My reflection - the learning process on the Map exercise

The Map presentation seems like simple and easy to pick up the Flash techniques involved. However, it is not the case. I have spent night after night working on making a copy just exactly the same as the sample even the ways and wordings of it.

Going through the problem solving process on the Map exercise, I have learnt the major functions of Flash particularly the ActionScript function. My Flash application does not have the dialogue box appearing after I select the “tellTarget” command. I have no way to become a copy machine and go through the whole process by following the actions demonstrated in the tutorial of the Map exercise.

I try to find short cut to solve the problem like going back to HKU computer lab and downloading the Flash MX version, the one is used for the Map tutorial. However, the Wizard and the dialogue box do not come out. In order to solve the basic problem, I must go back to the very basic, knowing what the ActionScript is and learning how to use it to help me get my jobs done.

My learning partner gave me some websites for learning Flash. I visited these websites and I found many useful resources. There are many tutorials and examples for beginning and advanced learners to view and learn. (You might want to visit the following website if you find Chinese version is better for you to understand the concepts, however, you need to understand Putonghua.)

http://tech.china.com/zh_cn/netschool/homepage/flash/

There is a tutorial about the core concepts on writing action scripts. That one really helps me. Now I can understand the basic Flash language. With this understanding, I am able to do problem solving during the Flash editing process. Whenever your Flash presentation does not work out as you expect, you need to find out how to solve the problem. It is so frustrated if you don’t have a direction where you are going. But, with the understanding of the Flash language, you know the diagnosis you make will help you solve the problem.

Working on the Flash application, the user needs to be very, very careful on every action. The Flash application does not understand you and does not work for you if you make a very insignificant error. Even though it always tells you what error occurs in which level, which line and which frame in a very exact way, for some occasions, no error is given and you will be in trouble.

How useful the Flash tutorial could be

After hours of watching on the Flash tutorial on Map Making, I am thinking how useful the Flash tutorial could be. On one hand, I need the Flash tutorial to help me learn how to use Flash. Computer-based tutorial is effective in saving the instructor's time in coaching the student. On the other hand, I prefer to learn from a person but not a machine. For learning skills, the student needs a lot of practice for acquiring necessary skills to perform tasks and the technology helps solving the problem of limited resourse. Therefore, I think if I knew how to make Flash tutorials, it would be wonderful.

Reflection on the Flash learning

It is kind of frustrated to learn the Flash. I have spent more than ten hours on watching the Map tutorial, hoping to learn how to copy the techniques used in it so that I could apply those techniques to work on the final project. However, there are problems rising up frequently. It doesn't seem as easy as what I first expected. There are several reasons why I can't finish the entire practice and make a copy of my own. First, a whole range of operations involved in working out one task need lot of practice and memorization. Second, the concepts of layers and formats (visual types) take me many hours to understand them. Third, it takes me hours to understand that the first frame of the movie should leave out images. Fourth, the action scripts are different in different versions of the Flash. The one I use at home is Flash Professional 8 while the version in the tutorial is Flash MX. I realize that I need to spend more time to understand more about Flash and use it as a tool to create movie. No short cut in true learning.

My Photo Story

I like the Photo Story very much. It saves us time to create a slide presentation and add in special visual effect, text and audio information in a very convenient way. It seems like I have a audio-visual studio setting up on my desk and I could do it all myself without technician helping me put all the special effects, audio file, music and captions onto the edited photo album. Even though it takes time to explore and look for the best functions to work out the desired effects, it is a good tool for me, as a teacher, to create and produce simple learning objects for young learners to recall what they have learnt from the class lesson and reinforce their learning.

The following photo story is my first product after hours of exploration on how to use the tool, how to make it display on the blog and to save it in the wmv file but not wp3 file. Many other functions that need me to explore later. Here is my photo story - The Trip to North America.

Storyboard for the final assignment

This is how Qingchun and I work together to create the storyboard. First, we agree upon on using a nursery rhyme, Spring is Here, as the content and text of the learning object. Then, I search for cliparts from the Internet. Next, I create a draft ppt presentation. Later, Qingchun uses new technical to make the presentatin look well.

The storyboard of "Spring is Here" is here for you to view and comment.

Reflection on Session 5

This is so excited to learn about ppt and flash. For the ppt, I feel confident to use it to create storyboard. It is fun to explore a variety of clip arts from the internet particularly Microsoft clip arts and Google photos. My partner is an expert in producing ppt presentation and she showed me how to use tricks to create unique clip arts from the already-made ones. For the Flash animation, I am still standing at the beginning point. I don’t have Flash installed in my computer and I need to use Computer Room’s facility and that is not convenient for me.
I like the Flash Tutorial on HK Map. It provides me the opportunity to repeatedly view how to make Flash animation. I think this is an example that shows wonderful features of computer technology for supporting learning. I believe students will benefit from using tutorials for acquiring skills by practicing. Another wonderful feature is such learning tools enable students to learn things in their own pace and own time. Self-initiative students get the most in the learning from such mode of learning.

Our Proposal on the Final Assignment

We plan to create an learning object for promoting kindergarten children’s language skills in their literacy lesson. In a kindergarten class, the teacher uses nursery rhymes to motivate the children to learn vocabulary and sentence pattern. Nursery rhymes are characterized with repetitive words and sentence pattern. Computer-based learning objects are reusable and support children’s learning need in repeated practice. The selected nursery rhyme is as the following:
The wind told the grasses,
And the grasses told the trees.
The trees told the bushes,
And the bushes told the bees.
The bees told the birds,
And the birds sang out clear:
“Wake up! Wake up! Spring is here!”

The children learn the rhyme in the class. To consolidate their understanding and to help them memorize the names of those objects such as wind, grasses, trees, bushes, bees and birds, the teacher creates the learning object to encourage the children to learn these words. Besides learning the saying of the names, the children are learning the written names also. For some more able children, the learning object supports their learning in memorizing both the saying and the writing of the whole nursery rhyme.

The children are expected to enjoy playing and interacting with the learning object. The objects are presented like humans, having human characters, human voices and movement. Words would pop up, voice would say out and movement would go when the user clicks on the diagram of each objects.

There are three parts of work in the production of the learning object including the creative presentation, the graphic work and the computer design.

If you have any comment on it, feel free to make it! Thanks!