English for Wizards

Doing magic with Flash and Shockwave

By John Moore

さまざまな道具についてクイズ形式で学ぶ Edheads Simple Machines のサイト

I just saw the movie "Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers," in which Gandalf, the good wizard, appears in a flash of white light. It was a computer-generated special effect, of course. Actually, you too can have fun with special effects on your computer, just like Gandalf. All you need to do this is to download the free Flash player from Macromedia, Inc. and its more powerful teammate, the Shockwave player.

Flash and Shockwave let you see interactive animations on the Web, so this software has become very popular for online learning sites. Let's look at three different examples today.

First Peter and I decided to make our own kaleidoscope at www.zefrank.com/dtoy_vs_byokal/. If you haven't installed Shockwave yet, you might not see anything. You should go to http://sdc.shock wave.com/shockwave/download and follow the instructions there. It will probably take 10 minutes or so, depending on how fast your Internet connection is. After the installation, go back to the kaleidoscope page.

OK, do you see the kaleidoscope screen? Just click and drag in the big black area to draw things. Choose different colors, and try out all the different shape tools. Read the brief explanations about the other control buttons. In no time, you should see a fascinating kaleidoscope, like fireworks.

Next, we'll take a virtual roller coaster ride at http://virtual.questacon.edu.au/rollercoaster. You can build either a scary roller coaster or an easy one, and then ride it yourself or watch from a helicopter. Peter made an easy roller coaster, but then he said, "It's too slow." Yes, this activity is better if your computer has a fast processor.

Peter also pointed out that you don't use much English in this game. OK, we'll move on to the next activity, called Edheads Simple Machines (www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines).

Here you can click on different things in the house or the tool shed and answer questions about them. It's excellent English practice, and you also learn about simple machines, such as the pulley, inclined planes and gears. The robot character explains what you have to do, so be sure to turn on your computer's audio speakers - and watch out for the shark in the bathtub!

After you find all 10 simple machines in one room, you get a report card that you can print out, showing which questions you got right or wrong. But this activity had too much English for Peter. He said, "I wanna go back and do the kaleidoscope again."

Shukan ST: May 9, 2003

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