Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Flickr

I used these images on my Blog because when I finish my teaching degree I would like to go overseas and teach students over there. I would also like to volunteer to help small communities get a better education. I have been to Bali once and I absolutely enjoyed it. I really wanted to visit a school over there to see what it is like but it is not allowed (unless volunteering there). I am not too sure where I would exactly want to teach or volunteer but I will be willing to use the skills I have learnt to help other students/communities less fortunate.

I discovered using Flickr to be very frustrating as it took a long time for me to understand the use of this program and to upload the photos. When my photos had finished uploading and I was working around the website I found a lot of different and interesting things you can do with your photos and other people’s photos in Flickr.

In exploring the website I found that the ability to edit your photos using Flickr and other websites e.g. Picnik interesting. Not only can we use other programs to edit the photos but you can add maps to your photos to show exactly where your photo was taken. Tagging was one of the most interesting tools Flickr offers as it makes it easier to find and manage photos you had already uploaded.

What is Flickr?

Flickr is a service for uploading and sharing you photos but one of the key elements is that photos can be shared with the public, specific friends or just kept secret (Brown, 2006). Brown (2006) also outlines another aspect of Flickr being that individual photos can be “tagged”: given a special keyword that can be used for searching and organizing your photos. As photos are shared this allows other people to look up keywords making it easier to find content or your photos that you are looking for. Flickr can also allow people to upload their photos to their blogs, send photos to groups inside Flickr and keep up with the photos their friends are taking with an RSS feed (Farkas, 2007).

Theory- Learning Design Construct
Teachers should provide students with a task that they want them to complete, resources they can use and they should also offer students support. This fits in with the Learning Design Construct (AUTC, 2003). Oliver (1999) states that creating a supportive learning environment for students the learning design must comprise of these 3 elements:

1. Tasks that learners are required to do.
2. Resources that support learners to conduct the task.
3. Support mechanisms that exist from a teacher implementing it.
(Cited in AUTC, 2003)

Using Flickr in the Classroom

Teachers Network (2009) recommends that if you are going to use Flickr in the classroom that you make a class account. This makes it easier for students and teachers to access whilst also giving the options of keeping your work private. This will alleviate parental concerns (Teachers Network, 2009).

Flickr can be used for a number of subjects. Students can look up a particular subject (that they are doing in class) and find an image and upload it to their class account. When student’s images are uploaded it invites peer collaboration as students can embed comments about the picture. (Teachers Network, 2009).

References

AUTC. (2003). Learning Design. Accessed 10th August, 2009, from http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

Brown, M (2006) Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth: Wiley Publishing Inc, Indianapolis

Farkas, M (2007) Social Software in Libraries: Information Today Inc, New Jersey

Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for on-line teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20(2), 240-254.

Teachers Network (2009) Using Flickr.com in the Classroom: Accessed on the 10th August 2009; http://www.teachersnetwork.org/NTNY/nychelp/technology/flickr.htm

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