Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

It was hard to know where to list today’s resource. I settled on Content & Curriculum because it is a great resource for CAD. Although Lego Digital Designer is part of Lego’s marketing strategy, it is a completely free resource for anyone who wants to download and use it.

Lego Digital Designer (downloadable program) Lego has paid developers real money to design this wonderful free downloadable program. With this program you can design, create, save, and share virtually (digitally), almost anything that you could make with real Lego blocks. You can use multiple tools to work with hundreds of different Lego blocks. You can view your work from any angle and change the colour of blocks on the fly. There are starter sets that you can load to get you started if you want to make a house, a car, or a train. The user interface is intuitive, but it requires some effort and exploration to figure it all out.

Lego, of course, has ulterior motives in offering this free program. They want you to buy more real Lego blocks. If you wish, you can upload whatever you design and Lego will sell you exactly the blocks you need in order to make it, complete with the picture of your creation on the box. Lego also sponsors competitions. If you simply wish to share your work, there is a gallery where you can do just that. The website for Lego Digital Designer is http://ldd.lego.com/.

Windows and Mac versions are available.