Flash Ideas

Exploring Flash over the course of this week has brought a feeling of excitement: another notable way to make web design dynamic and interactive.
Several ideas came to mind as to how to employ Flash as a teaching tool. The first came from a conversation that took place at school earlier in the week. I was commiserating with a fellow teacher regarding the poor map skills of our students. Viewing the National Geographic endangered species was an inspiration for an interactive map by which students, by mousing over locations, could call up images of significant people, places and things associated with the area.
A second idea was closely related to the first. Perhaps a map could be designed that displayed data (pictures, video files, audio) by mousing over locations, but with an additional timeline feature, operated with a sliding control, that would allow viewers to access information regarding that location through different historical periods.
The final idea was inspired by Carnegie Hall listening adventures, a favorite among the list of suggested sites. Moving images do so much to make sites more dynamic and engaging, but the combination of moving images and audio expands that power exponentially. The recent MLK day celebrations at our schools served as a reminder that so many of our students have never heard the Dr. King's iconic speeches. Audio of those speeches, along with images from the civil rights movement, could be combined to allow students to discover the speeches in an interactive and engaging format.