Layers

=Layers=

I was working with some junior secondary students they were doing some (fairly simple) PaintShop Pro work which necessitated layers. Now, I walk around with a metaphorical stack of overhead transparencies in my head most of time, and apply the idea to various situations almost without thinking about it: Powerpoint master slides, drawing in Word, layers in Dreamweaver, layers in PSP, among them. Pretty nearly the whole of the student cohort was stuggling with manipulating layers in PSP, so I used the OHP transparency analogy with them, and you could see the 'lights go on'. So, I'm wondering what sense they make of master slides, vector drawing, layers, etc etc So I wonder: is there not some sort of concept here which is applicable across a variety of software types, and, if learned, actually makes learning new products potentially easier? I'm not trying to pretend that this "concept" is going to take lesson upon lesson to teach, or that it's some grand scheme about how computers are programmed or wired ... but I reckon it's there.