Well another new year begins and as the the new year 8's are finding out school with laptops provides some interesting opportunities to show understanding and what you know.  Animation is always fun, although it is challenging and tests creativity.

 So simple tools to help with this process are always of interest to the folk at the Tech-know Blog!  During the recent laptop induction session I was going through the use of delicious as a search tool and came across Kerpoof!  So what is it?  Kerpoof is a simple animation and graphics tool that can also help with language development/.  There are some language building exercises on it which some of the younger students might find interesting but it is perhaps that animation part of the site that could really help students.  A simple time line and with the ability to make cartoon like call outs to characters from a library could be a useful and innovative way for students to show what they know in foreign Langauges, Humanties, Maths or science or tell a digital story for English.  SO give it a go and see where your creativity takes you! www.kerpoof.com

How to save Flash game files

Why would you need to do this? - While many students will probably never use this on work, there are some students whom may happen to find a flash game they really want to use in a presentation or some such. How to do it? - This is a very simple process. Go to the site with the flash game and start the game Press Ctrl+U, then Ctrl+F In the search bar that comes up, type .swf If it is really a flash game something like this (http://uploads.ungrounded.net/531000/531437_finalninja.swf)will show up with swf higlighted, copy the URL listed Download the Orbit downloader from here http://www.orbitdownloader.com/ Click File-Add URL and paste the two URL's onto it Download the FLVPlayer4Free from here http://www.flvplayer4free.com/ When it is done, click on the file Enjoy! *Note* This was done on a windows computer, not sure on Macs *Note* If there is nothing like what is shown above after typing swf in the search bar, then it is not downloadable from the site(Newgrounds is one of the sites confirmed to work) *Note* This is only for the Google Chrome Browser, it WILL NOT WORK on Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari