Creativity with Flash 4 by year 7 students

All children can be creative - to different degrees and in different ways.

Here is an illustration of how Flash 4 can enable those who use it.

By providing a template like this walking file, all students can produce something that works - no one feels a failure. In fact I am never aware of students feeling that they have failed or that their work is inferior to others. The result is that all children are highly motivated and that the whole class is "on task".

Here is a selection of different kinds of creativity in ICT. Some have great ideas for action, whilst others have a great colour and design sense and others venture into the realm of fantasy.

This variety is only made possible because of the power and ease of use of the Flash 4 software. To be creative students must not be restricted to a limited set of resources neither do they benefit from easy fixes that are provided by the likes of Microsoft software. With Flash children quickly visualise the possibilities and means of expressing themselves creatively. Having understood the rules of engagement they can anticipate ways that these rules can be used in unusual combinations.

Macromedia have just released Flash at a very attractive price for Primary Schools - you could try a project next term for only £15 which includes this file:-

Starting with this file-

the students created the following, presented in order of increasing creativity (in my opinion)

one and two, three and four, five and six, seven and eight

Oaks Park High School was recently strongly complimented for their Year 7 project using Flash by their OFSTED inspector. He was most impressed by the diversity of the work being done by a mixed ability class of 20 pupils. The project, starting with a file similar to the one above, involving the designing of one of three witches and the scenery encouraged a high degree of creativity. The OFSTED inspector was very keen to see that students in both Year 8 and Year 9 where also using Flash.

And secondly a new project with both year 7 & 8 using the theme "Ceebeebees" from CBBC television involving "shape tweening". Starting with -

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen

Flash used with Design Technology in Year 8