Geography Website Review

Revision Review: Skoool

Skoool is a e-learning website made by LGFL in association with Smartech and Intel consisting of Maths and 3 sciences which are then separated into sub-categories. It has different ways to learn: step-by-step guides explained simply by animated diagrams and text read by a voice-synthesised, American accent. Interactive activities to experiment with scientific forces, nature and technology.

Also quizzes to test your learnt knowledge.

Site-
http://www.skoool.co.uk

EAL/ESL Review

English is known as the hardest language if you are not of English-speaking origin with many complex grammar rules and spellings. So prepare to learn the 3rd most widely spoken language in the world with a selection of useful and helpful websites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/-Definitive and essential guide from BBC World Service.
http://www.rong-chang.com/  - Created by a Chinese doctorate Ron-Chang Lee with a PHD in English Language, very useful.
http://a4esl.org - has bilingual translations of languages from across the globe, useful for any ESL student for any country.
Enjoy! Apprécier! Tanoshimu! Disfrutar! Xiǎngshòu! Jeulgyeo! سے لطف اندوز! 

InFamous Second son

This is a game about a person named Desmond who gets super powers and uncovers a that the leader of a Anti "Bio-terrorist" group.

EAL / ESL Websites

English is a very hard language to learn, but you'll get the hang of it eventually! Try these websites to help you learn English:

• learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
• www.learnenglish.org.uk
• englishgrammar.org

Have fun learning English

Jacob:)

SEN Website Review

SEN stands for Special Educational Needs. This means that people need certain things to help them progress in their education. The website that I found ( www.senteacher.org ) gives resources to help SEN pupils to learn. It is for many different types of SEN. I could not find many general websites for SEN but you can find ones for separate forms. Also, try this quiz about what type of learner you are: http://www.bbc.co.uk/keyskills/extra/module1/2.shtml

Jacob :)

SEN Review: What Type Of Learner Are You?

These questionnaires are used to discover the way you learn: visually, auditory (listening) or kinaesthetically (movement). They ask a variety of questions from whether you like reading textbooks to gather information or watching/drawing videos and diagrams or even the way you tackle the building of Lego models by explanation (auditory), simply feeling the structure and shape of the bricks to make it fit together (kinaesthetic) and following the packets' images and diagrams (visual). The websites may also feature a guide on how to effectively use your preferred learning style as with my favourite Brainboxx, they are also differing versions from Edutopia and the Discovery Channel.
Sites-: http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/vak_quest.htm
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/what-type-of-learner-are-you-quiz.htm

Revision

I do not have any affiliation with the brands mentioned in this post :D


I, like many other Year 11's, have been revising over the last few months, so I thought I would share some of my revision tips. This is a list, in no particular order, of any techniques or websites I have found useful while revising. this is just what i have found helpful there are hundreds of ways to revise, so find what works for you and stick at it.

• Mind maps
• Mind maps are a great way to split up larger topics into bitesize chunks, they're also useful for finding the most important parts of a topic and visualise how topics link together. I've found them useful because I like visualising how everything links together.
• A useful website for creating mind maps, flash cards, notes and more, you can look at others revision material or show your own to the world; if you and a few friends start to use it you can collaborate on material or easily look at their revision and help keep each other on track.
  https://www.examtime.com/
• Condensing notes
• Turning a term of work into two or three pages can be useful for deciding which parts of a topic are important, it also provides a great refresher of things you may have forgotten and will provide concise useful revsion nearer your exams.
• Try to cover one topic in a session, if it takes you more than 30 mins for 1 topic  you're doing something wrong. It is helpful to write up all these notes into a different lined notepad/excercise book, for easy reference.
• Past Papers
• Just DO past papers, get a feel for what the examiner wants, find topics you don't know so well and practice your exam technique. They are a great way of revising but don't waste them, there are only so many with the correct specification(what you've been learning), so save some for nearer the exam, but do ones you've already done twice just a month apart, this will help you focus in on what content you need to revise further, and will help your exam technique.
• To find past papers search for " past papers"
• If you can't find any for your tier or that you haven't done do the foundation papers, the questions are asked in the same style and are different from the higher paper from the same year, so will help your exam technique and will also help you find topics you need more revsion on.
• Music
• Any revision needs some good music to prevent you becoming bored so find some music you like, turn it up and get down to business.
• Spotify is a great free way to listen to music, works well and saves time compared to youtube downloader, it's also legal!
• Food
• If you're revising you need some snacks to keep you on the go, save some of those easter eggs for your revsion or sign up for something like Graze, they provide nutritious snacks straight to your door for you to dive into.

I hope these tips help you with your revision so,

Good Luck!

Website Review: Pixar Theory.com plus hidden Pixar Easter eggs

Pixar Theory is a website created by Pixar expert Jon Negroni which shows how every character from the popular movies exist in one universe with a in chronological order in the Pixar universe and film production order for our universe. It highlights intellectually bizarre ideas about the movies such as Boo, the innocent little child from Monsters Inc. is time traveller and found out wood was a primary source of energy all along  (The dimension-travelling doors in Monsters Inc. are made of wood, The Wood in A Bugs' Life is the source of Flik's ingenuity and wood helped Carl's house in Up) The Pixar Universe's timeline begin with Brave in the 14th and 15th century to Monsters Inc. in 4500-5000 AD. It is definite, unmissable visit for any Pixar, Disney or film fanatic.
Site-http://www.pixartheory.com

In discovering this website I also discovered some awesome hidden Pixar Easter eggs, some just pure genius and others my favourites:

The iCar from 2008's Cars, a reference to Apple and the late former Pixar CEO and Apple Inc. co-creator Steve Jobs. Complete with iconic Apple logo and 84 number (1984 was the year, the first Apple Mac computer was released)

On Andy's wall in Toy Story 3 pinned up is a postcard by Carl and his wife Ellie from Up

Here in Toy Story 3 is a Totoro plush from Japanese animation My Neighbour Totoro from Studio Ghibli.

Sulley carving in Brave which agrees with a theory on how Boo is/or related to the evil witch in Brave

For more info on Pixar hidden secrets and Easter eggs and theories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_film_references

http://jonnegroni.com

Game

Recently on my iPad I downloaded a really cool game called running Fred. If I were you I would get it as it is free.
http://www.appsparadise.it/wordpress/p3268/

Goodbye and Good Luck

Dear Digital Leaders,

I am so honoured to have worked with such a talented and passionate group of young people over the last year.  You are all so special in your own ways.  I wish you all the best in your digital endeavours and will be watching with interest to see how you develop.

Keep being amazing.

Ms F

Goat Simulator: Shrek Mod

For the basics and the fun stuff you should definitely do read Heidi's post about Goat Simulator here it is a great overview of the game. I will comment specifically on the Shrek modification.

Goat Simulator is a simulation PC game where you play as a goat, recently they updated the game fixing bugs and glitches, but also added the option to play as your favourite animated ogre Shrek! Previously they have been demon goats, angel goat (with hovering power!) and even Yoshi goats. Now here's Shrek, who has detailed and accurate design making him very authentic and awesome, although is programmed in the goat position like all the characters so doesn't stand upright. Here's my top ten list of insanity to play with the Shrek character modification:
1. Play Flappy Goat as Shrek and observe his disgusting green bottom as you play
2. Get hit by a car and break and glitch his body
3. Destroy the environment by causing freaky vortexes
4. Cause a giant Katamari-style ball of the objects around you
5. Fall from the sky and watch Shrek die from the gigantic pressure
6. Bounce on a trampoline
7. Become King of the GOATS as SHREK!!!!
8. Complete every achievement
9. Crash a party
10. Make goat noises as Shrek!

Download Shrek Mod: http://tinyurl.com/ShrekGS

Download Game: http://tinyurl.com/m3dv3so

Videos of Shrek Mod in-game:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_ZSNVOvFq0 - Basic overview and gameplay of Shrek Mod
http://tinyurl.com/ShrekGSPewDiePie - Top YouTuber PewDiePie provides comedic commentary as he hilariously plays as the Shrek Mod in Goat Simulator (CAUTION: Contains profanity/swearing) 

Goat Simulator

Yes you heard the tittle right, I am about to do a review on the newly released (1st April) Goat Simulator.
In Goat Sim you get too be a goat.... So just from that why wouldn't you want to get it.

Not actual Game as all the picture are copyrighted

The stupid fun game has to be said to have many bugs, but the produces Coffee Stain Studio say they are going to keep them in and only fix the game breaking bugs, as they make the game hilarious to play.
The producers also say on there website that you should really not buy the game and instead just buy a pile of bricks or maybe a real goat instead.
What the game is basically you get to be a goat and rampage a town while getting a load of random points for doing different stunts as well as a load of achievement for doing funny/crazy stuff to.
This game is really good for if you just had a stressful day, you can just go home and log on and play Goat sim for a few hours.

Something's you should definitely try to do : (I wont tell you how to do them experiment yourself.)
1) Go Hang-Gliding
2) Go to the low gravity testing facility
3) Unlock tall Goat
4) Become the King of the goats.
5) Play Flappy Goat
6) Find all 27 goat statues

Many say this should be Game of the year 2014

Links to YouTubers playing:
The Game and youtubers contain swearing especially the youtubers
Yogscast Simon and Lewis
Toby Games
Pewdiepie

I would like to say a big thank you to Miss Findlater for putting together the Digital leaders and all the work you have put into it, you will be missed but good luck at you new school :D

Yoshi's New Island 3DS Review

Yoshi's New Island is the sequel to the SNES classic, it may bring a shining feeling of nostalgia for those growing up in this pre-modern Mario era of 1995 (probably just seen Toy Story , for the first time!) and smiling as discover their favourite green, adorable anthropomorphic dinosaur is the titular character, and playing it addictively.  For most 25-year old 3DS owners, memories will flourish incorporating the original game mechanics and pastel, chalkboard art and music with a modern twist of 3D graphics and animation and remixed tunes from the GameBoy version, makes it very appealing for the children of the noughties and 2010s. The gameplay increases in challenge as you go through the levels although unlike Super Mario, the levels are not timed, so are more paced and require more concentration. Another modern twist is the ability for Yoshi to transform into hot air balloon or mine cart etc. in amusing mini-games to acquire more coins.  The objective is the same as Yoshi is Baby Mario's protective guardian as he attempts to rescue Baby Luigi and defeat Kamek, the magical koopa, as  you squeal "glums" and "yahoos" and swallowing enemies and discreetly defecated them as useful little eggs. With collectibles to find, replaying the levels is still enjoyable with no tediousness, just the challenge of the level and cuteness and brilliance of Yoshi repeated. Overall I ensure you won't be frying this nostalgic "eggy" gem. 

91% GOLD AWARD

Buy the game: 

http://tinyurl.com/Yoshi3DS

Art Review: Parodies of Great Works

Just by simply googling 'Art Parody' or 'Pop Culture Art Parodies' or putting a franchise name e.g. Simpsons or Lego or Muppets then 'Art Parody' into Google you find some pretty impressive and hilarious parodies of famous artwork such as The Scream, Mona Lisa, The Last Supper even Andy Warhol parodies. Featured below are just some of my many favourites, tell me your preference in the comment section!: 

ART - Lazy Paint

Lazy Paint is a app for Tablet,but you can still get in on some computer app stores.
The lazy paint slogan is "No Talent, No Problem"  as it is very easy to create a piece of art without very little effort.
To start of with You upload a picture that you have already taken of your self or something else e.g. landscapes, animals...
You can choose how much your background shows through as well as different styles of paintbrush e.g. Splat, Spray Can, Scribble, Flowers, Pointillist.
Using all these tools can make you pictures look like amazing Paintings, which you could be pound of.

Click here to look at the Download Page!

Art Review: Major Cities Without Light Pollution

On the website I am going to review, are stunning interpretations by a pioneering French photographer called Thierry Cohen about what major cities would look like without light pollution, so billions of stars and the entrances of galaxies are visible so these first-class cities become even more attractive. The list of cities are: New York, Rio De Janeiro, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Paris and São Paulo. Unfortunately for Britons, there's no depiction of London, but with the shiny beauties at differing angles and areas of the cities, this website is ensured to leave you "starry-eyed", no matter the circumstances!

An awesome abundance of stars shining stunningly in terrific Tokyo 

Site-http://www.danzigergallery.com/artists/thierry-cohen/



Alas, I will be absent at Digital Leaders this week, so I wish Ms Findlater, the best of luck at her new job :) :) Goodbye :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Sports Review: Sumo Wrestling

Sumo Wrestling is uncommon sport in most countries, but is the national and hugely popular sport in The Land of The Rising Sun aka Japan!. It is most watched programme on Japanese TV according to viewing figures apart from anime. Here's a few websites which detail the basics of Sumo Wrestling: http://www.sumotalk.com/rules.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumo
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/sumo/sumo01.html
http://www.sumo.or.jp/pdf/en/sumo_introduction.pdf
http://www.sumo.or.jp
http://japanese.lingualift.com/blog/what-sumo-eat-wrestlers-diet/
For those more reluctant encyclopaedia/websites learners here's a few videos, both entertaining and humorous:
http://tinyurl.com/SumoNatGeo
http://tinyurl.com/SumoNatGeo2
http://tinyurl.com/SumoTakeshi'sCastle
http://tinyurl.com/SumoSmartBeepAd
http://tinyurl.com/SumoPepsiAd

Plus a hilarious sumo GIF: http://tinyurl.com/FunnySumoGIF !!!!!!!!!!!

Barcelona Football Team

This website is really good because it has lots of information about Barcelona football team. It doesn't only have information about Barcelona, it also has information about other football team.
Here is a the URL for the website http://www.uefa.com/teamsandplayers/teams/club=50080/domestic/

History of Korea

I have recently found this website about Korea (an amazing country)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea


check it out to find out about korea

both korea flags

Sport

this is a website that is all about Chelsea fc


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/Chelsea



You should check this out to know about Chelsea



Thief

I am going to Review the game Thief. It is a stealth based stealing game. The age rating is 16+. the main character is called Garret he is a master thief and has to help from a female thief (I forgot her name)

 
By   SamShackleton

Slave abolition website

I have found a Slave abolition website called "The Abolition Project" it has loads of info from "what is slavery?" to " Abolitionists" It is a good website for Y8's doing The Slave Trade. Here is the URL for this website: http://abolition.e2bn.org/index.php

By Sam Shackleton

Gaming Review: Minion Rush

Minion Rush is a free game for iOS and Android and Windows Phone devices in which you run along collecting items (bananas and Bapples in this case) as a comedic banana-shaped minion from the Despicable Me franchise. It has been defined as "Temple Run meets Despicable Me" expect with humour, minions and running across iconic locations from the movies such as Gru's Lab and El Macho's Lair. The objective is to jump, slide and evade through and past ledges and objects that appear for long as possible. Game over occurs when your yellow one-eyed homunculi bumps into a obstacle or falls over a ledge. A humorous aspect of the game is the ability to dress up the minions in idiotic,but playful costumes such as a referee or baby, which increase the capabilities of power-ups.

 You can also collect a daily reward by finding 3 hidden Bapples (Minionese for apple) in different zones, which can unlock new character costumes or stashes of bananas and Gru tokens. The freemium aspect is the only true disappointment as certain items and costumes are only available through paying real-life currency to buy a stockpile of virtual currency to acquire these, although they are not a necessity and only improve the gameplay very slightly, these are only embedded since this is a pleasant ad-free game and only option for the greedy developers to make money. I will also mention the tediousness of the game as the environment/visuals of areas may change, but the gameplay/content is very similar, as with most running games, although with frequent/monthly updates, with new zones or mini-games and extras such as banana-ridden secret areas or seasonal themes (e.g. Christmas Gru's Lab and Halloween Residential Area) the developers find differing ways to keep you entertained.

Download the game: iOS: http://tinyurl.com/MinionRushiOS 
 Android: http://tinyurl.com/MinionRushAndroid Windows: http://tinyurl.com/MinionRushWindows

Screenshot of  my own minion in Gru's Lab.

History Review: Japanese history

Here are a frenzy of recommended websites which showcase information on Japanese history of samurai, ninjas and video games and much more!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~malokofs/SCA/Persona/History/samurai.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html
http://www.history.com/topics/samurai-and-bushido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2295.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario
http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mario_history.shtml
http://www.mariowiki.com/mario#History
http://mario.ign.com
http://classicgames.about.com/od/consoleandhandheldgames/p/Super-Mario-Bros-The-Game-That-Saved-Video-Games.htm
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/History_of_Pokémon
http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/pokemon-history/
http://www.gamesradar.com/history-pokemon-box-art/
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-625945.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli#History
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/
http://doraemon.wikia.com/wiki/Doraemon
http://harumelati.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/doraemon-cartoon-history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon

A collection of weird and wonderful websites and obscurity to do online now-March 2014

Here's a awesome abundance of obscurity I recommend some of which may be both for entertainment or education or even entertaining education.

1. Typing Games. First up is Sesame Street Fighter, which is a fighting/typing game crossover of Sesame Street and Street Fighter, created from a inspiring image on devianART which improves your typing while playing a fighting game with modified loveable Sesame Street characters copying the appearance of Street Fighter fighters. It has simple topics such as animals to insane topics such as Russian cities. While being educational in typing and spelling is great for gamers of all ages, although is partially incompatible on iOS devices. Next up is Flappy Bird Typing Tutor in which the short-lived Vietnamese phenomenon is converted to assist your typing and spelling skills by typing as quickly as possible to travel the flappy, little bird through the pipes, which is alas also not compatible on iOS devices.

2. Brick Brilliance. With the recent release of The Lego Movie, everything Lego in March/February 2014 is awesome! First up is videos, firstly here's the lyric video of infuriatingly catchy Everything is Awesome by Tegan and Saga feat. The Lonely Island which is a humorously great song, which you'll have heard many times already if you seen the movie. Next up is a fantastic Simpsons Lego Movie crossover Couch Gag by French-Canadian stop-motion animator MonsieurCaron. Finally is Build With Chrome, in which on a collaboration with Google Chrome and Lego in which people build Lego online, which once submitted can viewed all across the world, there was been insanely huge models created ranging the USA to Malaysia.

3. 2048. 2048 is a Italian number game in which you slide tiles of numbers and the same numbers add and merge into one another and you try to create the number 2048. It is highly addictive but mathematically fun.

History- World War 2 Rationing Recipe's

This is an amazing website especially if you are in year 9 and are doing the WWII  home front project. This website shows what people were able to make with their weekly rations. The creator of the website eats only what their weekly ration would allow and write about the recipes they make. It also tells you about the different meals it will tell you how to make each one.

http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/100-wartime-recipes/

There is a lot of interesting information that you should definitely try out :D

Recommended sites for Maths, Science, MFL and Geography

Sorry for my recent lack of posts but here I hope get back up to date. ;)

Maths

Pearson active learn is a great resource for students to use outside of school. It means that students can access their textbooks, to get help with homework or to work on things they are struggling with. It is also useful for stretching yourself and having a go for those A* questions you didn't have time for.
It currently only has GCSE textbooks on there, so is very useful for years 10/11 but less so for younger years; although if you think you are ready for it go ahead!

www.pearsonactivelearn.com

Science

If you are interested in science or technology pick up a copy of focus magazine (available in the library). It features lots of interesting articles and is great if you want to know more. This month is about memory; how big is our brain's capacity?, Will our brain become full?, Can we implant false memories?

MFL

wordreference.com is a great website for translating between many languages, it provides an online dictionary so unlike Google translate it will show you all of the translations of a word and associated phrases, this means you will get a more natural and more correct translation. Hopefully you will find it useful!

Geography

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a great website to track natural disasters, earthquakes or other world events. It is great for extending your background knowledge and it may surprise you how many earthquakes are happening around the world every day, some even under your feet!

Happy π (Pi) Day!

Happy π Day everybody! It is the 14th of March (3.14 = Pi to 2 decimal places, 3rd month, 14th day!)  . So I'll recommend some awesome delicious as π websites. First up is http://digitsofpi.com in which on its home page explains the basics of Pi and then you type and ask to calculate π to up to 100,000 decimal places. Second is http://www.joyofpi.com which celebrates everything joyous π which has humorous and interesting facts about π. Finally here's http://www.piday.org/ which celebrates Pi Day and has a interesting sections on Pi's history and how people around the world celebrate Pi Day. Now here's π to 12.1 trillion digits condensed in a computation since it was discovered by Japanese mathematician Shigeru Kondo on 28th of December 2013!!: 

3.

1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 : 50 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 : 100

2597691971 6538537682 7963082950 0909387733 3987211875 : 4,999,999,999,950 6399906735 0873400641 7497120374 4023826421 9484283852 : 5,000,000,000,000 0874753286 1800417105 0417234177 3440660835 6303291247 : 5,000,000,000,050 0494788787 3350953767 0283816394 7603993291 8259328455 : 5,000,000,000,100

9544408882 6291921295 9268257225 1615742394 7483010753 : 9,999,999,999,950 9804871001 5982157822 2070871138 6966940952 1989228675 : 10,000,000,000,000 4392476662 7656619000 2124460557 5531593458 4820611421 : 10,000,000,000,050

7774158802 8607364081 0882791485 3424578359 2017915623 : 10,999,999,999,950 9022892022 4547999448 8759918307 1538211154 9129857424 : 11,000,000,000,000 8850838032 0621312483 8327044318 1257233570 9958940293 : 11,000,000,000,050

0225990312 0715120901 2625933350 2113726804 5410547637 : 11,999,999,999,950 9229203002 7190437071 4461941152 9088219512 2780551965 : 12,000,000,000,000 6281443745 8325315851 4346900240 7029751021 5197388736 : 12,000,000,000,050

2323632519 7260136778 4244176022 7323590892 5620919959 : 12,099,999,999,950 6850993485 4514351158 7381100302 4015062599 1743930275 : 12,100,000,000,000 2840983997 4140672353 4319030217 7521257272 1740258075 : 12,100,000,000,050

Geography Review: CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook is a reference website created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It features world maps and regional maps in both political and physical format to view for free. It also has detailed information and statistics on every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It includes information and statistics from the country's history to transactional issues (and of course its geography!)

 It includes flag descriptions of every flag, and has downloadable photos of every country with lengthy, intricate captions. There is also a printed book version available updated every year and a iOS app.


Site- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
2014 Edition book: http://ow.ly/uBeV9
iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-cia-world-factbook/id412637620?mt=8&uo=4

Geography website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/geography.shtml

I like this website because it is very easy to use and helpful as well for ages 4-11 for help on geography 

What my favourite bit about geography is the flags of different countries

GeoGuessr

I know that there was a short introduction on this amazing website GeoGuessr done by Jacob.
http://rcdigitalleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/website-review-geoguessr.html#comment-form
Click the link above to see the general overview of what the website is.

 

 

Since the last blog on this The Geoguessr website it has changed a bit. You can now set a time limit for when your playing with others and they are just taking FOREVER, as well when you set up the challenge it will give the web address which you can give to friends or family to complete to see who is the best at geography.
The website now has a help section for new comers that are not so sure how the game works. The Controlls are easy to use and many of the sites around the world are abouoltly amazing. Some that I have come across are Waterfulls, Beaches and famous landmarks. although sometimes if are in a very remote area you may not always be able to move.

French Help!

MFL week!
It is a French game, where it lets you play as well as learning how to speak French...

http://www.digitaldialects.com/French.htm

Including Fruit and Veg
Coulors
Animals
Clothing
Verbs
Time
Food
Days and months
Numbers and many more.

The game are all interactive which help learning much easier and fun!
Even if this app is good for mostly KS3 it can always be a way to remind you when you have to look over them again as you have forgotten.

-Heidi

Modern Foreign Language Websites!

Salut, bonjour! Hallo, guten tag! Hola! Konichiwa! I love Modern Foreign Languages and here are some websites to use to revise or to practice or to learn!

Pronounciation websites:

http://voki.com/

http://www.pronouncehow.com/

Here is a learning/practicing/revising website:

You may have to pay for subscription, or you could get your school to use this: http://www.linguascope.com/

Here are some translating websites, but they are not always correct so try not to use them a lot:

http://translate.google.com/

http://www.babylon.com/

Have fun learning/revising/practicing Modern Foreign Languages!

Learn Japanese! 日本を学ぶ！

Konnichiwa! For my MFL blog post, I'll reviewing websites which help you learn my favourite language JAPANESE! First up is anime-manga.jp. Which helps learn basic phrases using anime and manga style characters with a interactive manga comic and audio to learn pronunciation of words.

Next up is http://www.erin.ne.jp which also uses child-friendly cartoony characters although includes more detailed lessons with real-life Japanese people videos, suited more for beginners.

 Finally is http://marugotoweb.jp, my favourite of the three websites which also uses cartoony characters and real-life Japanese people videos similar to Erin's Challenge-I speak Japanese! website although is more intricate than the others creating you from a unknown to a fluent. With a wide variety of topics ranging from Basics to Food to Holidays.

The only disappointment of the sites is the requirement of Adobe Flash Player making them non-mobile/tablet friendly in this modern age of technology.

BBC bitesize review.

After finally having some spare time I was able to write a review as well as doing some revision.

The website I would like to recommend is BBC bite size, I find this website very useful especially when it comes to revising.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/

the different elements you can study are:

 

Organisms, behavior and health

Life processes, cells, health, variation and classification, feeding relationships

Chemical and material behavior

Solids, liquids and gases, periodic table, pH scale for acids, bases and alkalis

Energy, electricity and forces

Energy, forces, electric currents and magnetism

The environment, the Earth and the universe

Rock types, astronomy, and the environment

This is very useful if you are trying to revise these subjects BBC bite size is one of the best learning website on the internet.

-Heidi

A Great Collection of Science Websites

Despite the absence of Digital Leaders this week I feel obliged to write a blog post to sustain popularity and do what was meant to written today. So without further delays here is multiple scientific websites. For Periodic Table obsessives: I recommend webelements.com which shows the entire Periodic Table (including Actinoids and Lanthanoids) in which you discover extensive and key information about any element. For those of you want to learn and master the lyrics to Tom Lehrer's magnificent 'Elements' song to impress your friends here's a YouTube video (and it's accompanying lyrics). For space fanatics here's NASA's official site:  http://www.nasa.gov, which includes a educational and children's section for learning more about space and The Solar System.

For those who want science featuring famous intellectual masterminds I recommend, the previously recommended TED, which includes talks by Professor Stephen Hawking and Professor Brian Cox. For those who enjoy unconventional and oddly interesting science I recommend the also previously recommended awesome Vsauce (more details in my review here).

Hope you enjoyed this review! Look out for more science website recommendations by my fellow Digital Leaders.

Spice Bites - Digital Leaders Site Presented to Staff at Riddlesdown

On Monday I will be proudly presenting the Riddlesdown Digital Leaders blog to the wonderful staff at Riddlesdown Collegiate.  Our Digital Leaders are only in their infancy stages and have so much more to do in the school but they have already achieved a great deal and staff are very much looking forward to seeing a little glimpse of what they have been up to so far.

It is the first day of term and very, very early but I am hoping that the some of the Riddlesdown Digital Leaders will be there at 8.25 in the hall to help me show off their super work.

I am one proud teacher!

Ms F

Scribblenauts Unlimited 3DS Review

Scriblenauts Unlimited is the third title in the Scribblenauts series. The objective of the Scribblenauts games is to complete levels and puzzles by summoning objects/persons/fantasy monster/weapons with the primary character Maxwell's magical notebook e.g. Quest 'make a potion for the witch, so she can have a romantic date with the troll" Object 1: snail, 2: flower 3:candy. The ability to add adjectives allows you to convert the attributes/personality of the objects,e.g. making people happy=evil or evil=friendly, creating great humour. The series' slogan is 'Endless Possibilities, Imagine Anything, Explore Everything",it believes the only limitation is your imagination, which is partially true, although the lack of the Object Editor in the 3DS version, causes a prevented imagination to the user. Another disappointment was the level of difficultly and I found far less challenging than the previous titles suggesting it may be aimed at children with his cartoony style although it's still rated a PEGI 12 for violence.

 This version of Scribblenauts includes popular Nintendo characters/items such as Mario or Link or a Invincibility Star or Master Sword unlike its predecessors.  Since it was released in the USA nearly 1 year 1/2 ago, they are many edits to the European versions since it doesn't include internet memes such as Nyan Cat or Rickroll anymore after the creator of Nyan Cat sued Warner Bros, which could have created a more enjoyable experience.

Buy the game: http://goo.gl/lByGvd 

 Pros:
+Funny
+Creativity is almost unlimited
+Intriguing puzzles
+Nintendo Characters

Cons:
-Less challenging than previous titles
-No internet memes
-Less unlimited than believed

83%-SILVER AWARD

Recommended for education: TED Talks

TED is a variety of educational talks about 'Ideas Worth Spreading" as it's slogan says, from Can Video Games Make Kids Smarter? to a North Korean refugee, now living in the USA who lost his family during the country's famine. The topics range from entertainment to global issues. TED Talks have been hosted by ordinary people to YouTubers. From Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates to world-renowned Professor Stephen Hawking to Michael Stevens (Vsauce). The channel is great since it features a range of interesting topics, allowing you to gain detailed insights into today's world society's interests and issues, in a manner which is attractive to adults and knowledgable students.

Site-http://new.ted.com 

YouTube channel: http://ow.ly/tKTfH

Other good TED talks:

Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer 

The Hidden Meanings in Kids' Movies

Neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games

Recommend for Maths lessons: Mathletics

The website called "http://www.mathletics.co.uk/" is a fun and entertaining website which helps children with their math skills.

You also get to have a character to start off with and then as more matches you win against opponents you earn fake money and then you can buy accessories, clothes, backgrounds and many other things for your character. Also you can enter a competition and earn a certificate. I will strongly advise you to use this website for maths even though it will cost £39.99 for a child.  

By Lagosan

Recommend for Maths lessons: Watch Simpsons and Futurama episodes-it's that simple!

If you watched any episodes of the Simpsons or Futurama, it has very clever and nerdy mathematical references from Pi to 1729 embedded in it. This is because the writers have Masters and Bachelors even doctorates in mathematics.

They have even created a proper mathematical theorem hidden in 'The Prisoner of Benda" Futurama episode. From more in-depth details of these awesome secrets I recommend reading The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by British mathematician Simon Singh (buy it here, SPOILER-it's brilliant).

So in your maths class, have a story time of this book or ask your teacher to turn on Simpsons/Futurama episodes on projector from WatchCartoonOnline.com or YouTube then locate these deliciously excellent easter-eggs, then the teacher can explain the mathematics behind it.

Recommend for Maths lessons: BBC Bitesize, Calculator and My Maths

For KS3 I recommend http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/maths/ . You can use this to revise or learn.

Here is a calculator http://www.online-calculator.com/

Good websites for students and teachers are:   http://www.mymaths.co.uk/ or http://www.mangahigh.com/en-gb/


Have fun learning maths!

Recommend for Maths lessons: IXL Learning

I have found a good website for revision called IXL it has revision for reception to year 12.

http://uk.ixl.com



By Sam Shackleton