Mindy McAdams posts some good thoughts on her blog (now with WordPress goodness!) – Thinking about learning Flash: #

I’m suggesting that you set yourself up to succeed, not fail. And that means maybe you shouldn’t plan to finish that project on deadline, and then rush and gnash your teeth and feel stupid — and quit. If you’re a photographer — was your first roll of film worthy of Page One? If you’re a designer — was your first information graphic suitable for a section front? And if you’re a reporter — surely your first story was completely rewritten by your editor? #

Why should learning Flash be any different from other storytelling practices? #

She has a good point. Flash is a different animal than print journalists are used to dealing with. Timelines, actionscripts, and a confusing interface all call for a different mindset than Word or even InDesign or Quark Xpress. So there will be a natural learning curve. #

This semester, I’m using Mindy’s Flash Journalism for an interactive media class for the first time. I’m glad students will have time to explore the strengths and weaknesses of Flash over the course of a semester before coming up with a final product. If you’re hoping to use more Flash in your college media operation this year, I’d suggest a similar stress on training before attempting to put out something for the general public. Let students learn to succeed, then use that training to come up with innovative storytelling. #

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