Puzzles and games

Puzzles and games encourage participants to interact and gives you a welcome break. Or you may choose to get them to complete the puzzle in their workbooks during a classroom session. This type of web 2.0 tool will appeal to the kinesthetic learners. The only limit is your imagination.

Following is a list of some discovery resources that I have found.

Discovery resources
* Puzzlemaker allows you to create crosswords etc
* Jigsaw - upload an image to create a jigsaw
* Bingo generator - design your own bingo cards
* Classroom jeopardy - create your own questions and play online with teams
* Who wants to be a millionaire - is based on the television game show which offers prizes for correctly answering a series of randomized multiple-choice questions of varying difficulty
* Online board games - create your own online board game

Discovery exercise
1. Choose a discovery resource and create your own puzzle

2. Surf the net to see what else you can find


.

Gliffy

This diagram editor makes it easy for you to create professional website pages, flowcharts, organisation charts, floor plans, Venn and SWOT diagrams for free. It looks and feels like a desktop application, but it works through your web browser, so there is nothing to install or maintain.

You need a web browser with Macromedia Flash 7 or better to run Gliffy. You can even copy other people's templates so you dont' have to start from scratch.


Discovery exercise
1. Read this overview about Gliffy

2. Take a look at some examples of what you can make with Gliffy

3. Get started and create a diagram if you have time.


.

Animoto

Animoto turns your images or photos into unique video clips. Once mixed it kind of looks like a movie trailer. It's as easy as 1,2,3.


1. Upload your image or point to an image already online. Add some text if you want to tell a story
2. Choose some music or upload your own
3. Send to be mixed

It really is easy to do and makes your presentation look very professional!

Discovery resource
Introduction video for this eSession


Discovery exercise

1. Watch the Animoto tutorial

2. Browse their library to see other videos you like



.

Wallwisher

Wallwisher allows people to easily express their thoughts on a common topic.



You could use this as a to-do list, gather feedback before a workshop to get ideas on participant expectations, gather quotes from attendees post workshop...the possibilities are endless.

To post some feedback simply double click anywhere on the wall. You can write text, add an image, audio or video link. The person who created the wall can choose to approve postings and move notes around the wall. There is a limit of 160 characters.


Discovery exercise
1.Take a look at the Demo wall to get an idea about the type of things that can be posted.

2. Post a comment on the NZATD wallwisher and tell us what you like or don't like about these web 2.0 tools.



.

Prezi

Prezi is a fun presentation tool that engages different learning styles!


In Prezi, you create your presentation on a large canvas, like a whiteboard, instead of traditional slides. You can easily place ideas, images and videos and arrange them in a natural flow to tell your story. Prezi lets you zoom in to emphasise the detail or zoom out to see the big picture. You can also add text, images, videos, files, lines and shapes. The basic version is free to download and best of all it is simple to use.

Discovery resource
Death by Powerpoint - some common PowerPoint mistakes and a good reason to think about using Prezi.

Exercise

1. Watch the tutorial on Prezi to find out some of the key features.

2. Explore some presentations of interest


.

Screen capture & screen casting software

TechSmith provides screen capture and screen casting software for individual and professional use. You can use these to grab images and record content straight off your computer screen to create dynamic presentations and screencasts.

You can download the software for a free 30 day trial or purchase at a reasonable rate.

Discovery resources:

* Snagit - this tutorial outlines the basic features of Snagit which allows you to select and capture anything on your screen and crop it to size
* Camtasia studio - this tutorial shows you some key feature to create videos that can demonstrate a process, product, or idea.


Discovery exercise

1. Watch one of the tutorials in the discovery resources - note these use Camtasia software.

2. Reflect on how useful this tool could be to you for designing training materials.


.

Online generators

Generators? No, I’m not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I’m talking about allow you to easily manipulate images and graphics and add your own text to create fun images like this:



These are great fun to make and useful to use for presentations and training workbooks.





Following are some discovery resources for you to take a look at:

• The Generator Blog
• Online generators
• Jelly muffins
• Big Huge Labs

• or you may want to try searching the internet for other online generators, text generators or image generators!


Discovery Exercise:

1. Play around with some image generators listed in the resources above and create an image.



.