Wii Big Brain Academy

I have been a fan of the Brain Age and Big Brain Academy games on the Nintendo DS.  So I wasn’t surprised when someone in my family gave us the Wii version of Big Brain as a Christmas gift.

If you are looking for a more mentally stimulating game than the average first-person shooter, you will probably like Big Brain.

The whole idea behind these games is to exercise your brain by showing you simple puzzles and measuring how long it takes you to solve them.  The answers are things even an elementary student knows, so the challenge is the go through them as quickly as possible. 

Here’s an example.  You are given four numbers: 4, 1, 2, 3

Eliminate one or more of the numbers so the sum equals six.  There are a couple of ways to do it, but the quickest response gets the most points.

In between family matches of tennis, we are now adding some brain exercises.  Anyone for an online challenge?

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Vista – What is it good for?

I am still have problems with Vista.  If I weren’t in the middle of a semester, I would dump it tomorrow, but it will have to wait until Christmas.

I started making a list of things in Vista that I like, but aren’t available in XP.  The list is short.

1 – Search-able Start Button – I use this at least fifty times a day.

2 – The user directory structure – I like the fact that all the “My This”, “My That” folders are gone.  Now it’s all in a directory called “Users” instead of the ridiculously named “Documents and Settings”.

Beyond this, I can’t think of anything else that benefits me.  Am I missing something?

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Wish I could have seen this one live

That UStream.TV is a bit slow.  At least on a weekend.  I have been struggling through a conference wrap-up with Will Richardson and Gary Stager.

This is the first conference that has permitted two well known people with differing opinions about educational technology sit down and have a civil discussion about technology’s roll in education.

Read more about it on Will and Gary‘s blogs.

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www.ustream.tv

Want to broadcast on the web?  All you need is a computer, Internet connection, web cam, microphone and UStream.TV.

The service is free.  Who uses it?  Check the FAQ.

Ustream.tv is a LIVE community for EVERYONE! Already we have seen bloggers, podcasters, radio stations, DJ’s, citizen journalist, talk show hosts, celebrities, rock bands, entertainers, comedians, churches, political candidates, government officials, conferences, event sponsors, record labels, television networks, colleges, university organizations, fraternities, sororities, charities, community groups, websites, civic groups, priests, monks, bird lovers, ghost hunters, dog watchers, weddings, lifecasters, professionals and amateurs.

It is a cross between web video broadcasting and social networking.  For quick video, it looks like a possibility.

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iPod Touch

I got my Christmas present a little early this year.  It’s an iPod Touch.  The Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone or camera.  It holds music, photos and video and can connect to the web via WiFi.

I sync’ed a thousand songs, a thousand pictures and still had room for half a season of Seinfeld (season five).

The interface is the slickest part of this device.  The touch screen is everything you have heard it is.  I opened the photo section and handed it to my mother.  After ten seconds of training she had no problem flipping through all the photos of her grand kids.

It was the photo feature that really sold me on this device.  I have several MP3 players, but I needed a way to carry around my photos.  The screen is large enough that the photo can be seen without squinting.  The screen is 3 inches by 2 inches.  That’s almost twice as big as the old iPod.

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