> This is kind of a broad question, but does anyone know any really good
> examples of Flash that would get some high school students excited
> about its possibilities?
Of course, there's the Site-of-the-Day gallery:
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/showcase/
Samorost: This is a game in the way that Myst is a game. Perhaps more of a
puzzle. Maybe it's art. You'll stare at it for a while thinking, "What the
heck is this?" Then you'll start to play:
http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/%7Exsvobod4/amanita/samorost/intro.html
Samorost is by Amanita Design. Amanita has a couple of other pieces in the
same genre, as promotionals for the Polyphonic Spree (a musical group which
is probably the antithesis of hip-hop, i dunno). Go to their site and click
on the Flash games:
http://www.amanitadesign.com/
Another place to look for ideas (for you, i mean--i'm not sure i would send
students blindly there) is WaterCoolerGames ("games with an agenda"). It's a
site about games, rather than a game host itself. You may need to be
selective about what you present to the students.
http://www.watercoolergames.org/
What about web-comics? Well, now--
Of course, there's "The Professionals"--a web comic hosted on our Student
portal:
http://www.macromedia.com/resources/student/campaign/bts_fall2004/theprofess
ionals/
There's dotComics from Marvel Comics:
http://www.marvel.com/dotcomics/
(These used to have a better interface, i don't know how much mileage they
have right now. i'm less impressed than i used to be.)
Perhaps your students will think nothing of the fact that the Mucha Lucha
cartoon show site is in Flash, but i'm pretty impressed that the actual TV
version of the cartoon is animated in Flash too.
http://kidswb.warnerbros.com/stuff/stuff_show.html?id=MUC
There are some folks doing really strange things with Flash comics. i'm not
sure that they're appropriate "For All Ages" though. Here's one that takes
advantage of Flash to play with the concept of the "infinite canvas," using
Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's Tarquin Engine:
http://www.e-merl.com/pocom.htm
Goodbrey has a LOT of weird outside-the-lines Flash stuff. Again, this may
not be appropriate for classroom use, due to language, but perhaps it will
give you some ideas:
http://www.e-merl.com/
i found Goodbrey through Scott McCloud, of "Understanding Comics" fame.
McCloud has a feature on his site called the Morning Improv, where visitors
submit titles and he creates comics based on the titles. They're quickly
done and result in stream-of-consciousness stuff, but here's one he did
using the Tarquin Engine:
http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi-26/mi-26.html
Scott McCloud is the originator of the "invisible canvas" idea (the idea
that--as far as an artist is concerned--a web page is infinitely wide and
long), and he pulls off
a great example of what you can do with the idea here (Week 3,
particularly):
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/zot/heartsandminds.shtml
I'm really interested in interface design, so my site suggestions all share
that theme. Plus one more: Bembo's Zoo, which is a very clever use of
simple shapes.
Forces of Nature on the National Geographic site: neat menu design and cool
simulations of earthquakes and volcanoes:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature/
A lot of museum sites use Flash. I like the interactive menu of buildings
in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibit on Tall Buildings, also they segmented
pages in interesting ways.
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2004/tallbuildings/index_f.html
Circle of Stories honors Native American stories, with interesting use of
collages of still photographs and images. Since a lot of students do
digital stories, there are some good ideas here. Click Launch Stories on
the left side of the home page. http://www.pbs.org/circleofstories/
America on the Move, a Smithsonian exhibition, has a cool interactive
timeline with multiple navigation methods.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition/
Bembo's Zoo: A surprisingly sophisticated animated alphabet:
http://www.bemboszoo.com/