The Ultimate Application Search Engine

Ever wanted to find an application to solve a problem for you and could not be bothered trawling through the ver confusing iTunes or Android Marketplace.  MimVi is a purpose built application search engine designed to help you find the right tool for the Job.  It has Apple, Android, Blackberry and Web Apps and is a great little tool to remember.  See it here.

Zoodles: An Age Appropriate web Browser for Kids aimed at Learning

I'll start straight off by saying that Zoodles is aimed at parents more so than schools however I will definitely be installing this on all of our school computers due to it's depth of features and content:  Essentially Zoodles is an Age appropriate web browser that is linked to a massive database of educational games and web sites. You can either let children surf Zoodles in the freedom of knowledge that they are both safe and gaining a learning experience or you can tailor zoodles as a parent or teacher to have a specific focus on say mathematics or reading.

Kids will find this pretty one cool as they now have their own browser, which they also have an element of control over and parents will love it will keep all the nasty content on the web out of site and feel confident that their kids are not aimlessly wasting their time on the web. 

Zoodles offers both a free and subscription based package.  But definitely take 2 minutes to check out the video below of what Zoodles could offer you in the classroom.  Check it out here.

Livebrush - An Excellent Free Drawing App

What is it?  Livebrush is another product built on the amazing Adobe AIR platform which is offering some pretty amazing stuff at the moment in terms of multi platform applications.  Livebrush is a little bit of Corel Draw, Painter and Photoshop. I stress the term a little bit of each as they are industry standard programs in their own right and livebrush offers elements of these. 

Livebrush is a free motion-based drawing tool that lets you create beautiful graphics in few strokes. The beauty of Livebrush is that you can create something amazing in no time if you are not an artisitic genius.  Yet the artisitic genius has plenty to explore here to.

What’s unique about Livebrush is the brush tool that responds to the speed of your mouse movements. The program also ships with a wide range of brush styles and decorative patterns to help you to create impressive drawings in no time – just select a particular style and add some random strokes to the drawing canvas.

Livebrush is as a line drawing tool on steroids. There are an overwhelming number of options available for your brush strokes including a standard set of 100 styles and decorators. Each of these can then be customised and tailored to suite your style and project.

You control the speed, angle width and other parameters for your brush stroke. Detailed colour options are available to really enhance that drawing.

There is a Paid version of Livebrush Pro that offers a little more for $10 bucks but there is plenty in the free version for your students.

How Can I use this in the classroom?  The great thing about livebrush is that you can create something pretty amazing if you are a novice.  I would highly recommend this to high school students to create backdrops to print and web based activities and even explore some fashion opportunities of livebrush.

Anyhow livebrush is available here. Below is a video of what it can do and I would love to hear some feedback from those that have used it.