#10: Photo sharing experience & lesson plan ideas

[Steve Gibbs]

Part #1: Describe your experiences with learning and using online photosharing. What services do you use? Picasa? Flickr? Photobucket? Other? How do you use your photo sharing? Do you connect with others? Do you have any problems, questions, or suggestions for others?

Part #2: Create two lesson plan ideas that could use RSS and News Reader in the classroom.

What precautions would we take sharing student photos online?

[amyy]

I used Flickr and snapfish. I find it's a great and easy way to share photos, especially with my family and those friends that aren't on facebook.

I think in terms of using the photo sharing websites with my classes, I'd want to be extra careful that students didn't check any boxes that would allow everyone to see their photos. I might also want parental consent, but I may just be paranoid. You just hear about so many invasions on privacy with the web and stalkers, that I would want to make sure I did everything possible to not have student's pictures out there.

I do a travel project with my Modern World students and I think this would be a great way for students who have traveled to easily share their experiences. It may also be possible for students to create "pretend" photo albums to share with the class. Since the Travel Project is all about planning a trip abroad, they could also pretend they went and find pictures to share from the web.

The other lesson that I could do, is for students in Civics class to take pictures of various themes - like government, public works, legislative branch, judicial branch and then put those photos online. This way they could visually see the branches of government at work since they sometimes have a hard time grasping concepts around the branches of government.

[lauren]

I currently use picasa and snapfish. I use photosharing to share family photos and share photos from travle adventures. Since I do not use it frequently I have a large learning curve each time I go to upload and share.

I haev use picassa to upload photos of student classroom activiites and create slide shows for use at open house. However, with the new tools we have learned about in this class I will be able to install those same photos on a power point much more easily.

Lesson Plans: Have students take pictures while on any long school holiday that are relevant to our physical science curriculum. Students then can link the photos together in a slide show and write a summary paragraph about the show

Take photos using their cell phones of lab set up and steps to the experiment. create slide show in correct sequence that would accompany your lab summary. Use instead of rewriting mthe materials and procedure steps.

[Megan Gerdts]

I have used Photobucket and Picasa. I love the editting features in Picasa, but Photobucket is super easy to use. My aunt started me on Photobucket to share some pictures from a vacation that we were on. Most of the sites that I've been on are fairly user friendly.

As far as using these sites in my classroom.... I love taking photos, so I have used them to share photos with parents. For lessons, I have some issues with the privacy stuff. I know that many parents at my school are very concerned with their child's info/photos being "out there" on the web. I'd have to make sure that I get parent permission and inform them of the security measures that I am taking. During our life science unit, I can see using these sites to have students create a collage and diagram of flower parts. We have many flowers on campus and I could use the Flip cameras that we recently purchased.

I could also use these sites as part of the students' state reports. They could get pictures and perform certain editing changes in the Picasa editor. We would discuss the changes and use the photos in their reports.

[erlyn]

I don't really use an online photo sharing site (other than the one I created for this class) but I have had friends/family send me links to see their online photos. I think if given more of an opportunity to use it, I would, but I often just print out the pics, and scrapbook them.

I do like reading about sites that others really like and use. I do want to see what Photobucket has to offer (thanks, Megan!) but on my iphone I do have a Wink app that let's me print pictures like they were taken in a photobooth.

As for an assignment, I think I would have students take pictures of what is important in their lives, and then post them on the website. I would them have them write some sort of autobiographical narrative to go with the pictures, and have them share it with the class.

Another creative thing would be for them to pretend they are the main character of their book, and they have to take pictures of things that might be important to that character and write an explanations for each picture.

Gettting parent consent, as well as a signed contract for proper conduct on the site is important.

[brandys]

I have been using online photosharing sites with my family and friends for years. We generally use Costco, Shutterfly, and I'm catching on to Flickr. Especially now that Cal is born it's a great way for me to share and send pictures of him quickly and cost-efficiently. I never thought about using it in the classroom, although I think there could be a lot of potential with parent permission.
One idea is to take different pictures of the kids at fieldtrips or special events, along with around the classroom with an assignment or project they are proud of and then post it to an online phot sharing site that allows all parents to see even if they work long days or nights. Parents could also upload pictures they have taken during these events so that everyone can access them. I know that I would love to have that capability as a parent!
Another idea is to ask kids to take pictures of things they think describe them best and then use them to create a collage and poem. They could use the photo sharing site to add details to their pictures as a way to map out their poems.