Shiny Learning Blog

Our first Digital Download game

2011-10-19T13:49:00.000+01:00

Zooming spaceship!

Press to Zoom! - Things That Fly is our first mini game available to purchase as a digital download. Written in Flash it will play in a browser, or we include a stand-alone full-screen version for Windows, too.

Press a switch, mouse button or key to make a picture zoom across the screen. Great for early switch skills and visual tracking.

Home and school licences available.

Menu screen

New products - Memory Quest Flex and Math Plus

2011-10-12T11:55:00.000+01:00

Two new products from us this month. The fantastic Memory Quest Flex, new working memory training software. Developed from the experiences of Memory Games, Flex is designed for all ages, has much improved reporting and evaluation systems, and you can create your own custom training programmes.

Math Plus is a beautifully simple basic skills program. Practice addition and subtraction with numbers 0 to 10 in an engaging set of games.

Free games area updated

2011-05-09T15:56:00.000+01:00

Free Games and Demos Area

Been doing some housekeeping on the Shiny Learning free games area recently. I've shortened the information for each game on the index page and given each game its own page with instructions and more images. This is in anticipation of more games to come, and demos of some "micro" games that we'll be selling soon as digital downloads.

Don't forget to "like" us on Facebook! You can do this via the navigation menu on any Shiny Learning page - or of course, visit us on Facebook itself.

Facebook and YouTube update

2011-05-04T12:19:00.000+01:00

We've joined the world of Facebook Facebook and YouTube to help you access Shiny Learning in a more dynamic way. We're starting to put together some video demonstrations of our software to give you a good idea of why we like them so much! The first videos will be of programs for which we don't have software demos, so have a look at our YouTube Channel to see what we're up to. We always love hearing from friends and customers so visit us on Facebook for all the latest.

Letters and More - fun ways to learn the alphabet

2010-10-11T13:54:00.001+01:00

Letters and More is the latest fun program published in the UK by Shiny Learning. Created by LaraMera and Leripa in Sweden, it follows in the footsteps of their other great literacy favourites, Learn More About Words, Reading World, Words and Sentences and Crosswords and More.

Letters and More - twelve activities

It contains twelve different activities and has eighteen different word lists. Beautifully drawn illustrations create a fun and encouraging learning environment. With letter names, letter sounds and words spoken it also has switch and keyboard access.

Letters and More - complete the word

Letters and More - sort words by initial letter

Letters and More - sort pictures by initial letter

"Lost in translation"?

2010-02-26T14:14:00.003Z

We had a dilemma, some years ago, when working on the English translation of Troll-lek. It was a leap too far for our imaginations that this benign and very cute little creature should ever be called a troll. Aren't trolls a bit wicked, and not nearly so pretty? This little being who lives in the forest at one with nature, who also likes to dress up as a cowboy, a baker or a sailor, plays the electric guitar or settle down with some knitting is not a troll - please. The little chap with the baggy pants and goofy grin who likes to keep his cupboards tidy and collects pine cones? That's not a troll.

Well, actually, he is. But we renamed him a Pixie. Before you tell me, I know - he's not a pixie either - but sometimes these decisions have to be made. It doesn't seem to bother him.

And to be honest, I don't think most trolls are as clever as this guy. He has a lot of thinking to do - and matching and sorting, and working out puzzles.

In my head he lives in Troll-lek (though we call it Pixie Games) where, should you choose to join him, you can inhabit his beautiful world for a little while, watch for funny things happening in his forest, help him sort out his cupboards, dress him up, rock out with him, help him work out which of his many household things belong together and generally help to keep order in his little corner of the forest.

"Beatrix Potter characters remodelled for blind children"

2010-02-02T17:20:00.002Z

What a fantastic inclusion story this is. An artist has secured the rights to redraw Beatrix Potter's characters so that blind people can enjoy them.

Read about it here, and watch an interview with the artist.

And here's a link to Fieldsman Trails - publishers of all sorts of multi-format information.

Maybe it's because we're snowed in..

2010-01-06T16:23:00.004Z

...that I've got that "make do and mend" feeling! I can hardly resist the opportunity to take some snowy pictures and make some wintry activities.

For many years I've been considering cycles in SEN software development. Should publishers provide vast quantities of fixed content, or editing features and less content? Of course it depends on the application, but many of our own programs contain both a great deal of content yet are also editable for those occasions where you really must add your own topical pictures, sound, text etc.

Some people never get beyond the provided content - Crosswords and More for example has over 800 ready-made activities yet is still editable. You can also add your own content to Two by Two, Reading World, Words and Sentences, Learn More About Words, Learn More Through Games and HIPP!.

If you're anything like us at the moment - 30cm plus deep in snow with more on the way, the roads impassable and the schools shut - perhaps you'll get the chance to make something seasonal too!

New free game - Mouse Follower

2009-11-29T20:56:00.000Z

We've just uploaded our new Mouse Follower to the free games area of Shiny Learning. Designed to encourage movement of the mouse, tracker ball or joystick it repsonds to any input device that moves the mouse pointer.

It's very simple - move the mouse and a shape moves with the pointer, and you hear some music. There are five shapes to choose from: star, ball, delta, fish and snowflake. You can choose to show trails after the shape, no trails at all, or trails in random colours. There are three tunes to choose from - a steady clockwork sort of beat, a floaty tune (quite relaxing really, especially with the fish!) and a fast beat - or you can choose to have no music at all (to save you turning off your speakers...!).

We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

IE8 problem fixed

2009-11-29T20:03:00.000Z

We've updated our web pages to address the "feature" introduced by Internet Explorer 8 that meant that our free switch-accessible games had to be run in compatibility mode.

For those who like numbers (I know you're out there!)

2009-11-10T13:46:00.007Z

We had a great deal of fun writing our free switch and keyboard-accessible games, so you can imagine how fantastic we think it is that since we made them live on the site they've been played online approaching 1500 times, and there have been almost 500 downloads of the stand-alone versions. That's a lot of squashed flies, crushed cars and blasted ships. Well done!

From a new business just starting out we'd like to say thanks for the feedback and encouragement you are giving us. Keep it coming!

The good news is that we are working away at more games, in and amongst everday business, so do watch this space.

Updated catalogue

2009-11-07T13:38:00.002Z

We've just updated our catalogue with details of Game, Set & Match and more information about Memory Games.

Download our catalogue (PDF).

New home page for Memory Games

2009-11-06T21:46:00.005Z

We've updated our Memory Games home page this week. With a new layout and graphics we've tried to make it even clearer what the software does and how the training is implemented. You can visit it here.

New basic skills software

2009-11-04T21:01:00.000Z

This Autumn sees the publication of Game, Set & Match, a collection of beautiful basic skills activities for early learners. It's great for visual perception skills, switch training, classification and listening skills.

The software has three levels of difficulty a really easy-to-use interface for all concerned.

Visit our website for a free demo.