Learning - Thinking - Playing

Spore Release Date Announced

The first newsletter from Spore arrived in my inbox this morning with news about Spore's release date. I have spoken about Spore before and I am keen to play the game personally and use it educationally. Well the release date is not March but September 7th 2008, not sure if that will be globally and online or just the US.  Short teaser video with very little detail can be found here.

Armadillo Run - an educational game worth playing

Tonight while doing a little bit of research and spending some quality time with my son we had planned to visit a site we found out about the other day. Armadillo Run located at http://www.armadillorun.com/ is a fantastic game that pits players skills around building structures to help an Armadillo to get to a certain location in space. It plays much better than it sounds.

There is a demo to download (only 1Mb in size) that takes you through a really simple and easy tutorial which provides you with everything you need to know. My son enjoyed reading the instructions and then guiding me through the process. The game has realistic physics properties in play that makes it highly addictive.

I liked the game as it was very simple with only a small range of building options, but incorporates budget considerations and allows players to apply tension, timing and a few other settings. It even allows you to create your own challenges for others - my son particularly liked this one as we could build challenges for each other to test our thinking and construction skills. We do need to buy the full version but it is worth it simply for the conversations and fun we had dealing with construction, scientific process and exploring physics concepts - all while have a laugh.

Check out  the video Fun Motion - then download the demo and have a go - sorry PC only.

Apple Bluetooth Keyboard - finally a solution

For a while now I have been using the Apple Blue tooth keyboard as a tool to extend my training and presentation sessions and when I have had it running with my mac, a data projector, a bluetooth mouse and bluetooth graphics tablet I am able to demonstrate a IWB type application. From all my research the Apple keyboard is very well designed, very portable and very well suited to be used with in a simulated IWB or in a real IWB environment to extend the reach and involvement of students within a class.

I have been frustrated for a while now in that I have not be able to successfully pair the keyboard with bluetooth on a windows PC and as such has limited my ability and other teachers ability to use a very practical and well designed device on the window OS.

Tonight this has changed - I have found the following instructions to pair the keyboard with one of my XP laptops. Following the step below I was able to pair the Apple keyboard with my windows laptop:

1. Click on Windows Start button, select Run and then type 'regedit' and press enter to access windows registry editor.
2. In the registry editor search for and select -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Widcomm\BtConfig\General
3. Set the key 'PinCodeWord' to a decimal value of 1111
4. Set the key 'UseFixedPin' to a decimal value of 1
5. Then attempt pairing. When you get to the greyed PIN screen type 1111 using OTHER keyboard THAN Apple Bluetooth keyboard.
6. Press the Return key on the Apple keyboard.
7. Enjoy the Keyboard.

These instructions are very simple and easy to follow, the only comment I would make is that when you type in "1111" as described in step 5 you will not see the numbers appear on screen (not on mine at least).

Now that this pairing is possible with windows I recommend this keyboard to all users that have IWB's or use data projectors/LCD's - it is the cheapest for the size, design, portability and battery life.

Thanks to bedammit and dongaspa for their posts - more information about these instructions can be found here: http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t285546.html