FlashICT.net

I’ve just signed up for a virtual tradeshow - the PC Magcast virtual tradeshow. Not sure there is going to be an enormous amount of specific interest in relation to education and ICT, but it got me thinking in that so many events need to be more like this. Granted, the major positive thing about shows and conferences is the networking and social interaction, but I really do think there is a role for things like this.

How about if the BETT show was like this? [The BETT show is the British Education Technology Show that takes place in London every January] You certainly wouldn’t have an opportunity to gain as many pens for your classroom, but I think there might actually be benefits from taking things in a different direction. I remember not being incredibly impressed with the whole thing this year.

The main aim at the BETT show - at least for me - is to see ideas how ICT can be successfully and effectively used in education. Now, I think if companies paid for schools to put on webcasts or online events showcasing their work - actually in the school or clasroom - then you could really see the impact of the ICT. If you are trying to persuade SMT that a specific product works, a glossy handout doesn’t really do it, but an active, interesting presentation would.

I think this is the way for the BETT show to go. Forget about paying for expensive travel, stands, glossy literature. Instead focus on the key content - the effectiveness of the product in classroom. Companies would save and so too would schools.

Anyway, have a look at the above link - it could be the way things could go….

[Finally - I’ve disabled comments for this blog now as I’m fed up with getting spammed. However, feel free to leave your comments on the EffectiveICT.co.uk forum - you do need to register, but it honestly isn’t much hassle]

I hasten to add I’m pretty sure it isn’t an issue with Firefox, but I’m not entirely sure. As I’m developing Flash content, I constantly preview the content using Firefox, but the .html displaying the .swf and the .swf directly. It never used to happen, but since being automatically updated to the latest version of Firefox (1.5.0.5) the browser seems to crash from time to time.

I cannot really identify specifically when, but it seems to be when I’m running multiple instances of Flash across about 10 different tabs. I don’t think it is my Flash programming as I’m not getting any Flash error messages (including the dreaded - “… do you want to abort this script”). What seems to happen is that Firefox just hangs.

I’m mortified! Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I’m going to reinstall Firefox and the Flash player to give it a try, but I’m concerned….

You might be aware of my exploits with Internet Explorer beta 2 - if not have a look at the most popular post on FlashICT.net, ‘uninstalling IE7 beta 2‘. I wasted an entire evening of my life with the software and, from the number of responses, it appears that many others have done exactly the same. Yet Microsoft have now had Internet Explorer beta 3 out for over a month now.

Is it going to be worth the hassle all over again? Probably not….

With my various websites and Flash learning materials, I do feel the need to keep up to date with Microsoft’s latest releases so I can make sure that everything is working as it should. I am a 100% Firefox user and don’t see this changing. Yet it is vital to have other browsers installed so everything can be checked. This is especially true for Internet Explorer 7 which Microsoft will force all Windows users to install when they release it as a critical update. As a side note, I wonder if another anti-trust lawsuit could get them to make Firefox a critial update too

Anyway, I do feel the need to install beta 3, but I’m too nervous - I don’t have time to waste fixing my PC and I certainly don’t want to see those dreaded error screens again. So, at the moment, I’m not going to - but I will see how others have got on and I hope it won’t have all the problems of beta 2.

So, at the moment, this is one I’m staying well away from. I just hope nothing else has been ‘introduced’ to mess up Flash content.

• See the latest beta of Internet Explorer 7
• Known issues and some really useful tips about installing / uninstalling

[Just as every other Flash blog has already posted ]

I signed up for IFBIN earlier in the year as it looked like a really promising service. I was interested in developing a way of generating wordsearches using .xml and Flash. Thus I put this forward as a proposal for the IFBIN authors. Unfortunately, IFBIN petered out and no new content was added for months. Plus my own personal request was largely ignored and came to nothing.

I did get in contact with Ted the owner of IFBIN who informed me about the change of plans for IFBIN. I said that I’d be more than happy to donate my fee to encourage the future open source development of the site. If - and it is quite a large if - the site can develop it can potentially become a great source of Flash experiments and ideas.

Best of luck IFBIN!

I admit it now - I was wrong about Adobe. I was worried that they would completely destroy everything that was great about Macromedia - that they would remove, limit and discourage the Macromedia community, that they would throw popular products out, that they would produce some horrible combined version of Flash and Acrobat.

I was completely wrong - and I hope that I continue to be. Adobe have made some great progress recently and I don’t think we would be wrong to say that it is largely because of Macromedia! Nevertheless, Adobe’s willingness to take Macromedia ideas on board is clear to see. In some ways, one might even speculate that Macromedia seem to have taken Adobe over, rather than the other way round.

The Adobe.com website is basically the old version of the Macromedia site. It isn’t quite as good, but very nearly is. It works, and it works well. All the tutorials, guidance and support seems to have been ported across to the ‘new’ Adobe site so nice one Adobe. The new Flash Player 9 has been released, but without any huge additional payload forcing users to download Adobe Acrobat or suchlike. Nevertheless, Adobe haven’t changed the way it is released or made up some ridiculous marketing ploy to claim the enormous advances that have been made since Adobe took over. Instead, Adobe have continued in exactly the same way as Macromedia did.

Yet the most singificant positive point is Adobe’s continuation with the Macromedia, or rather Adobe labs. This is fantastic. Recently Adobe have released an alpha version of Flash Professional 9. You have to have a valid Flash Professional 8 licence but this is a great way of showing support to previous Macromedia customers, allowing said customers to begin experimenting with Actionscript 3 but, most importantly, it means that Adobe are continuing to have faith with the ‘Labs concept’. This is the best way of beta testing software and it means, or at least openly suggests, that Adobe are listening to the most important people - the users.

So - well done Adobe - keep it up!

Obviously I’m writing this from the perspective of a teacher, but I’m really keen to explore the benefits of what used to be known as the Flash Communication Server. I’ve always looked inquisitively at what could be done, but I’ve never really had the time or impetus to even begin experimenting with it. Flash Media Server, according to Adobe, offer: “…. the unique combination of traditional streaming media capabilities and a flexible development environment for creating and delivering innovative, interactive media applications to the broadest possible audience.”

Eh? I’ve long been confused about how it could be used, but I’ve always just had the feeling I was missing something or not understanding fully. I’ve developed lots of Flash based activities such as my Interactive Diagrams, Interactive Storyboards and games like Penalty Shootout. I’ve also been very keen to make much more of the ‘Communication’ aspect of ICT for students. All my activities, even though I say this myself, are really good when the student is using it themselves or with a group of students in class. Yet I would really like to enable collaboration while the activities are being used. Perhaps just multi-player games, but I’m more after the ability for students to log in and create their own collaborative mind-map.

On the excellent FlashComGuru.com website, this application already exists - and it is clear that the Flash Media Server is the way to get such things running. There is even an article about a closely related application on the Adobe site. This is also one of the fundamental parts of Breeze where students can collaborate on a virtual whiteboard during an online discussion.

Thing is, I’m concerned that I’m focusing on the application before actually looking at the educational uses. Thus I’m thinking this whiteboard application is great, how could I use it in the classroom. Instead I should be looking at what I want to do in the classroom and then, when appropriate, fit this to such an online activity.

I do feel that there is a great step forward for teachers to make though. We have the traditional teaching environment and we are adding extra fancy bits and pieces using ICT. Yet with applications powered by tools like FMS I’d suggest that everything becomes that much more powerful.

It literally could be a collaborative homework task - you set the students one week to work, then each logs on and leaves their own contribution. I’m still undecided though - am I just wasting time here? What do you think? The FMS is expensive to purchase for a school to host on their own, but purchasing some hosting with FMS (or as this link still says - Flash Com server) seems to be a viable option.

The UK’s National Archives have just released a great new exhibition about the English Civil War. As explained below:

Visit our brand new exhibition on the Civil War and discover some exciting new documents, images, video clips and interactive features. Find out more about how to use archival sources and investigate the conflict involving King Charles I, Parliament, the people and Oliver Cromwell. Each document has an audio version, a first for the Learning Curve! The exhibition has been written by Ben Walsh.

http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/civilwar/

Thanks

Tom O’Leary
Head of Online Services and Education
The National Archives

What I am most impressed about is how the National Archives are now using Flash effectively for their delivery method. This is exactly the sort of thing I wish more educational providers would do. Use standard .html pages, but introduce Flash elements to bring the pages alive. Here the source material is read out loud (via a Flash audio player) and there are online Flash videos where actors have been used to portray contemporary individuals.

However, they should go further - the Flash videos should be integrated into the main text. If they are paused to begin with it wouldn’t affect those on slower downloads. If activated it could either somehow detect the download speed or provide alternative options.

Finally, there is a nice little Flash notation tool where students can type their thoughts and ideas and even draw over them using the mouse, making it appear like a contemporary document. All really impressive stuff - and avaiable for everyone to make use of.

I know that as a government website, the National Archives do have difficulties pushing to use the latest technologies when bound with official, often outdated webdesign standards. However, they are clearly pushing things in the right direction.

[N.B. Just as a note, the National Archives pay for an advert on my www.SchoolHistory.co.uk website, but all the above thoughts are my own ]

Just visited Adobe.com and it all seemed strangely familiar. No longer was I looking at a site which seemed to be thrown together and had a ugly Flash animation shoved in at the top. It now appears to look much like the Macromedia site used to be.

This is an excellent sign - indicative that Adobe didn’t just take Macromedia over to quash rival technologies and nick the Flash player. Instead they appear to be making the most of an excellent group of web designers.

I don’t like the drop-down menus - I still think Macromedia had it best when they created their innovative solution a number of years ago. Nevertheless, I like the new Adobe.com - the spirit of Macromedia really shines through. Well done Adobe!

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.

I can’t really type what I’m feeling at the moment. Thus, instead please think of the rudest possible expletive you know, imagine you are shouting it out loud and that equates to about 10% of how annoyed I am.

I installed Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 yesterday to check out all the problems with Flash. Problems that mean Flash, video and nearly all other interactive content have to be ‘activated’ before they work. The whole thing because Microsoft lost a court case and thus had to change the way Internet Explorer works.

It is really annoying and irritating, but ways around the issue seems to be being found and I hope it won’t cause too much trouble anyway.

So, having found out the problems, I thought I’d give IE7 a good go anyway. I click on the IE7 icon on my desktop. Error message. I try once more - error message again. Looked to me like Internet Explorer 7 was a real non-starter for me. Not a problem I thought. The ‘new’ beta contains an ‘uninstall’ option that allows me to remove Internet Explorer 7 and swap back down to version 6. (Obviously in reality this means just continue using Firefox ).

I thus go to the control panel and click to uninstall Internet Explorer. I leave it running. This was at 18.10. As I type this it is 22:14 and I have wasted my entire evening ******* around with this stupid program. I had wanted to spend the limited time I’ve got working on my ContentGenerator.net programs, including an update that I want to get running asap.

What happened is this:

1. I returned to the PC to see my standard Windows background (no taskbar, no start button) with an error message saying “Explorer.exe cannot run because Normaliz.dll was not found” (or something like this). It all seemed rather odd.

2. I rebooted, thinking perhaps the uninstall had gone slightly wrong and it might fix itself.

3. Some chance - same thing happened. Mouse works fine, keyboard works, so I manage to get the Task Manager working. From here I can run Firefox. I do a quick websearch for the issue, hardly anything appears at all - apart from one poor soul who seemed to be suffering the same.

4. I was able to run Firefox, so I thought I’d try reinstalling the IE 7 beta 2. I visit the Microsoft website and find the IE beta 2 download. It forwards me to check if my installation of Windows is genuine. Fair enough - apart from the fact the page it forwards me to is dead.

5. Luckily, I remember that I’d already downloaded the installation to my desktop and thus fiddle around through taskmanager to browse to my desktop where I’d saved it. Remember at the moment only my desktop background and thus damn error message are visible. I can run programs but each time I do I get further error messages related to IE.

6. I get the IE7 installer running, it unpacks a few files and asks me to validate my version of Windows. I click the button to do this - guess what? Yep - it forwards me to the page again that doesn’t exist. As I look a bit deeper it turns out that as my default browser is Firefox it is my fault.

7. So, I’m completely stuck. I can reboot but the desktop freezes with the error message. I try booting from safe mode - same thing, only slower. I start to consider reinstalling Windows. I really don’t want to do that though.

8. Anyway, just to be safe I decide to run an extra backup. I’ve got a special partition for simple backups - so I copy the Outlook .pst and the ‘My pictures’ folder - about the only things we actually store in the standard locations. This takes a while so I try the installation thing again.

9. While the installer is running I notice that it unpacks the files to a temporary directory on one of my partitions. Very strange. Anyway, the installation fails again, but as I look into it all the installation files are actually available in this temporary directory. Including our friend ‘normaliz.dll’. So I copy and paste that .dll into the System 32 folder and then I run explorer.exe from the Task Manager.

10. Incredibly, the desktop then appears and it is four hours later.

My system is still messed up, but at least it is working. Plus - have a guess at this. I’m typing this using Internet Explorer 7!! I’m running it from the temporary directory where I found the lovely .dll file.

Anyway, apologies for the rant, but it is very helpful to explain what happened - even just for me. Plus, I’ve eventually staggered into a solution to the issue. No excuse for Microsoft though. I don’t mind a few problems with beta software - but to make an entire system hang due to a missing .dll file that is missing because their installer messed it up is terrible.