[senit] Write your own art software in SLD

Apologies for the previous email that went by accident.

Hi Geoff, I agree that Flash is a powerful and flexible media with
which some very effective movies and interactive applications can and
have been created. It seems especially effective for 'cause and
effect' training activities so your offer of assistance is of great
value. That Star Wars précis is a lot of fun and you might like
http://www.angryalien.com/1205/starwarsbuns.asp
The site has many more 30 second films done by the bunnies.

As a point of information it may be worth keeping at the back of our
minds the distinction between the format and the programs used to
author and play it.

Flash was there first and is so common that many assume it is part of
the Open Web but in fact it is proprietary to Adobe. They can in
theory change the rules for using it at any time. Adobe do publish the
format so third parties can create programs that use it, giving us a
choice and a measure of protection from sudden changes in costs. They
could change their minds.

SVG on the other hand is an entirely Open Standard which is free from
individual ownership or control and there are also free programs for
creating and displaying it (e.g Inkscape).

Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the web, realised that in order for
it to be useful to us all it must remain Open and free from control by
any individual organisations or political agents. He formed the  W3C
to ensure we can all enjoy it and that it runs on Open Standards.
Others like Mozilla (developers of Firefox Web browser) are helping
promote the  Open Web by supporting Open Standards and creating Open
Source Programs.

Adobe may come under increasing pressure to open Flash and it will be
interesting to see what happens. In the mean time is a great tool as
you say.

Steve

On 18/11/2007, Geoff Dellow <gd at tygh.co.uk> wrote:
> Apologies for the previous email that went by accident.
>
> My earlier post is based on the following reasoning.
>
> I suspect that Flash (which is as you infer vector based but can
> handle bitmaps as well) is by far the most versatile piece of
> software that has been designed or ever will be for the education
> market.
>
> It is a 'Rolls- Royce' piece of software and every one that I have
> taught it to has gasped at what can be done with it. Even after Eight
> years , I am still only scratching the surface of what can be done.
> Yet it can be used by three year olds at a VERY basic level - I've
> seen it!
>
> My reasoning goes like this. Flash was developed as Commercial
> software when several £100,000 was spent in 1998 on a large team of
> programmers and the input of tens of thousands of web site designers
> making their suggestions of what they would like the software to do.
> In that year Macromedia achieved 100 million installations of the
> Flash Player.
>
> Flash 4 version was a major jump from Flash 3. Since then the
> improvements have been dramatic though they have added sophistication
> to what a web site designer might want. The latter are for the most
> part of little interest to the student aged 4 to 16.  A group of us
> at the time felt that for an educational use Flash 5 made its use
> unnecessarily compicated from the 4 - 16 year old's point of view.
>
> I cannot believe that any organisation will ever match the quality of
> Flash. They would never have the resources and why should they bother
> when Flash is already there.
>
> I have found that it can be used in a very wide variety of ways which
> I am covering in the ICTOPUS Sharing Good Practice articles - see
> www.ictopus.org.uk
>
> The thing that is holding Flash back is that teachers generally
> haven't got the time or energy to investigate something that they
> mistakenly feel is far too complicated so they make do with very poor
> imitations when it comes to students developing their self esteem
> from creating something that is unique and does amazing things.
> Thankfully there is an ever growing number of educationalists who are
> coming to value Flash very highly. Some Countries more than others -
> Australia seems to lead the way. This will reflect the farsightedness
> of the people leading their educational system. We in this country in
> my opinion are being held back by Becta. see http://www.tygh.co.uk/
> christmas for  the latest projects with many additional templates and
> http://flashteachers.blogspot.com for a place to share projects.
>
> My problem is that I have not had the time, energy or financial
> resources to promote Flash 4. Sadly Macramedia have never seen the
> true potential of Flash other than as a web site design tool. I guess
> theirs little money to be made in education so that all they have
> promoted it's use in a very limited a]way that in my opinion is
> devoid of vision.
>
> I leave you to enjoy the last episode of star wars done with Flash 4.
>
> http://download.theforce.net/theater/animation/stardudes/stardudes.html
>
> Enjoy
>
> Then perhaps more to your taste:
>
> Some lovely photos with music at
>
> http://www.ourfurness.co.uk/linda
>
> Also done in Flash.
>
> My presentation of some different projects that I have been involved
> with is at
>
> http://www.myulverston.co.uk/flash/talks.html
>
> Where I enthuse on video, with many illustrations, about Flash, and
> its use  in so many different projects with children from 4 to 16
>
> I'll now leave you all in peace.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Geoff
>
>
> On 18 Nov 2007, at 13:11, ~:'' ありがとうございました。
> wrote:
>
> > Write your own art software in SLD
> >
> > I'd like to complement and endorse Geoff's stance but prefer and
> > recommend SVG which is an open web standard. one that is being
> > maintained and will integrate well with social networking in the
> > future.
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Jonathan Chetwynd
> > Accessibility Consultant on Media Literacy and the Internet
>
>

-- 
Steve Lee
--
Jambu - Alternative Access to Computers
www.fullmeasure.co.uk