Interactive Web Sites
By Gary Ferrington

This set of links focus on the interactive nature of the Web. At each of the following sites you are to be engaged in some type of interactive experience ranging from the creation of an animated face to composing your own music. Have fun!

Bembo's Zoo. This Zoo is made up of interactive flash animation with sound. Explore a zooscape of animals made entirely from Bembo letterforms and punctuation marks.

Brand Me. This interactive experience is designed for children but is nice to look at from a design perspective. The objective is to develop a TV commercial that shows how advertisers use information to create adverts that target your interests. "Branding is about finding out what people want, making a product that matches what they want, and then, through advertising, creating a ‘personality’ for the product to show how it always matches what they want."

Creating Music. This is a great online site to encourage children (and adults) to compose and perform music they make online with tools provided by composer Morton Subotnick.

Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun Designed for younger students, the site includes four educational activities, including a word search, quizzes, hangman, and a match game. In the word game, visitors can choose their skill level, then pick a set of themed words to be included in the game, such as birds or colors. In the match game, visitors can start by reviewing each thematic set of cards, which feature a voice that also says the name of the item featured on each card. Once again, visitors can elect to pick their skill level and so on. Finally the quiz allows visitors to select from different sets of questions, such as those about opposites and synonyms and queries about the animal kingdom. Overall, this site serves as a nice adjunct to classroom learning activities for preschool or younger elementary school students. (From the Scout Report)

Make Your Own Bush Speech.Have you ever wanted to be a Presidential speech writer? Here is an opportunity to explore your creative ability. Choose phrases, words, and vocal sounds and drop them into a sound track to create a presidential speech. Hit play and your message is delivered by the President. All good fun.

Orisinal Games. An unusual site that includes interactive games, poetry, and resources. Many use Flash animation.

Playful Kitten. Ok, is it one of those mornings when you wish you had a pet to distract you? Here is a virtual kitten that will play with you and your mouse.

Powers of Ten."View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons."

Responsive Face. Facilitates the design of an animated face by adding visual elements such as mouth, eyes, brows, and movement.

Sowana.If you need to talk to someone visit this site. Type a question in the bottom text field and press the entry key, and wait for sowana's answer.