Out With the Old & In With the New...
I have distinct memories of the numerous boxes of ancient National Geographic magazines that my mom would store in our attic for us kids to use for school research projects. These magazines were not organized in any way, just left in the boxes that the people hosting the garage sale which we acquired them from put them in. We used these National Geographics to clip pictures to paste on our posters etc. I remember my grade 7 “Mesopotamia” poster project clearly and how my dad lugged all the magazine boxes out of the attic and gave each family member a box to search through looking for anything remotely resembling Mesopotamia. Needless to say, we didn’t find anything authentic, but found a few images of dry looking fields with emaciated cattle roaming them - I proudly glued these pictures on my poster and got the A I was going for! Times have changed, no longer do we have to aimlessly search through old magazines to find images on our topics (ok...close to our topics)...Thank you online photosharing...!
“An Eye-opening Experience” - My Learning About Photosharing
As I mentioned above, I thought I “got” photosharing, but I was humbled as I dug deeper into these tools. Flickr and Photobucket were the two photosharing sites I chose to explore. Firtly, I`ll admit that I didn`t realise you could explore other people’s photos; I thought you could only explore photos in albums you were given permission to view. This feature alone has changed my view of image searching online as I always default to google images and now have another source to search from. I gave Photobucket a try and was impressed by the trendiness of its homepage. Photobucket has a number of buttons linking users to popular tags including fun quotes, seasonal and best tattoo images! Students would love exploring these links (one word of caution though – some of these images were not appropriate for students). Flickr has a “Recently Added” and “Interesting” images section showcasing many of the most intriguing images online today. I didn’t see any inappropriate images on Flickr, however that doesn’t mean they don’t exist (the site is self-policed) so be careful there too! All in all, both sites offer similar services – photo organization, management and sharing. I found I “clicked” (a little techie pun, haha...) best with Flickr so I chose to examine it further for this post...
Through reading chapter 8 in Will Richardson’s book, “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts” and viewing this powerpoint presentation, I got a good background on what Flickr is and how to use it.
Flickr is the kind of site you can get lost in. I had lots of fun clicking through the search results of my favourite tags (Italy, horses, food, beaches...to name a few). I found the more time I spent exploring, the more aware of the site’s capabilities I became. The geotagging feature was particularly fun to play with as I looked up images from my favourite destinations (Italy was on that list too...).
“Oh...I ‘Get It’” - Flickr and My Life
I’ve never been big on photos (I always seem to forget my camera) so I haven’t spent much time using Flickr in my personal life. A few of my friends are big on Flickr, and have tried to get me onto it, but they’ve never succeeded. Since I truly didn’t understand the site and was unaware of what I could do with it, I never considered becoming a member. Really, as a naive photosharer, I didn’t see the point – I didn’t “get it”. I now see that Flickr can really work for me.
Flickr can offer an easy and safe way to share photos with my friends and family. Gone are the days of having to send 12 emails to your friends and family with attachments of photos from your recent trip to Mexico - THANK GOODNESS! With Flickr, friends and family can view and comment on photos in one easy step. On a practical note, Flickr allows you to store your photos online rather than just on your computer – now you won’t lose your photos just because your computer is on the fritz!
In regards to my own learning, Flickr is a wonderful resource for up-to-the-minute images on all current events. Members post images they have captured as news has broken and now I don’t have to wait for biased (oops...did I say that??!!!) mainstream media reports, but rather can explore images posted by amateur photo journalists. Amateur or “citizen” journalism is on the rise (Center For Citizen Media Blog), another exciting opportunity for students to partake in and learn about. Professionally, I could see Flickr being a powerful tool in idea sharing. I would enjoy sharing images of displays, activities and/or graphic organizers with colleagues. Teachers working on the same units could upload images of their ideas encouraging collaboration while protecting professional autonomy.
“A Picture is Worth a Thousand Learning Activities” - Using Flickr for Teaching & Learning
If you’re wondering how Flickr can be used in the classroom, check out this extensive Flickr Wiki on applications for teaching and learning K-12. I’ve decided to discuss a few of my favourite ideas below...
*As a Teacher/TL:
Posting photos of students, student work & school activities for parents to view
A great way to encourage dialogue between students and parents while including parents in their child’s education. While posting photos of students online isn’t always safe, privacy settings can be set to ensure only those given permission are able to view the images.
Photography Archives
The TL in me is most excited about this Flickr feature. Flickr offers exclusive access to images from the world’s most valuable collections. My personal favourites are the Library of Congress and Smithsonian archival collections. Who needs to go on a fieldtrip when you can have a virtual Flickr fieldtrip...for free!
*As a School Leader:
*As a School Leader:
Image Libraries
As the T-L I can use Flickr to assemble image banks on specific topics. Teachers and students can use the image banks for research and/or add their own images.
Idea Sharing:
Flickr is a great way for teachers to share and store ideas – albums can be organized by grade level and/or topic.
*Student Uses:
*Student Uses:
Visual Portfolios
Students can create image portfolios of work, friends and favourite memories from the school year in a Flickr album. Students can annotate their work through Flickr – a great way to reflect on the process.
Explore “geotagged” images
The geotagging tool in Flickr is a fun way for students to find images. Flickr members geotag images with the location in which they were taken/created. I love the idea that my students are not getting “postcard” images online, but images that are taken by everyday people of everyday things. I could see this tool being particularly useful in country studies.
Digital Storytelling
Challenging students to tell a story in exactly 5 images is a fun way for students to “play” with digital photography. Some humorous examples are available here.
Like everything online, Flickr is not fool proof and needs to be used with caution in regards to safety and appropriateness. That being said, Flickr is a wonderful resource and inspiration for teaching, learning and social applications. While not all images on Flickr are of high quality, the vast majority are. I am in awe of the number of people posting photos they have captured for the world to see – thanks to all of you! Not only that, these photos are authentic and have a distinctly human element to them. The many Flickr members worldwide have created an incredible collection of images. Get out there and explore Flickr with your students, better yet – get your students sharing their own images! Flick around with Flickr!
Hi Stacey,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you organized this with headings, subheadings, and looked at it through our various roles. Too funny that you too have memories of finding pictures in National Geographic! I had a teacher ask for copies last week and she looked so dejected when I told her I didn't have any. So, I showed her Flickr and I think she spent the entire weekend exploring.
Glad to see you pointed out that these photos add a 'human element' that is often overlooked in our units!
I agree with Brenda - nice narrative to hook the reader on the topic, nice subheadings and a clear overview of the topic. Can you add a link to either Flickr or Picasa to share your photos to "demonstrate your new knowledge."
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