. . .with Daryn Bee Educational
System Designer
University of Western Ontario
former... Learning
Coordinator - Technology
Thames Valley District School Board
Thank you for joining me in San Diego
for the fabulous CSIT. I am always thrilled to discuss how Flash is creeping
into curriculum at all levels!
Here I have provided a 'linkage' page to help you dig deeper into the resources
shared and presented at the Flash Session...
It
is my pleasure to be presenting to you from Canada - which you may have seen
on the map just lately...
The AM session was privileged to
witness a short video of welcoming
text (mpeg 10,961 bytes) typed on my original Commodore
Pet. The Pet was my personal gateway to computer technology back in 1980
when I first learned of the mysteries of digital technology. This
web site simulates how modern web pages might look if they were created
on a PET.
I conducted a brief group
survey using a Flash Application I created. Try
it yourself and download the source code
see how it works.
What followed was a brief
slide show culminating in
technologies and web services that perform some of the functions that you
might have otherwise expect from Flash. It always best to fit the tool to the
task. Several pages were updated for the presentation this year. I demonstrated
how Beyond Compare
simplified the task of identifying the latest updates. This could also be used
to identify student work that is simply copied from other students.
Flash is not a panacea but it does have plenty to offer in the classroom.
Do you remember the
good ol' days when public computing did not require a credit card swipe?
A brilliant animator created this glorious
animation (1.3 Meg) based on the Flash authoring interface.
Right-Click then choose 'Save As' to download a copy for yourself. As you can
see, the interface is quite complex! Allowing your students to choose any tool
of the interface would be like a phys-ed teacher introducing all
the equipment at once - a little overwhelming. You can download
the source code for the phys-ed simulation here.
Note: If you discover
a Flash animation on the internet that you want to have for yourself navigate
to the browser cache and hunt for the latest SWF file. This is where my cache
is located: C:\Documents and Settings\Daryn\Local Settings\Temporary
Internet Files
There are a couple of concepts
that may need some remedial work for your students (and staff) - the concepts/skills
of how to
save and where
to save your files.
The
lessons I like to focus on first relate to simple
drawing (yosemite sam), drawing
in layers (pizza) and simple
animation (initials or flower bed). These simple skills are fantastic seeds
which give learners great autonomy over their own creations. It is always better
to under-teach than over-teach these tools as the students invariably discover
the fine details later. Furthermore, these seeds provide a solid footing in
the world of programming as students are introduced to proper naming conventions
and simple OOT concepts such as instances and properties of objects. Have a
look at the Video
Demo recorded using Camtasia.
Facility with any software is greatly
augmented by the use of keyboard
shortcuts. I advise abandoning the mouse at every opportunity.
Note: Should you want to
share a collection of symbols with your class you must deposit the FLA file
containing the symbols to the following directory: C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash
MX\First Run\Libraries. The file will appear under the pull-dsown menu
Window \ Common Libraries.
A good culminating activity for a group that has mastered the basics is the
butterfly exercise. The following
animations were created in a single day workshop as a culminating activity.
Layers for each element are created and labelled; the butterfly is a two frame
animated symbol following a motion
guide; the clouds are motion-tweened across the sky and the trees are a
reusable symbol. Download
source
The Flash Applications launching
pad is linked here.
Click each area to see how Flash is applied to real world problems and curriculum.
(Some links are slow loading)
CubeSpin is a great splashy
animation of 4 images. Customize by replacing the photo symbols with your own
photos (DOWNLOAD).
Simple animation can advertise your school
show or sports
team.
Interactivity through buttons
or movie
control is a powerful technique for engaging viewers. The button sample
can be seen in production here
as an easter egg. The robot
demo demonstrates how interactivity can be used to control video DOWNLOAD.
Larger scale animations should be
planned and storyboarded
before spending time on actual development. Early development without planning
can yield
unexpected results.
The use of Flash as a template for
alternate content allows people to enjoy the power of Flash without having to
master all the details of programming. Try the $25,000
pyramid. You can download the flash
file and source
text (clues) and then customize the clues for your own curriculum.
IMAGES
are best manipulated with Irfanview.
This handy little program can do everything from cropping and scaling your image
to creating slideshows and viewing thumbnails. It's free for you, your students
and the parents of your students. This slideshow
of fireworks (4 Meg) was created as a screen saver
(SVR) file using Irfanview.
AUDIO is easily recorded and edited
with programs like Audacity
(free) and Goldwave (shareware).
These programs make it easy to delete silence from your wave forms and/or add
special effects like echo or reverb. Record in 22khz mono unless you need stereo
or high fidelity for some reason.
VIDEO can be edited and recorded
from your desktop with Camtasia
Studio.
Some of the retro
fans in the house were interested to see how text could be used to transmit
an image. The program ASCGEN
did the grunt work. You may remember paying $10.00 for a printout of one of
these back in the late 70s.
Click here
to see the sample.Click here
to hide the sample.
My 'bible' with regard to solid,
professional programming technique is Code
Complete. Every page drips with the best advice based on years of in-the-field
programming experience. If you or your students are serious about programming
like a master then this book is for you!
It is amazing that Flash can be used
as a programming environment completely independent of the draw tools and timeline.
Flash code is known as ActionScript.
Your star programmers will take off with tutorials from websites such as actionscript.com,
actionscript.org and
flashkit.com.
STRING
ART
If you are looking for a formal approach which suits a large group you can
shephard your students through this simple quickstart
tutorial. A
participant in San Diego mentioned that the final exam for a junior level
programming course was to accomplish the same 'String Art' example I've
created for you in this tutorial.
RECURSIVE
TREE
A focus of CSIT at one of the sessions I attended last year was the concept
of recursion. I quickly rendered a tree using action script to be demonstrated
at my session and the participants were impressed. They of course wanted
more... Instead of an 'instant' tree, they wanted it to be drawn branch
by branch slowly.
POTATO
HEAD
The technique of drag-and-snap
is easily accomplished in Flash. Click here
to download the source code for Mr. Potato Head. Any task involving the
labelling or arranging of images would work using this technique.
This program integrates action
script with actual symbols (images) that have been pre-populated to the
stage.
Note: Although action
script may be attached to a symbol it is often better to apply it to frames
so that it is more easily accessed. Keeping all code in one place is a
desirable approach.
Click here
to see code samples from the Potato Head program.
The following examples are
advanced as they integrate action script with symbols of images and emply advanced
array techniques
DECK
OF CARDS
Here is code that produces a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Although
there are image symbols involved, the stage begins blank and the image
symbols are integrated into movie clips which represent each card. The
versions of the program may help you see the progression of the code from
one card to all cards of a particular suit to the entire deck.
Version 3 demonstrated
how action script code can be included from an external file. You need
both the cards3.fla and the cards3.txt files together in the same folder
to execute the program. The only code you will find in cards3.fla is this:
#include "cards3.txt"
COIN
GAME Coin
Game is a drill and practive program I created for my daughter and her
class. Coins are flipped out and the student is to count the total value
of the coins and enter it. Correct answers are rewarded with the money
totals counted. Incorrect answers are punished with the most painful and
annoying sound known to mankind.
It
is my pleasure to be presenting to you from Canada - which you may have seen
on the map just lately...
The
lessons I like to focus on first relate to simple
drawing (yosemite sam), drawing
in layers (pizza) and simple
animation (initials or flower bed). These simple skills are fantastic seeds
which give learners great autonomy over their own creations. It is always better
to under-teach than over-teach these tools as the students invariably discover
the fine details later. Furthermore, these seeds provide a solid footing in
the world of programming as students are introduced to proper naming conventions
and simple OOT concepts such as instances and properties of objects. Have a
look at the Video
Demo recorded using Camtasia.
IMAGES
are best manipulated with Irfanview.
This handy little program can do everything from cropping and scaling your image
to creating slideshows and viewing thumbnails. It's free for you, your students
and the parents of your students. This slideshow
of fireworks (4 Meg) was created as a screen saver
(SVR) file using Irfanview. 