Looking for great free training in Silverlight and Expression Blend? The Expression Blend Evangelism Team at Microsoft has just released .toolbox, an online training source for designers and developers!!

One of the unique aspects of the .toolbox training is that it enlisted the talents of real-world design agencies to create the sample applications you use in the training. I think this makes for challenging and realistic training scenarios. I personally created several of the .toolbox training modules, and it was equally challenging as a trainer to pull apart the awesome creations from the top-notch design agencies and form useful training modules from them.

.toolbox has some other great features including an Avatar and progress tracker where you can earn badges as you complete different levels. I hope you'll find the .toolbox modules a great free training resource!

Here are links to the modules I created for .toolbox:

Games
This module shows you how to build two different games using Behaviors and States. You'll create a Pong style game and a Space Invaders style game as you learn about these powerful Silverlight features.

Sound Mixer
This module introduces you to the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) pattern. Throught the lessons, you'll implement the View portions (UI) for a Sound Mixer prototype.

Recruit
Here we'll look at how to design a Line of Business (LOB) type application. You'll use States, Databinding, Maintenance Improvements, and how to take the application Out of Browser.

Portfolio
This module breaks down an existing Silverlight site template and examines ways of improving it through using design methods, refactoring, adding a splash screen, behaviors and resources.