Comments on: Updating Flash Journalism

By: Flash Journalism – ein paar Beispiele | netzprotokolle

Flash Journalism – ein paar Beispiele | netzprotokolle — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:35:09 +0000

[...] Es folgen nicht die knalligsten Animationen, die das Web zu bieten hat, sondern solche, die dem Nutzer journalistischen Mehrwert bieten und redaktionell auch umsetzbar sind. Mehr zu der Diskussion bei Steffen Leidel, Mark S. Luckie und Mindy McAdams. [...]

By: Teaching Online Journalism » New Flash journalism tutorials

Teaching Online Journalism » New Flash journalism tutorials — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:24:36 +0000

[...] set of lessons. The students also had a textbook. For further details, see Updating Flash Journalism (Dec. 6, 2009) and Updating Flash Journalism (Part [...]

By: Teaching Online Journalism » Updating Flash Journalism (Part 2)

Teaching Online Journalism » Updating Flash Journalism (Part 2) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:01:33 +0000

[...] I directed him to my December 2009 post about why I will not be updating my [...]

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:18:30 +0000

Thanks Mindy, Perfect timing. I bought the book after reading your post, just completed chapter 7. I’ll try follow your instructions, but if I get stuck, will wait to see your Word doc.

By: Mindy McAdams

Mindy McAdams — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:33:06 +0000

@Sharon: I am going to use Lesson 8 in the ACiaB text as a departure point for XML. I took all the data from the exercise and put it into an MS Word document. After the students complete Lesson 8 (pretty simple), I will give them the Word doc and walk them through how to convert it to CSV via Excel, then to XML. Then we will re-do the same exercise, but we will load the new XML file instead of all the steps in the book. No special tools required — we will use this free site to convert the CSV to XML:

http://www.creativyst.com/cgi-bin/Prod/15/eg/csv2xml.pl

I will be posting the MS Word doc and the instructions, but right now the instructions are in a rough draft form.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:50:42 +0000

Mindy, Thanks for sharing this information. I’m eager to see the tools and exercises you’ll be using to teach XML.

By: Annette Farrell

Annette Farrell — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:59:45 +0000

I wish my school offered a course in Flash. I know that I NEED to learn Flash, but I don’t know if I can do it on my own. As the graphics editor for my school paper, I feel like this is something I should be able to do. I know my class mates want to learn it too.
I appreciate this post so much because I feel like I have been given a push start in teaching myself how to use Flash. I just need the resources and links to the right information.

By: Bob Britten

Bob Britten — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:16:43 +0000

Thank you so much, Mindy – not only for the text suggestion, but for updating and sharing where it needs supplementing.
I spent this past semester teaching Flash on CS4, and I had the students use ActionScript 2.0 for two reasons: It seemed more intuitive (most journalism students understand what onRelease and gotoAndStop do), and I understood it (thanks in part to your book). Still, I knew that even though it was usable, the knowledge was verging on the obsolete.
Next fall I’m trying a print/interactive graphics course. In preparation, I expect I’ll be spending the summer with ACiaB and your supplementation. Thanks again for the valuable resource!

By: Mindy McAdams

Mindy McAdams — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:16:32 +0000

I have heard some positive things about Adobe Catalyst, but as of now, I’m just going to wait and see what happens with it. One reason is, Catalyst is in beta now. That’s not a finished product.

Another reason is, for many journalism students it’s just about the same learning curve to learn to use any new software. The perpetual promise that the next new software is “truly drag and drop” and requires no programming, etc., has usually turned out to be bogus, in my experience.

Perhaps the strongest reason is, you’re not going to walk into a newsroom where great interactive graphics are made and find them using Catalyst. They’re going to be using Flash CS4 Professional. (Maybe Flex, in some places.)

By: Chris Krug

Chris Krug — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:30:36 +0000

What’s your take on Flash Catalyst? Do you think J&MC programs will switch to it? How will its release and adoption affect your plans for teaching interactive design?