Flash is an amazing program - I know this! However, why specficially is it so useful in schools? Some might say it is too complicated or tricky for students to understand. I really don’t think that it is. The reason for this post is that I want to challenge that - I’d like to establish what Flash is good for in terms of education.
As an ICT (Information, Communication, Technology - the term for computer use in education in the UK) teacher it would be easy for schools just to deliver a standard curriculum using Microsoft products. Get students to use PowerPoint to create a presenation about themselves, use Excel to calulate their pocket money, use Word to write a formal letter - so on and so on. There is a role for such activities as students need to gain those skills. Yet most secondary school students can do all of these things by the age of 12. The main requirement for ICT teachers, as I see it, is to stretch student achievement and essentially, to engage students with something more challenging and interesting.
Hence - Macromedia / Adobe Flash 
I’ve only really started exploring the potential uses of Flash - a couple of years ago we ran a summer school where students created their own game in four hours. This was great - students knew they were doing something new, each was able to rise to the challenge and they were all able to follow some guidance sheets to produce their own games:
http://www.reviseict.co.uk/flash/flash_games.shtml
However, I’d like to push things much further forward. I currently help students develop Flash skills in after school clubs - these have their place, but it means only those who attend get the benefits. I’d like to explore how Flash could be used as part of the standard curriculum.
It is very important not to start from the wrong end though - I don’t want to be saying “We must use Flash, so we’ll make up some activities”. Instead I’d like to explore how Flash might be beneficial within the standard curriculum. With the school site licences, many schools now have both the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite but also the Macromedia / Adobe studio suite.
Already in our teaching we encourage students to use Dreamweaver for the webdesign courses and we use Fireworks for web / basic image processing. Yet we don’t use Flash. When encouraging students to use Dreamweaver we do the right thing - we get them to examine each potential program and then reach their own conclusion. If they select and justify their choice, great. If they select another program - also fine, as long as they justify their choice. We use this to help them evaluate web design programs: http://www.reviseict.co.uk/ks3/8.2/website_creation.shtml
Yet this is where I get a little stuck. Flash doesn’t really have any alternatives does it? There isn’t really an opportunity to justify the use of Flash. I suppose we could say that a student could choose to create a presentation in Flash rather then Powerpoint, but this is very low level usage. I think what I’m leading towards is that I’d like to explore curriculum opportunties for students to make effective use of Flash.
Not just adding a simple animation or flashy graphic in their webpage - I’m after something more. I’m still thinking exactly what though 
I’ll continue this discussion on the EffectiveICT.co.uk forum, but please feel free to leave any comments or ideas.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Kim C. // Apr 17, 2006 at 2:32 am
I taught Flash for a number of years at what would be considered an “inner-city” school to students aged 12-14. Here are some things I think Flash really excels at:
1. It teaches students to be organized.
2. It teaches students the value of following directions.
3. Students learn the importance of making a plan and following the plan.
4. It allows students to do things that are fun and engaging and have high interest.
5. It’s incredibly flexible–some students are drawn to the visual side of using Flash while others are drawn to the coding side of things. Either way, it’s the one program that allows students to work in either environment and explore where their own leanings are.
6. It’sa wonderful way for students to visualize concepts. I did science, history, and language projects with my students every year and the process of animating and explaining and demonstrating concepts in Flash really helped them understand the subjects. One of my favorites was an animated guide to the solar system where students learned the concept of orbits.
Those are a few. I’m not saying it’s easy, especially if a teacher of a “regular’ subject is trying to use Flash with their students, but in terms of a course that works alongside their regular studies Flash can be incredibly powerful.
Kim
2 Andrew Field // Apr 22, 2006 at 9:05 am
Thanks for this Kim - I’d agree with all of this!
I’ve just started running my ‘Advanced ICT’ club at school again - we’ve got a brand new ICT suite with new computers that run Flash flawlessly - no more delays while it loads.
I’m building up a series of tutorials and tasks for students to complete each week and then be able to support other students in turn.
This is still an extra-curricular activity though. I’m still keen to explore possibilities for using Flash in lessons.
For ICT lessons I’m going to introduce a unit of work where we get students to create their own quiz. It will start with some Flash basics and then lead onto basic Actionscripting.
I think what I want to do is give students a taster how to use Flash and then encourage them to see the potential. It is great to see how you can light the touchpaper and then see what students can achieve.