(Photos Courtesy of Flickr)
Flickr and other photo uploaders, such as Photobucket, make it possible to share photos online with other users. After easily and quickly creating a free account with Flickr I have searched in the easy access toolbar for 'students using Flickr'. I found this photo named 'Even Students Love Flickr' which suits my next point.
Students who are writing an educational webpage are using flickr to store photos they've taken.
(Photo Courtesy of Flickr)
Students and Teachers can use technologies like Flickr to find photos (without restricting copyright) to use in lessons, projects, assignments, blogs, webquests, wikis and more! As so many people around the world are uploading photos, it is possible to get a whole range of views, through photos, on the one topic.
For example, a primary school teacher is planning a lesson on whales. When searching for photos, she finds that the copyright of most photos restricts her from copying and uploading the photo into her teaching blog and wiki. Searching for 'whales' on Flickr brings up 553,367 results at the present moment. Although many are not exactly what the teacher is looking for, there are definitely some useful pictures in the search.
(Photo Courtesy of Flickr)
Students are able to search for photos to use within presentations, assignments, blogs, stories etc. The picture above mentions that students creating websites can use Flickr to store the photos they have taken themselves. Students are able to upload their own individual photos of themselves, class work and classroom topics to use in later projects. This allows students to use a very 'hands on' approach to their learning and content. This method encourages creativity and allows students to understand that they have input to their work. These are useful elements for student engagement, according to Greg Kearsley & Ben Shneiderman, creators of the Learning Engagement Theory. This technology can provide useful ways of adding flavour to school projects, presentations, blogs, creative writing stories etc.
An example of this can be found from Reversing The Norm, a blog created by a pre-service teacher. Here the author explains a use for using Flickr:
'It could easily be used to upload important images taken of the students work during the span of a unit to be used in a final assessment piece. This kind of use could be especially useful for science based units of work which involve collecting pictorial data over a period of time, for seed germinating etc.'
The following quote is from my course ICT's for Learning Design notes compiled by Scot Aldred.
Smith & Lynch describe Learning Management as:
"the capacity to design pedagogic strategies that achieve learning outcomes in students".
When using Flickr to upload or find photos, enhancing learning management and learning experience planning, it is important to remember that the techniques used should allow learning outcomes to be achieved by students. If the reason for using the technologies are not important and students find no connection of using Flickr and their lesson they will not be engaged and will not be inclined to participate in the lesson.
This site also provides some effective uses of Flickr in the classroom.
As this website (teacherworld.com) so beautifully shows, Edgar Dale's Cone provides a reference for what our learning experiences should include and the general percentage of what people remember from each experience.
Dale's Cone orders from the lowest and least effective teaching method to the highest and most appropriate level for teaching and learning at the bottom of the cone; planning and implementing Direct, Purposeful Experiences. According to teacherworld.com, people remember 90% of what they do compared to 10% of what they read, and 20% of what they hear. Allowing students to take their own photos, analyse and justify their photo choices and evaluate the best positioning and location for those photos allows students to be a part of a direct purposeful experience.
Regards,
Toni Jordan
Toni, I am yet to experiment with Flickr but after reading this I am excited to use it! You obviously have a great understanding of it and I see how you would use it in your classes!
ReplyDeleteCourtney Rice
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I have found Flickr to be very handy and can definitely think of some ways to incorporate it into my classes. I hope you have fun playing around with it - it is a fairly simple site and easy to navigate. Picnik is a great tool also!
Toni