March/April 2002 - Review of
Educational Uses of Macromedia Flash By: Virgil
E. Varvel Jr. Keywords: Macromedia
Flash, Shockwave, Online Education, Review, Evaluation; Exemplary;
Educational Multimedia
Content Delivery - Combining Flash with HTML
Now let's move on to some more clearly educational uses of Flash
that take advantage of its interactive potential and multimedia
framework. First, we'll look at a few sites that effectively
integrate the Flash animation with other HTML based site content.
The important consideration herein is that you do not have to
be an expert Flash programmer to make use of its features. Simple
to complex uses of Flash can be combined with the rest of your
site content so that everything is used in an appropriate and
effective manner. One key is to make sure that the Flash content
does not overshadow the HTML content. Another is to make sure
that the integration is seamless so that the average viewer may
not even realize that Flash content is being used (unless of
course they lack the viewer and have to download it). Take a
look at these examples and see how effective the combination
can be.
BBC AS Guru, BBC i, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/asguru/,
accessed March 2002
Not only is there a text only version, but the content of the site is highly
interactive and will even keep track of your progress. It is somewhat commercial
though as some of the content is dependent on the use of their written
for sale materials. Flash is used throughout to provide little animated
and interactive enhancements.
The Mesoamerican Ballgame, National
Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts,
Rockefeller Foundation, The Mint Museum of Art, and others, http://www.ballgame.org/,
accessed March 2002.
Although this site makes no effort to be accessible to the disabled, it
is still a quality site otherwise providing a brief but informative look
at this ancient sport
