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 - Exemplary Uses
If you liked the examples so far, then your really going to like the ones
here. Flash can be taken beyond what has been seen so far to create an
entire learning environment. Within the Flash environment, the learning
can be either exploratory, inductive, deductive, etc. as well. The following
examples, organized by topic area, show that Flash can be used to create
dynamic and effective learning tools in almost any subject for any age
level.
But what makes me rate these sites as exemplary? Here are
a few of the criteria that I used. I also use the various questions
listed when creating my own Flash content to try and create
as good a production as possible in the time and money frame
that I have available.
Player download - any exemplary site
should provide the user with a link to download the appropriate
player for the shockwave flash file.
Good code - the code should be compact and clean so
that file sizes are kept small. You can usually determine this
not only from download times but in the way that multimedia
elements are presented and reused.
Allowing for multiple speed connections - Some of
these sites have multiple flash files, with lower speed connection
versions with reduced file sizes usually through removing or
shrinking bells and whistles or replacing multimedia with text.
All of them needed to take this into account somehow though,
either as described above or by making use of smaller images
and good code.
Multiple languages - not always necessary, but some
of these sites are very nice in that they are presented in
multiple language formats.
Quality accurate content - if the content was thorough
and appeared to be correct or at least presented in the proper
context for subjective materials, then it was considered of
quality.
Appropriateness - was the content represented in a
manner that effectively made use of the Flash environment without
forcing the use where it was not necessarily the best or one
of the best ways to go.
Amount of content - these aren't just small tidbits
of information, but need to include a somewhat substantial
amount of information or information coupled with activities.
Organization - was the content easy to navigate and
organized in a way that made sense.
Multimedia - did the presentation take advantage of
the multimedia aspects of Flash.
Assessment - although not always necessary, some of
these sites include assessment activities to test yourself.
Poynter.org: Color, Contrast, & Dimension in News
Design, no date given, Anne Conneen and Poynter.org, http://www.poynter.org/special/colorproject/colorproject/color.html,
accessed March 2002.
As the introduction tells you, this is an online guide that explains color
theory and shows how to use it in design through examples and exercises.
Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony, no date given, PBS and WETA, http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/,
accessed March 2002.
A Web site to complement the documentary from Ken Burns and Paul Barnes
George Washington: A National Treasure, no date given,
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, http://georgewashington.si.edu/,
accessed March 2002.
Learn all you can about the United States first president.
Smithsonian Natural History Web: African Voices, no
date given, Smithsonian Institution & National Museum of
Natural History,
http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/, accessed March 2002.
An in depth look at one of the exhibits
Vision 101, no date given, 1800contacts,
http://www.1800contacts.com/vision101/, accessed March 2002.
Although presented on a commercial site, this presentation is wonderfully
presented for learning about the biology of vision.
