Last week, I had to install Shockwave on the 4th grade computers so they could view more items in Asia Quest (a Classroom Connect program). I was not familiar with this plug-in, but I quickly found out how easy it was to load on to her computers. I decided to find out more about plug-in for this week's assignment. After downloading Shockwave from its web site, I was instantly hooked since it can play Snoopy cartoons, and Snoopy just happens to be my favorite cartoon character. After looking at various web sites, I put together the following information about Shockwave.
History
In 1992 Macromedia
was introduced. Macromedia is a software company, who had a mission
to add life to the web. In 1995, Macromedia introduced Shockwave
as a web animation and sound plug-in. Shockwave was going to bring
entertainment to the internet. On October 7, 1999, Macromedia, Inc.
announced plans to establish Shockwave as a "stand-alone, independently
capitalized company."
What does
Shockwave do?
Shockwave allows you to view
interactive web content, like games, business presentations, entertainment,
and advertisements from your web browser. The following web sites
show examples of what shockwave could bring to the internet...
www.Disney.com
- Disney's interactive web site that uses Shockwave...Check this out!
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/maps/flight.html
- Traces the path of Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic.
www.lhs.berkeley.edu/shockwave/bones.html
- This site allows user to put the human skeleton back together.
www.clevermedia.com/arcade/states.html
- The user can click on any state and learn facts about it.
Potential
Educational Use
The first use of Shockwave,
is that it allows the user to view interactive web sites that were created
with Macromedia software. The sites engage audience members with
incredible special effects and real-time animation. We know that
today's students need engaging material to keep their attention for any
length of time.
The second use I found was to
create yearbooks that could be saved onto a C.D. ROM. A yearbook
that uses Shockwave would be visually rich and dynamic. The yearbook
would become interactive with real video and audio clips of the students.
This would be great for a high school yearbook committee to check out.
How do
you create Shockwave animation?
Macromedia has a program entitled,
Director 7.0 (the latest version). This program allows the user to combine
graphics, sound, animation, text, and videos into a compelling multimedia
presentation. The system requirements can be found at the following
web site - system
requirements. Currently, Macromedia is offering a special K-12
edition of Director 7.0. The price for one unit is $74.99, although
you must buy at least 10 units. Therefore, this could be rather
costly to get for your district.
Where
could one find Shockwave and how much does it cost?
Shockwave has the best cost
- it is FREE! All you must do is go to the web site at shockwave.com.
Once you are at this web site, you can go through the simple steps and
download it. After it is downloaded, you must install it and register
as a user. The whole process takes about 15 minutes.
If you want to spend some extra
money, you can get the Shockwave Player. This allows you to download
shockwave material and store it on your machine. You can then save,
categorize, and play this shockwave material at any time. If you
are interested in Shockwave Player, it will cost $19.95, and you can order
it from the shockwave web site.