ELearning - a complicated process

Mark Steiner has put together an interesting article on eLearning projects on the Macromedia Designer and Developer Center.

"Today's emerging technologies are enhancing human cognitive, affective, and social capabilities at an astonishing rate. Nowhere is this more evident than in the e-learning arena. Recent advances in e-learning (which I loosely define as computer-supported collaborative learning and experiential simulation) now enable guided, inquiry-based education to overcome barriers of time and distance."

View the complete article.

Ugrading to Authorware 6.5

I have seen many people posting massages that they are having difficulty updating older Authorware projects to Authoware 6.5. The problem is that Authorware is only ever able to open files from the previous version.

Although a "point upgrade", Authorware 6.5 is effectively a full update for the purposes of updating older files. This means that 6.5 can open 6.0 files but it cannot open 5.0, 5.1 or 5.2 files. Or 4.0 files for that matter. So people upgrading direct from AW 5.2 to 6.5 have been concerned.

But Macromedia have been wise to this concern since Authorware 6.0. On the Authorware 6 CD there is a folder "D:\Macromedia\Previous versions of Authorware", where D is the CD drive. In this folder are special, fully-working, Not For Commercial Use versions of Authorware 3.5, 4.03 and 5.2. You can use these to progressivly update files as ancient as those produced by Authorware 2.

Authorware 6.5 has a similar folder, but only goes back to Authorware 4.03.

Slow delivery of CDs

Some people have complained that their boxed copies of Authorware, complete with CDs, are taking a while to arrive and this has caused them difficulties when wishing to upgrade. I believe these delays are settling down. In the meantime if you have a problem with upgrades you have a number of options. Here's a couple of them:-

• Locate a copy of the 6.0 demo. You can find it on recent Macromedia demo discs. It is also on the CD that comes with Jennie Thorton's book Authorware 6, inside Macromedia.

• Find a local Authorware developer who is willing to update files for you.