Answer To The Difficulty Debate - Part 2

Okay, this has been more frustrating than I thought. I created a simple Flash Application which I separated into Screens (I used the term because teachers would be familiar with it, from PowerPoints). Each screen (and there are 4) has it's own elements on it, one has text and an image, another has just text, another has text and a video and another has text and an animation. The idea being is that the teacher can duplicate the screen that they need, then pull it onto the stage where it can be adjusted to their own needs. That, in theory, is quite simple, in practice is very different.

I've had the notion that the teacher should already have some basic knowledge of flash, but should they have to? If the answer is no, I must create some sort of user guide for them to know how to change the various parts and get them to know how to move around the Flash Environment (risking countless confusion), if the answer is yes, then that severely limits the use of the template.

This has been quite a struggle.

I've now come to the conclusion that this template should be used by people with basic Flash knowledge but without the time to get in and create something from scratch, but for those with little or no experience of Flash, it would probably be best to use a software with a much higher "user-friendliness" than Flash, such as Adobe Captivate.

Answer To The Difficulty Debate - Part 1

Back from sunny Benidorm and into the cold, rainy, Welsh valleys once more, where I have had a slight (but nonetheless significant) epiphany.

The on-going argument about how difficult multimedia is to create and use has been a fruitful one, I had the wonderful idea of making a Flash Application that can be easily adapted and used amongst most subjects and topics. Now, this is no easy task, I have a few things to consider:

- How do I make the application so that each individual element can be edited
- How do I inform the user of what should be changed and what shouldn't be
- How do I make it all work and provide all the necessary elements for the teacher to adapt

You'll have to stay tuned to find out how I managed to do it.

Staggering The M-Conversion

We've already discussed that multimedia is a step worth taking, for the benefit of the teachers AND the students. However, it's now been brought to my attention that the hesitation in the conversion of multimedia, isn't the idea, its the practice. Multimedia can be difficult in some respects and time consuming in others, two things a teacher in Rhondda Cynon Taff are not interested in. So how can we spin this and make teachers in RCT want to use multimedia when there's no interest in taking the "large step for mankind" into this world.

The best way I can come up with, from the top of my head is to stress how easy some aspects of multimedia are, and I know what your thinking, it's all very well me saying this when I'm technically orientated anyway, but with the correct guidance it could be easy for everyone. Okay, learning certain multimedia programs can be like learning a new language altogether but where there's a difficult option, the world introduces a more user-friendly option and allows the same work to be carried out in a much easier way.

Take Flash for instance, to make a quiz in flash takes a huge amount of technical knowledge, to use ActionScript and components and it's all very complex, however, in Captivate, creating a quiz is as simple as choosing "insert quiz" from the menu and then typing the question and answers into the correct boxes.

What I'm really trying to say here is that, although conversion to multimedia is a huge push, it doesn't take a huge effort to do this. Especially with organisations such as our department at the University of Glamorgan (C.E.L.T) out there trying to cushion the fall for even the least technically minded teacher. We are here to help, we really are. I mean, we're not saying "everything should be Multimedia Now or Else", we're saying "we'll help you make the transition slowly and build the knowledge to advance on that transition in a smooth and easy way"