, but you get the idea) . Every day from December 12th until Christmas Eve, a clue will appear outside Santa’s North Pole workshop which, if you can solve it, will lead you to a toy hidden in a Google Earth satellite image. And every day, the location of the previous day’s toy will be revealed.

Visit http://earth.google.com/santa/ to start your hunt.

Talkman is a microphone and software application for the PSP, it allows you to speak into your PSP and translate simple phrases into 6 different languages.

It would be interesting to see if/how this could be used in the MFL classroom, Ewan & Joe??