Winter Holiday （寒假） Flash Class
From January 31 to February 7 a new computer class was held for lower middle school students in the village of Yinjialin, teaching students how to use Adobe Flash. Flash is a software that allows users to create simple (or very sophisticated) animations by using traditional animation concepts such as timelines and keyframes whilst using the power of computers to automate tedious repetitive tasks such as drawing “in between” frames.
Why Flash? Well, we asked the kids what they wanted to learn to use computers to do, and one answered “make cartoons.” A bit more digging around showed that this was a pretty popular idea, and it quickly snowballed from there. It appealed to us as well, as it was a great method of teaching students basic computing skills and concepts and at the same time allowing students to unleash their creativity (as you can see from the animations below).
Methods and concepts covered include motion tweening (meaning ‘in between frames’), shape tweening, layers, masking, rotation and transformation, text effects, motion paths and movies (essentially animations within animations).
It is hoped that in the future this class will continue and students will be able to learn more complex techniques, such as how to link scenes together, make better use of the drawing tool options and, eventually, delve into the programming aspects of the program. Flash can be used to create games, calculators, order forms, websites and greeting cards, amongst others. The possibilities are endless.
Here are some of the animations produced by our students (click on link to view):
Through the periscope (by Sun Yanan 孙亚楠)
All about me (by Wang Chunyu 王春雨)
Cheese Hunt (by Liu Yanzhao 刘延昭)
Not bad, huh? I’m sure the students will read this page (I’ll point them towards it), so please give them some feedback on their works!
Created
Wei Ji Ma (blog author) says:
Added on March 7th, 2008 at %0:%Mar %pI am very impressed by the work! It is very creative and very beautiful. I liked the idea of the periscope a lot - Sun Yanan has a cinematographer’s eye
Liu Yanzhao’s mouse is very smart - it finds the cheese very quickly!
This may be the first time in history that rural Chinese students learn Flash in middle school. It sounds like they enjoyed it.
I suggest we put your post up as an example of RCEF’s teaching approach, either in the Model Lessons section or in the Impacts section. What do you think?
Jikky says:
Added on March 8th, 2008 at %0:%Mar %pWow - I liked it! They should teach me, because I don’t even know how to use Flash, haha. I think it’s a good way for students to use their creativity. Hope to see more in the future!
Ting says:
Added on March 18th, 2008 at %0:%Mar %pVery sophisticated! Much better than what I can do with Macromedia Flash. All of the student works are amazing, I especially LOVE the cheese hunt. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the children use their Flash knowledge to make a website for their school / class?
Carrie says:
Added on March 28th, 2008 at %0:%Mar %pLovely pictures! Smart students! Very glad to find the familiar names. Miss the children and the time in Yinjialin.