F*L*A*S*H* and Beyond

Flash is amazing! I’ve always been fascinated by the simple animations that jumps across the screen or the dog that wags his tail at the bottom of the page or the dancing ladies in a credit report advertisement on the side of a website! After looking at the various sites for this assignment, it is obvious that flash is so much more and can meet so many purposes. First of all, flash can be used to draw out interaction with the viewer, allowing him/her to participate and contribute to the progression of the animation.

In the case of Carnegie Hall’s music adventure, the user is asked to drag scrambled icons into correct positions and learn the creation of symphonies. Along the way, users can access information about instruments and other musical terminology. Similarly, the dress up game allows users to be creative and take ownership of design. In a classroom, teachers can motivate students with games that allow students to personalize projects and thus feel more vested in their own learning. Speaking of motivation, the mystery hunt for George Washington’s painting activity is another perfect example of taking something as mundane as a portrait and turning it into a scavenger hunt and students are required to read the information in order to finish the mystery case. Consider the various alternatives, which is to ask students to look at a static painting and read a paragraph of information next to it. Last but not least, I was impressed with the interactive storytelling timeline of PBS: Not For Ourselves Alone site. Although the information was available in static text, the voice of primary documents and narrated history of the Women’s Suffrage Movement was a powerful learning tool. The activity allowed students to the control the speed of the story and users were free to jump ahead of review previous portions of the story.

All of these forms of flash animation let the teachers in this new era of computers to interact with students and facilitate learning in a new way. Now the question remains, how will individual classroom teachers acquire the skill and afford the time to create such brilliant flash activities that will result in authentic and valuable learning experiences?