Ten days ago I didn't really know anything about Flickr or photo sharing on the web. The reading, viewing, and playing have definitely brought me up to speed with Flickr. In this blog post I will share with you what I have learned about Flickr.
Reflections on the Learning Process
I chose to use Flickr over other photo sharing sites as I use iPhoto to store my photos and there is a link to Flickr included with this program. As I mentioned, I'm new to this tool although I have been invited to view other peoples photos on sites such as Picasso. I started the learning process by reading Chapter 7 in Will Richardson's book titled "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful tools for Classrooms". This chapter was an easy read and it provided a great introduction to Flickr. Richardson also mentioned a very useful link to a presentation by Alan Levine called "What Can We Do With Flickr?" (http://tinyurl.com/2kly3j) These two sources provided me with a good understanding of Flickr and its potential uses and allowed me to get started straight away with less apprehension than if I had just jumped in cold.
The start was simple enough as I chose some photos and clicked the Flickr icon and my photos quickly transferred for me. I had to set up an account but that wasn't difficult either. My first group of photos were imported into Flickr but I really didn't do much with them. I didn't use the "tag" option as I really didn't understand the concept of tagging. I was just happy to be able to share the photos with members of my family. Playing around with the different aspects of Flickr was the best way to learn the basics and create some small albums.
In future additions to my album, I added descriptions to some photos as well as used the "tag" and "map" options. I really liked adding descriptions as I think they made the photos more meaningful. The map option was also interesting as now anyone (I choose) can see where a particular photo was taken. I showed this option to my daughter and her response was "cool". Positive feedback if I ever heard it.
I now consider myself an informed user, beyond novice but certainly not an advanced user. There are still some aspects I want to learn about such as annotations but more research and practice are needed before I can incorporate this option into my photos.
Overall, I enjoyed learning about Flickr and plan to use it regularly now. I only wish I had learned about it earlier.
Implications to My Personal Learning
The first thing that popped into my mind when learning about Flickr was that it was "so easy" to share photos. My family and my wife's family are scattered all over so it hasn't been easy to share large numbers of photos with them. Email limits the number and quality of photos one can send and even posts to my travel blog had limited space for photos. This has been a problem for me in the past as I had so many photos to share yet the tools I used to share them were very limited. Flickr solves this dilemma for me. I will no longer have to search for one or two of the best photos and then attach or upload them (this can be slow) to an email or to a blog post. I now can choose large numbers of photos and upload them (easily and quickly) to Flickr and I'm done. Flickr even contacts those who I want to see my photos via email. Nice. Socially, by using Flickr, I will certainly be sharing more photos with my family as well as sharing with them more often.
As Flickr is so easy to use, it made me think of the varying possibilities for its use. My daughter has been watching my progress off and on and I think this would be a great tool for her to use. She has many friends overseas and sharing of photos with them would be more interesting than an email message I believe. Many people enjoy looking at photos and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...
Implications For Professional Learning
Socially, Flickr is awesome. But it certainly also got me thinking about implications for teaching and learning in my classroom. As I teach Physical Education, incorporating technology into my classes may pose more of a challenge but I still think there are a number of potential uses. Considering technology integration is popular in many schools, it is only natural that teachers look for ways to improve teaching and learning via technology.
For me, having students demonstrate what they know is not always easy. Most often I am dependent on observations of my students (moving, interacting, helping, sharing, cooperating etc.) in order to determine what they know or don't know. I can see Flickr as a great tool that would allow students to show me what they know. For example, a group of students are participating in a unit of badminton. They learn the following: racquet grip, various stances (serving, receiving etc.), various shots, positioning, rules & procedures, and tactics. If the class has a large number of students, my observation time may be limited. What if students worked in pairs and took photos to demonstrate their knowledge? They could create an album of photos that could show things such as grip, stance, positioning, tactics etc. This album would not only be available to the teacher but to the other students as well. As most students enjoy using the computer and sharing photos with friends, this should be an easy yet different way to demonstrate their knowledge. I will have to try it some time!
The positives are obvious but are their negatives to this kind of learning? Tough question. I certainly see some potential obstacles. First, are there school/district guidelines regarding student images/work on the web for everyone to see. Are the resources available for this to work? Do students have the basic skills and knowledge required? Is this type of evaluation doable in a short period of time? Some interesting questions to think about and many I can't answer right now. I suspect some trial and error work will need to be undertaken before I get all my answers.
Overall, I enjoyed my time learning about and exploring within Flickr. The potential uses are amazing and it is a tool I can see myself using both personally and professionally in the future.
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Thanks, Mel. I really liked your idea for using photosharing sites with students in a PE class to help them demonstrate their knowledge or understanding. I hadn't thought about the fact that much of a PE's teacher would be based on observation, so having some kind of long lasting way of observing them (and being able to do some of that outside of class) would be helpful. I think the kids could take it a step further and annotate their photos as well, to provide further commentary to show you want they learned or to ask questions, etc. Flickr also allows you to upload video, so students could take short videos of themselves using digital cameras or a flip video and add those to their sets.
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