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"ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5-7) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Children can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves - then use the programming blocks to make their characters come to life."

Thanks for sharing this link John. I have recorded my interest with the developers to keep me informed. I love using Scratch with my grade 4s. As you'd know - the new Digital Technologies curric emphasises programming, so Scratch Jr will be a welcome addition. Seems as though currics around the world are picking up on kids programming. Cheers - Chris Trimnell

Use Optical Character Recognition software without installation on your computer. Recognize text and characters from PDF scanned documents (including multipage files), photographs and digital camera captured images. Free Online OCR service supports 32 recognition languages.

Thanks to technologies like GPS and QR codes, these games combine real-world experiences with virtual information. The games can capture geo-tagged audio recordings, for example, or photos and videos that student players can view when they reach a particular place or meet a particular character. Characters can talk with students, provide information, exchange items or respond to tasks. Authors can also create virtual items that players can retrieve and exchange. The key is the ARIS platform, which enables teachers, designers, artists, and students to create place-based narratives. Game designers say the open-source platform is easy to use; educators don't need a programming background to get started because the work is done with an online authoring tool.

"What happens when a pirate meets a fox in the woods? You have the power to decide -- meeting new characters, going on great adventures and creating your very own story along the way. My StoryMaker lets you control characters and objects - and creates sentences for you! Once you are done with your story, you can print it out."

In addition to the scientific research this site can point you to, check out their Productivity tools for producing symbols, PDFs, images from web pages, OCR, on-screen keyboards, non-western characters and more!

The tweets are getting longer - what do we think about this direction.

An inevitability I guess. There are a good few people who will be delighted that they can shoehorn more information into a tweet, for all the reasons described in the article. Me, not so much. I like the brevity that tweets provide, allowing me to scan the stream and quickly pull out those nuggets that lead on to further information, join in exchanges discussing issues or participate in more extensive debates like #edchat etc. The act of contributing within a constraint of 140 characters forces you to think harder about what you want to say and ensure that your message still retains clarity - surely a higher-order skill? If the character limit is expanded, will tweeters become lazy and allow their tweets to bloat? Maybe I should have answered your question in 140 Tony. ;-)

Good points - and yes should have kept it to 140 characters just for consistency. I tend to agree - I guess the interesting thing is that groups/people can apply but will this single them out and will people proactively avoid them because of it. Think not but interesting to watch.

"Domo Animate (from the creators of Go Animate) is a school-friendly version of Go Animate for pupils to create animations free online.  It lets pupils animate characters of their choice and add music and sound effects from a bank of sounds.  Pupils can add speech as text bubbles and add interactive elemtns for story-telling activities. "

"Are you a digital packrat? Are you in need of a searchable repository for everything you want to recall later? Does the idea of automatic OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for all your scanned PDFs get you excited in a way only seriously organised people could ever understand? If so, Evernote is the tool you need right now - and we've got the perfect manual to get you started using it like a professional."

Great little video tutorials that show how to construct comics in comic life but also working with drawplus to rip characters from one cartoon and embedding them in the other. All neatly wrapped up in a cyber bullying theme for a token nod to e-safety.

NewOCR.com is a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service. NewOCR.com can analyze the text in any image file that you upload, and then convert the text from the image into text that you can easily edit on your computer.

"Wave a Microsoft Kinect sensor around the object you want to inhabit and the new system, developed by Jiawen Chen and his team from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, quickly creates a 3D virtual model of it. Then, by standing in front of the sensor and positioning your body so that it melds with the virtual character on screen, the two are rigged together by uttering the word "Possess". The system performs the transformation by binding the model to you at the points where your joints are attached. Moving your body makes the avatar come to life, allowing you to re-enact Fantasia-like cartoons or to create your own interactive stories. It's also possible to team up with friends to possess more complex bodies, like a four-legged horse."

Google has released a completely visual programming language that lets you build software without typing a single character. Now available on Google Code - the company's site for hosting open source software - the new language is called Google Blockly, and it's reminiscent of Scratch, a platform developed at MIT that seeks to turn even young children into programmers. Like Scratch, Blockly lets you build applications by piecing together small graphical objects in much the same way you'd piece together Legos. Each visual object is also a code object - a variable or a counter or an "if-then" statement or the like - and as you piece them to together, you create simple functions. And as you piece the functions together, you create entire applications - say, a game where you guide a tiny figurine through a maze.

Medium is a new place on the Internet where people share ideas and stories that are longer than 140 characters and not just for friends. It's designed for little stories that make your day better and manifestos that change the world. It's used by everyone from professional journalists to amateur cooks. It's simple, beautiful, collaborative, and it helps you find the right audience for whatever you have to say.

"Solve fun puzzles and learn to code. Simply drag & drop visual code blocks and program your characters to beat the level. The first adventure includes 20 puzzles that are free to play. Additional adventures and puzzle levels are available as in-app purchases. "

Another interesting piece about makerspaces. This time how one teacher librarian (librarian and English teacher) in the US used robotics kits in her library to respond to their reading. Her students to created characters from the stories they read and then brought them to life. Innovative and engaging hands-on learning - what's not to like. Other examples are discussed as well.

"What is BeFunky? BeFunky simplifies photo editing and effects for everyday people. Marvelous Photo Effects Choose from our constantly growing library of photo effects to turn your ordinary photos into extraordinary art with virtually no effort. Smart Photo Enhancement Photo editing made smart. Fix your common photo problems like bad lighting, digital noise, fuzzy colors and details with one click. Design Goodies Give your digital creations a whole lot of character with BeFunky Goodies. Add speech bubbles, frames and more..."

"Translating technology has come a long way since Babblefish. A new iPhone App called Word Lens combines augmented reality, real-time translation and character-recognition software that will have you heading to that Mexican restaurant you always wanted to try but couldn't read the menu."

Kaywa is a really straight forward QR code generator. Input can be URL, 250 character text, Phone Number or SMS. Is only for non-commercial use though.

are a new approach to teaching, learning and assessment in sciencewere created by Brenda Keogh and Stuart Naylor in 1991feature cartoon-style drawings showing different characters arguing about an everyday situationare designed to intrigue, to provoke discussion and to stimulate scientific thinkingmay not have a single "right answer"