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Many options for "making" video games (or simple animations) have emerged. In this short piece, Edudemic shares how one can use GameStar mechanic to make games along with a video. It is well worth a try although, depending on the type of game, Microsoft Kodu or Scratch may also work. There are also some very cool games with the Xbox Kinect SDK app that let you capture a person's body movements much like they do to create characters like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.

This is a wonderfully designed site to learn Mandarin Chinese. It uses a huge collection of Chinese TV programmes and movie clips with interactive and dual-language subtitles. Click on a Chinese character is see the translation and hear the pronunciation. You can set your ability level and also what sort of media you are interested in. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

A four quadrant coordinates game. Set the position of your characters and try to find where the computer or a friend has hidden them. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

A superb site with animated videos of Shakespeare plays. Watch short explanations about some of the most famous plays and watch videos exploring the characters. The text that goes with the videos is useful and child-friendly. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English

A well made Mandarin resource for kids. Choose a topic page then hover over the objects to see the characters and pinyin and hear the pronunciation. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

A Dragons and Knights themed multiplication game. Click on the character with the correct answer. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Are you wide, round, but sweet? This might be the Avatar maker for you. Make an M&M character. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

This is a fun, cute, social 3D island world designed especially with children in mind. Children make an avatar and follow a quick tutorial and explanation of safety rules. The children can take their characters on quests, play educational games and interact with other users of the site. A fabulous feature of the site is that users are encouraged to 'make and do' offline as well. These activities can be uploaded to a scrapbook and multimedia blog. Offline activities also generate points in the game. The scrapbook is defaulted to private and no photos of children will be approved by moderators if the scrapbook is public. All the usual safety features are in place, including a 'report' and 'block' other users button. The basic account with most features is free, but there are optional 'paid for' extras. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Second of two great YouTube Playlists with over 200 explanations of how Chinese characters have evolved over time. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

A very useful QR code site where you can type a 100 character message which is read out with a voice synthesiser when the code is scanned. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

This is a wonderfully bizarre interesting story site where users move the character around and solve the puzzles. The demo version is free. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English

A role-playing game which highlights what we can do to make a better world by being citizen scientists. Take the character on a science adventure and follow the clues to complete the missions. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

A great creativity activity using great 3d characters

This is a great game app for learning Chinese Pinyin, simplified Chinese and Mandarin. Play the Scrabble-like game by arranging your tiles on the board to form Pinyin words. Choose a character and the correct meaning to gain extra points. Play against friends on the web. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinyinpal-only-free-mandarin/id573873383 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This is a superb site and download where you can make 3D animated cartoons by selecting your props, characters and locations and then use blocks to programme how things move and interact in a similar way to MIT's Scratch. You can upload your creations to the website to share. There are a set of challenges to try and you can even remix animations designed by other users. Discovered via @mberry http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Video%2C+animation%2C+film+%26+Webcams

This is a great iPad app which lets users design and play simple games by drawing the character and backgrounds. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sketch-nation-studio/id506337826 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Peggy Sheehy is the matron of gamification and she's one upped her own groundbreaking work in Second Life. She's gamified the Common Core Learning Standards. Wow. One more reason you can't use standards as an excuse to do nothing. "They are also learning to be mighty gamers because Sheehy is gamifying the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS). With the command "Go forth and be epic," students pack away drafts and log on to 3D Game Lab where A Hero's Journey awaits. WoWinSchool: A Hero's Journey is a curriculum based in World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which players assume characters and interact within an ever-changing, virtual world.  Sheehy helped to frame the curriculum developed by Lucas Gillespie and Craig Lawson with whom she collaborates on the award-winning WoWInSchool project.  "

This is a great iPad app which lets you make amazing games with the minimum of coding experience. Use the pre-made characters and props or make your own using your camera or gallery images. Control the behaviour of each item to make some intricate games with a flick of your finger. Your designs are only limited by your imagination. Share your games with others at the click of a button. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/GamePress/id637370800?mt=8 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Comic Book Creator is a tool allows the creation of dynamic web comic books. An author can create an e-comic book by combining images of characters, pictures, background, text in balloons which can be placed in the frames of the pages of the book in that way and style desired. The produced dynamic web comic books are highly interactive flash based books that provide a great page flipping animation control opportunity as well as features like zooming, printing and easy navigation.

Optical character recognition (OCR) software for the Apple iDevices that will scan any text, and then output it to text for e-mail, documents, or spreadsheets. Also includes text reading, which would make it very valuable for both students with visual disabilities and reading/decoding problems.