Image blogs are a bit trickier to use in an educational setting, but with a bit more effort and creativity students could benefit from this aspect of the web as well. While I read about image blogs in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I think seeing a few of them brought them more to life.
The first thing that struck me about image blogs is the potential that anyone can join along with them. This comes in two ways, first there is the obvious point that if allowed anyone can upload photos into a group centered on a theme. "The Red Rule" is an example of this, as I looked the photos were taken from all over the world, they just all had the color red as its main point (at least to me it felt like the centerpiece). This could be useful for collaborative projects, but also I think it’s useful as a resource for pictures themselves. Images can be a great way to spur a student’s interest; if they can actually see something it can become more real to them. While it may be easy to use a search engine to find photos of historic events, when it comes to current events it can be a bit more difficult. Flickr on the other hand can be a place to look, should important current events begin to unfold during a school year. In fact I had noticed that a great deal of the photos in the “Red Rule” were under 2 hours old. Attach key words in such groups to an RSS feed and a teacher has a great tool for showing their students the world.
The other feature that I really liked was that people are able to comment on sections of a photo. While I read about this feature, it stood out for me in the photo group “The Commons”. This blog was created along with the Library of Congress to share public photographs. When I read that you could comment on photos in Flickr, I thought about comments in the comment section much like a regular blog, then I also knew you could place comments on the photograph but for some reason I kept thinking that was more for the person who submitted the photo. However on the Commons, there were plenty of photos were people selected sections of the pictures and left comments in regards to their thoughts, or to explain something. While too many comments can make a picture hard to follow, I do think students being able to put a box over an area to pose a question or point something out can to the experience. In this way the student is positive that what they are referencing on the photo is understood.
Lastly much like my idea in regards for using a wiki to create a portfolio, Flickr can also serve the same purpose. The teacher can take photos of various projects and have students use the commenting features to explain their projects. As an example of this I looked at a 3rd grade teacher who posted a picture of a student’s project on Flickr. In this way a student can have a new goal in mind, aside from a good grade; they also have a chance to show off to la larger audience which can now include their parents and extended family. I think posting pictures on the web could be akin to having your work posted on the family refrigerator. This is a student’s time to shine, and having to perform for a greater audience (or getting to) may add an extra incentive to work hard on their project.
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