ZPD, FLASH, here and now.

I want to blog. I want to eat. I want to sleep. I want to watch Mike Myers on In the Actor's Studio. What to do... what to do... what to do. Hunger will win out in a moment I think.... but if I step away from the computer at this moment, I doubt I'll sit back down (at this desk) tonight.

I need to reflect a bit on the ZPD project while I'm still thinking about it. I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to take the proverbial bull by the horns and work with Flash to make my ZPD illustration. I had originally wanted to do my timeline for last term in Flash, but my Flash knowledge/experience was so very limited that I didn't even have a clear idea of how to create an appropriate plan for the Flash file, couldn't even describe the logic of it because I didn't understand enough about what Flash can do... or... more accurately... what I can do with Flash. So - at that time - Flash was quite distant from even the very edge of my ZPD. I made my timeline in Dreamweaver (which was within my ZPD at the time... still is but at a different level now).

Now... just a few months later... Flash has begun to extend into my ZPD... or... my ZPD has begun to extend into Flash... or something like that. I know more about Flash, I've worked with it a tiny bit (for professional projects at work), I am more able to think about how to logically design something in Flash... I am beginning to understand the use/application of graphics, buttons, movie clips, and how to use the root timeline in conjunction with the individual timelines for these objects. Because I begin to understand this language/context, my more capable peer is able to help me learn to work in flash and learn to create what I envision. I'm still at the beginning... there are things I can envision that I'm not yet quite ready to create - at least not in the limited time I have for completing this (or any) project. But, I understand enough now to also understand what I don't know and sort of design around that.

For example, I originally thought of assigning an order to the pieces for my ZPD puzzle (illustration/animation)... so that the pieces had to be clicked in a certain order. As I learned what it would take to do that (the kind of action script that might be required), I realized that at this point in my Flash development, it would be better to let go of that and concentrate on some of the other more vital aspects of the animation. I wanted to be sure that my more capable peer (colleague) was helping me learn and not making it for me, so I had to be sure to keep the project within the parameters of what I can learn to do... yet also push myself enough so that I could really evolve my understanding and ability. This has been a wonderful project because in internalizing a basic understanding of ZPD, I have pushed into my own ZPD for Flash (and further with my Photoshop and Fireworks ZPD's as well).

One of the things I've noticed lately, with all the projects for all the courses, is that more and more I seem to take exactly as long as I have to accomplish each task. It isn't procrastination, I'm working on each project the whole time (and reading, researching, etc.)... it is more that if I have a given amount of time to do something, I want to use all that time to do as much as I can. I think this may come back to living in the moment. More and more, I try to be very present for each thing I'm working on, when I'm working on it - rather than thinking about all the other things I should be working on and then trying to finish quickly so I can work on the next thing. So far, this approach is keeping me sane... I think... others might disagree... perhaps I'm just more authentically insane. :)

Time for food, then sleep.