Slice It!

Slice It is a delightful puzzle game for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. Each puzzle presents a simple shape (perhaps a square or triangle) and asks you to slice it into a specific number of equal size pieces with a specific number of "cuts". While the openinig puzzles are easy, they can be very demanding and really challenge your insight into the relative areas of different shapes.

The interface is friendly with a "hand drawn on graph paper" look. The game works well for the touch screen: you position your finger for the start and pull straight lines over the shape. If you don't do well, you will get a report that tells you what the problem is. If you do manage to solve the puzzle you earn a "hint" point that you can spend on harder puzzles.

I downloaded the free (limited) version... the full 60 level version does not cost a lot. It is a fresh angle (I don't think I have really seen a game based on comparing areas before) and would especially suit those who love their geometry!

The game is only available from the Apple App store, but you can read about it here.

Lynda Dot Com

www.lynda.com

Hang on... a web site for a book review? Well, yes. Lynda dot com is something quite extraordinary. It is a superb non-fiction resource that includes some great material for free, and a complete library for (around) $20 a month.

I have viewed and used “tutorial” websites for many years, and found most of them deficient one way or the other. I’ve seen dodgy or poorly conceived video technology, inconsistent material, poorly laid out pages and a failure of the longevity test: a good tutorial site will be there for years and always updated. Given the range of new programs available at school now (the full Adobe Suite), you can understand how excited I was to come across a site that actually ticks all the boxes!

It is designed to provide video tutorials about software. Their current list of supported software is immense, and includes not only the current versions but historical versions that people may still be using. As well as major brands (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash) they have some much less usual material such as a guide to Moodle. For each product there will be at least one course (some have many courses). Each course has a number of separate video tutorials that run faultlessly (at least for me).

You can try before you buy... a few videos from each course are available free! You can pay for a month then cancel, thus accessing the full site for the quick update you need. The material ranges from basic introductions to very advanced topics provided by expert consultants. There are files of tutorial materials available to download so you can attempt all the steps yourself.

I recommend this site for students from around Year Nine upward, though younger students who are keen to learn will find it useful. How good is it? Well, Adobe themselves licence the Lynda.com videos to use as the tutorial programs for their high-end products like Photoshop and InDesign!