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our approach
This overview outlines important issues you should consiser before using Shockwave and/or JavaScript in your own web pages.
value of planning
We cannot over-emphasize the value of up-front, "before the fingers hit the keyboard" planning, especially when you want to take on something that is more complex than formatting web page layouts. Planning means thinking about the people that will be using your web pages and what you want them to come out of that experiences. Planning for the web is murky as you have no idea exactly who your viewers are or what environment that are in.A starting point for interactivity is having a clear picture of what functionality you want to incorporate into your web page(s). For example, let's say you teach Economics and you are designing an activity for your students to draw correlations between the timing of world events and stock market fluctuations. You have identified several key web sites for them to gather data. But with your instructions, you would like to include a spreadsheet-like application for the students to enter data, link to their sources, chart their results, and generate a report. Therefore, your specifications call for a grid of labeled rows and columns with fields that allow text input, web addresses, and buttons to click that will automatically draw graphs and make a report. It may also need a means of submitting the report via e-mail or writing it to a web server.
know the issues
Both JavaScript and Shockwave have their appropriate uses, advantages, and limitations. We've claimed that you do not have to know how to create/program Shockwave and JavaScript to use them, but you should be aware of the surrounding issues. In this workshop we will outline what we see as issues for using either technology. These factors should be considered at a very early stage. Very early.know where to go
Quite often, the tools you need are already built and made available on the web. We will introduce you to a set of reliable web site repositories for Shockwave and JavaScript code that you can freely use. Once you begin to see how to do the basics, you may find yourself returning for more and more free code or learning more about what you can accomplish.know when to compromise
You may not find a tool that does exactly what you want it to do. That is the trade-off you are making by not having to learn the programming! Rather than giving up, you can look for an alternate way to achieve the functionality you had in mind. For our previous example, if there are not any Shockwave or JavaScript tools to do our spreadsheet, perhaps we can just link to a template of a spreadsheet created in a common software package that the student will download. Or perhaps, we could re-think our approach and not demand that the work be done in the web page itself (students still should know how to chart data and write report documents).know what to do; be ready for ______
The examples we chose to demonstrate are ones that should be very clear on how to customize them for your purpose. Because the web site resources we suggest are free, the ease of modification for other code examples may vary depending on how clearly they are presented and documented. You may run into a situation where you need assistance form someone who has experience writing interactive code. The bottom line is to give yourself plenty of time to experiment and test. Expect the unexpected, and prepare to modify as you go along. The "surfing" metaphor is not just about skimming merrily about the web. It also speaks to finding your own balance and contantly making adjustments as you go.let's go!
We've purposely created examples that accomplish similar but not exactly the same functionality using each tool. Pick your path... you are ready to dive into the world of Shockwave and JavaScript or any direction from our navigation menu.