How can it enhance my teaching?
Adobe Flash is best known for creating interactive animations, combining audio, video, hand-drawn animations, warping effects and clickable elements into independent, self-contained objects. For example, this Flash object includes video and clickable elements to simulate a non-childproof office environment, assessing early childhood students as they click on items that should be moved out of the reach of children.
The same video could easily be re-purposed for other uses, such as identifying common office items in foreign languages.
Educational uses for Flash objects are only limited by imagination. You can find inspiration for your own Flash objects by viewing educational games others have created, including those found at the BBC, the Nobel Foundation, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
While Adobe Flash is the best-known software product for combining multi-media elements into Flash objects, it is not the only product capable of creating Flash objects, nor is it the easiest to use. Adobe Captivate is particularly useful to educators for quickly assembling mult-media elements into learning objects. Using an interface similar to PowerPoint, instructors can quickly assemble "slides" with audio, video and tests, then embed the resulting object into any learning management system. For example, using Captivate, instructors can easily assemble "choose your own adventure" style learning objects, complete with video and assessment based on the student's choices.
Example: Video-based lesson created using Captivate
While Adobe Flash and related products are generally used to create Flash-based objects, it is certainly not the only way. For instance, screencasting software (such as Camtasia) is typically used to record computer activity, resulting in a video demonstrating the use of software. However, Camtasia can also insert video into projects - combine a speech video, for instance, with Camtasia's voice recording abilities and drawing tools, and you have a Flash-based learning object for use in Communications class, using sports-caster style tools to critique the speech.
- Speakers or headset if learning object includes audio elements
- Flash Player, available for free from Adobe's website
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