| 
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
Rather than a tutorial or standard Pointer and Clicker
article, this issue we will look at how a particular piece of technology
is being used on the Web in an educationally effective manner. One
of the hottest trends on the Web is the use of Flash (1) animations
to liven up a Web site. The Flash program is becoming a commonly
installed feature on most computer systems across various platforms
including Windows/PC and Apple/MacIntosh. Flash allows one to quickly
add dynamic animations with audio to a Web page without large file
size downloads. These animations can even be interactive and as
this article will address educational. Thus, this article will outline
the various educational uses of Flash on the Web and point out some
of the exemplar sites already available.
Note that there are many uses of Flash, but herein
we will focus primarily on educational uses only. The review of
educational Flash use will be divided by the following categories.
The final category is presented as a handy reference wherin you
can find multitudes of information on Flash and tutorials on how
to make use of the program. With each section a brief explanation
of a few reasons are given for why the links provided are considered
exemplary by this author.
- Advertising
- Entry movies
- Navigation within a site
- As content delivery method
- Effectively combining Flash with HTML
- Simple educational activities
- Exemplary educational uses sorted by subject area
- Learning more about Flash
- Macromedia sites
- Other sites
- Flash and usability issues
Hopefully as you view these examples, you will begin to see the power
that Flash offers the educator and the possible pitfalls. These examples
are shown to both give you ideas and to show you what the potential
is for your own multimedia productions. Enjoy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) According to Macromedia, "Macromedia Flash
MX is the fastest way to create rich Internet content and applications
with a better return on investment. Powerful video, multimedia
and application development features allow the creation of rich
user interfaces, online advertising, eLearning courses and enterprise
application front-ends." http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/,
2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertising
Perhaps one of the most prolific uses of Flash on the Web
is in advertising. Like any type of animation though, especially
when used to advertise something in which you are not interested,
these uses can be quite annoying. But when the advertising
is something that you are actually requesting, it can become
very nice. While I couldn't find a high quality educational
example just yet, that doesn't mean that the possibility is
not there. Consider the following example from Sony Pictures.
Just about every movie site out there right now is using Flash
to advertise their new movies. This one for Spider Man was
one of the best so far.
Why is the Spider Man site humbly considered one of the best
by this author? First, the Flash animation itself is not forced
upon you. You are given the option of either entering the Flash
site or leaving. Furthermore, it is given in multiple languages,
something few sites are doing even today. Next, almost all
Flashed sites will have an introduction, but most quality sites
will also provide you with a button to skip this introduction,
as found to the bottom right during the introduction on this
site. Once within the Flash movie, the navigation makes sense
and is well organized. Also, the content takes advantage of
the power of Flash and there is a lot of content at that. There
may even be too much content as it gives away a lot of the
film (so try not to go to far into the Flash animation if you
really want the movie to remain unspoiled) Finally, a button
is included to Close the movie when you are finished and want
to return to your Web browsing. For all of these reasons and
more, I listed this as an exemplar site.
Entry Movies
Another common trend on the Web is the use
of eye-catching Flash animations as an introduction to a
Web site, partly because these animation are so easy to create.
As usability and accessibility experts will point out though,
you have to be very careful when placing a Flash animation
as your main index page. Since the animation may be difficult
to navigate through for disabled individuals, it is imperative
that some method of skipping the animation and accessing
a text-only site be available. The following two examples
demonstrate how Flash can effectively be used to introduce
an audience to an educational Web site, in these cases, a
couple of educational institution Web sites.
- Penn State Continuing Education, © 2001
Pennsylvania State University, http://www.psu4you.org/,
accessed March 2002.
While this site itself is not very accessible, the page from which
it is linked is accessible and you are alerted to the nature of this
page before accessing it (unless like me you linked directly from a
search engine).
- Tuscaloosa Consortium for Higher Education, Located
on a University of Alabama Web site but no copyright information
directly given, http://consortium.ua.edu/,
accessed March 2002.
From this page, you are given the opportunity to see the Flash animation
or skip directly to the Web site.
Several considerations make these exemplary sites.
First of all, there are still only a few educational examples
out there so they almost make it by default, but that does
not mean that they are not of high quality. On the contrary,
they take several important points into account. These points
include: giving the audience the choice of whether or not to
view the animation (unless accessed directly from a search
engine), providing a quick and interesting metaphorical introduction
to the content of the site as a whole, and they are short with
small file sizes to allow viewing over slower modem connections
without a long wait.
Navigation
Many Web sites also make use of Flash as a form of interactive
navigation for the site. The two sites below were two of
the most complete navigation schemes I was able to find of
an educational nature. You can reach pretty much everything
from within the Flash movie, and it is well organized and
understandable. They are also well organized from a programming
stand point for the file sizes are kept small to allow quick
movement within the site. These reasons make the following
sites exemplar.
-
Westminster College, © 2001 Westminster
College, http://www.westminstercollege.edu/,
accessed March 2002.
Not only is the navigation through Flash, but a lot of the content
is as well.
-
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, no copyright
information given, http://www.ipo.co.il/ ,
accessed March 2002.
This site actually integrates both HTML navigation for major topics
with Flash navigation for sub topics.
There is a pitfall to both of these sites though and a common
one at that. These sites fail to make accommodations for
those with disabilities or who choose not to view Flash content.
That is, neither site has a Flash minus or text only version.
Especially from the standpoint of the Israeli Philharmonic
Orchestra, a large section of their potential market, those
with visual disabilities, cannot easily access information
on the site. There may be a text only site somewhere (or
at least a more easily navigable site for the disabled),
but it cannot be accessed directly from this Flash site.
Westminster College overcomes this obstacle though by providing
a phone number in plain text. The other text links are useful
for navigation, but they only take you eventually to other
Flash content, thus the page does not really meet accessibility
standards, but the phone link does provide an alternative
means of acquiring the information. So while Flash can provide
a really dynamic navigation experience for the viewer, it
can also be potential danger. The time needed to make the
site accessible to all needs to be weighed against the advantages.
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.
-
Kodak: Peregrine Falcon: Birdcam 2000, © Eastman
Kodak Company, 1994-2002 and Privacy Practices (updated 14-Sep-2001), http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/birdcam2000/index.shtml,
accessed March 2002.
Somewhat marketing in nature as Kodak want to sell you the materials
used in the back end of this production, it is nonetheless an effective
educational look at the Peregrine Falcon with many features that could
be helpful in education.
-
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.
Content Delivery - Simple Educational Activities
It is not necessary for Flash to be the cornerstone of your
Web site in order for it to add to the content of the site.
Flash can also be used to create activities within a Web site.
Activities that effectively present information whether in
an inductive or deductive manner can be created using Flash
in a somewhat timely manner. The following examples demonstrate
some simple activities created within Flash that generally
present a small chunk of information using the multimedia aspects
of Flash. They show how you can make a quality tool that doesn't
need to be complex.
-
A Tabela Periòdica dos Elementos, © 2000
Leo's Place, http://openlink.br.inter.net/leoehrlich/tabelaperiodica/,
accessed March 2002.
Although this page is nothing more than a periodic table of the elements,
it is nice for a few reasons. The elements are presented rather large
to allow visually impaired individuals to see the content. Mouse clicks
are only needed to leave the site, but not to use the Flash movie. It's
also nice to see more non-English educational content appearing online
(even though I only speak English myself).
-
Bembo's Zoo, unknown author and date, http://www.bemboszoo.com/,
accessed March 2002.
A truly interesting picture book using Flash, Bembo's Zoo takes letters
of the alphabet and makes pictures from them. The effect is to help children
learn both the alphabet and perhaps some artistic skills. Good also because
it begins outside of Flash so that you have the opportunity to download
if necessary.
-
-
Educational Interactive Games for Young
Children, © 1999 - 2002 Suzanne Muse, http://www.musecreative.com/interact.html
Herein you can find a large collection of short interactive games for
small children that mostly mimic learning activities that traditionally
are played on paper or with interactive toys. While I would never want
to take away from the motor learning aspects of tool based children's
games, these activities are still good examples of simple activities
that make use of Flash to keep children occupied and learning for hours.
The variety of the activities is also quite nice.
-
Why Does Salt Melt Ice?, © 1997-2001
by Fred Senese, http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/solutions/faq/why-salt-melts-ice.shtml,
accessed March 2002.
You may be familiar with many similar animations as this one done using
Java. Well, many of these animations can also be made with Flash. Although
Flash is only a small portion of the content of this page, it is still
very useful in provided an added mode for learning the given concept.
-
G Protein Animation, © 2002 Palindrome
Design, http://www.palindromedesign.com/GProteinanimation.html,
accessed March 2002.
One of many examples from Palindrome Design, the given one shows a stepwise
animation of a biological process. Seeing as how I used to be a biochemist
(I guess I still am even though I don't actively participate in the activity),
I had to find something related to my old hat.
-
The Tools for Designing Computer Aided
Learning Material, © 1999
EASI-ISAE Consortium. University of Derby, http://mediamatch.derby.ac.uk/UK/introduction/design/chem.htm,
accessed March 2002.
Another simple chemistry example that you might notice as similar to
many Java applets available on the Web. Here, an experiment can be created
online that is somewhat interactive and involving a final quiz. The page
was created more as an example, but then, that's what we're looking for,
right?
-
-
Spellmaster, © 2001 F.McAree, http://www.spellmaster.com/index.htm,
accessed March 2002.
Want a collection of small tools that help teach spelling. Try Speedword
for a good Flash demo.
-
Alien Plants, © Actis Limited,
in the Mathsonline game
room, http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/nonmembers/gamesroom/sims/plants/data.html,
accessed March 2002.
Using this example you can see how you can link user input to a flash
movie to demonstrate a concept.
-
The New Randomizer: "Who Came?", © Anglofile
(no date given), http://www.anglofile.com/randomizer/index.html,
accessed March 2002.
These short demonstration from this design company shows how you can
link audio to Flash to create a language learning tool (a much more complex
example from someone else can be found on the next page of this article).
-
-
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.
With these criteria in mind, here are the
sites:
Early Childhood Education
-
Literacy Center - The Early Childhood
Education Network, © 2001 FamiliarTales® Inc. http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm,
accessed March 2002
Fun activities for learning letters, small numbers, and colors from the
Literacy Center of the Early Childhood Education Network.
Childhood Education
- Interactive Tangram, © 2000-2001 www.tangram.i-p.com, http://www.tangram.i-p.com/,
accessed March 2002.
Tangram is the process of cutting a square into certain shapes that can
then be reassembled into another shape. This interactive site teaches shape
recognition and puzzle solving.
-
Carnegie Hall Listening Adventures, © 2000-2001
Carnegie Hall Corporation, http://www.thirteen.org/listeningadventures/,
accessed March 2002.
A fun learning site for classical music. Listen, read, and play one of
2 activities. Although not as comprehensive as it could be, you should
see the potential for making a truly interactive music lesson for composition
or playing an instrument.
Language
- Phonetics: The Sounds of English and Spanish, © 2001
The University of Iowa, http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eacadtech/phonetics/,
accessed March 2002.
Perhaps my favorite Flash site as far as one that demonstrates the power
of Flash. Add on some assessment activities and this would be astounding.
I plan to use it to teach my daughter the various sounds used in English
and Spanish. An excellent tool for speech therapy and language learning.
- BBC - Education - Look and Read, © 2002 BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lookandread/,
accessed March 2002.
Home of Spywatch, a comic strip adventure, with literacy activities for
7 to 9 year olds based on the popular BBC Schools television series of
the same name, and home of zzaap and the Wordmaster, a fantasy journey
with literacy activities for 7-9 year olds.
Art and Design
- Guggenheim.com, © 2001 Guggenheim.com, http://www.guggenheim.com/index2.html,
accessed March 2002.
Think of this site as a virtual museum visit complete with background information
on some of the exhibits. Although not as complete or spatial as a real
visit to a museum, it is still a worthwhile site.
- 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.
- What is Print?, © 2001 The Museum of Modern Art,
New York, http://www.moma.org/whatisaprint/flash.html,
accessed March 2002.
Learn about various printing processes.
History
- A More Perfect Union, © - 2001 National Museum
of American History, Smithsonian Institution, http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html,
accessed March 2002.
Look at the history of racial imbalance in the United States.
- Remembering Pearl Harbor, © 2001 National Geographic
Society, http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/,
accessed March 2002.
A grand experience presented by National Geographic providing various forms
of content discussing a tragic day in US history.
- 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
- The Forgotten, © 2001 theFurious, http://www.theforgotten.org/intro.html,
accessed March 2002.
Learn about the Armenian genocide in the early 1900's, a forgotten tragedy
as outlined by this multimedia rich Web site.
- Discovery - On Board the Titanic, © 2000 Discovery
Communications Inc., http://www.discovery.com/guides/history/titanic/Titanic/titanic.html,
accessed March 2002.
One of several learning productions at the Discovery channel Web site.
- 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.
Anthropology
- Unwrapped: The Mysterious World of Mummies, © 2000
The Learning Channel on Discovery.com, http://www.discovery.com/highspeed/tlc/mummies/,
accessed March 2002.
Finding, unraveling, making, and learning all you want to know about mummies
in this presentation.
Social Studies / Natural History
- 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
Environmental Sciences
Space Science
Biology
Medical Science
- Welcome to Neomedicus - About Asthma, © 2001
Neomedicus, http://www.neomedicus.md/about_asthma.html,
accessed March 2002.
Although really an advertisement for this medical production team, it is
nonetheless very useful in learning about asthma.
Basic Physics
- ExploreScience.com, © 1999-2001 ExploreLearning.com, http://www.explorescience.com/,
accessed March 2002.
Mostly physics based activities that take advantage of Flash technology.
Mathematics
- BaseTen, © 2000 The Learning Box, http://www.learningbox.com/Base10/BaseTen.html,
accessed March 2002.
Although not the complete program that the Learning Box markets, this sample
is still useful and fun. It doesn't meet many of the criteria above, but
it was one of the best mathematics examples that I could find barring a
more exhaustive search.
General Science
- Quiz Hub, © 2001-2002 by Schmidel & Wojcik:
Educational Web Weavers, http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm,
accessed March 2002.
Although only a few of the activities are available for free, this site
presents a wide variety of learning activities in several subject areas
complete with assessments.
- Prongo.com, © 2002 Prongo.com, http://www.prongo.com/,
accessed March 2002.
Many activities and quizzes in different subjects and age categories.
Library and Information Sciences
- Dewey Decimal System Multimedia Tour: What is the problem
the DDC solves?, ©2000-2001 OCLC Forest Press, http://www.oclc.org/dewey/about/ddctour/,
accessed March 2002.
Just as it says, you can use this multimedia tour to learn all about the
Dewey Decimal classification system.
Online Education
- Making theVirtual Classroom a Reality | MVCR Orientation
| WebCT Tutorial, © 2001 The Board of Trustees of
the University of Illinois, http://www.mvcr.org/orientation/tutorials/webct/index.asp,
accessed March 2002.
A nice little tutorial on how to use WebCT from a student's perspective
made by this article's author. Although incomplete currently, the Flash
presentation also has an html based version.
Macromedia Sites
The following links are useful for obtaining more information
about Flash, the player, purchasing the product, and Macromedia's
own showcase.
Other Tutorial Sites
While the Macromedia site is great for finding basic information
about Flash, the sites listed below extend the breadth of knowledge
for Flash many fold. Most of these sites provide extensive libraries
of code too that will help you expand your Flash knowledge.
- ACM Flash Tutorials, © 2001 ACM at UB, http://acm.cse.buffalo.edu/~rjraux/flash/?
- Becoming a Flash 5 Master, © 2002, Lycos, Inc.
on the Webmonkey Website, http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/multimedia/shockwave_flash/tutorials/tutorial8.html
- CNET Builder.com - Voices - Flash Point, ©1995-
2002 CNET Networks, Inc., http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/pages/Graphics/FlashPoint/
- Computer Arts Web Tutorials, © 2002 Future Publishing, http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/web/
- Extremeflash.com, © 2002 INT Media Group, Incorporated, http://www.extremeflash.com/
- Flash Kit, A Flash Developer Resource, © 1999-2002
INT Media Group, Inc., http://www.flashkit.com/
- Flash Tips, Tricks & Tutorials, © Flash Thief
(no date given), http://www.flashthief.com/
- Flashheaven, © Norman Elmers (no date given), http://www.flashheaven.de/englisch.htm
- Flazoom.com 2.0 - Flash Usability and More!, ©2000
- 2002 MacGregor Media, http://www.flazoom.com/
- Free Flash Training, © 2001 Scott Turton, http://www.intelinfo.com/free_flash_training.html
- Help 4 Flash, © Help 4 Flash (no date given), http://www.help4flash.com/
- Kirupa.com - Flash 5 Developer's Guide, © 2002
Kirupa Chinnathambi, http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash5/home.htm
- OpenSWF.org, © 2000-2002 Virtuascape Media Design
Agency, http://www.openswf.org/
- The Flash Academy, © ENS Inc. (no date given), http://www.enetserve.com/tutorials/
- Welcome to FlashPlanet.com, © 2002 INT Media
Group, Incorporated, http://www.flashplanet.com/
Usability Issues
Two issues often overlooked in multimedia design by beginners
are usability and accessibility issues. A big debate right now
would be whether or not Flash helps or hurts usability. Obviously,
there are examples where Flash is just downright annoying and
not helping usability. For instance, you may have come across
a site where an animation plays across the browser on top of
the content with no way to skip the animation or get around it
to see the content until the movie is done playing. Well, these
are examples of poor site usability, but the advertising is necessary
by those sites in order to gain revenue to keep the site afloat.
It's a tradeoff. It is also common to have fancy Flash sites
with no way to navigate through keyboard commands or no text-only
version for those with disabilities. A large market is then left
out of the mix, and in education, it is a market with legal rights
to access the information.
I was able to find 2 sites that I think epitomize the usability
arguments on both sides. First a usability expert looks down
upon Flash and then Macromedia responds with their own exercises
in usability. The accessibility issue, however, is still up in
the air. Until designers begin to take the time to either create
2 sites (one for most people and one for those with disabilities)
or until designers have the knowledge and time to program accessible
Flash movies, accessibility will continue to be an issue. If
you are interested in learning more about accessibility issues,
please refer to the Pointer and Clicker
archive for past articles that addressed them. In the meantime,
take a look at these sites arguing the usability side of the
issue.
I hope that you enjoyed this excursion into the world of Flash
and its potential for online education.
The End
|
