EDES 501 - Blog #1 - Photosharing

I've always been fascinated with looking at photos, whether they are of close family, friends or even strangers.  I must have gotten interested in photographs because of my parents strange, yet intriguing collection of antique family photos.  Whenever they encounter an antique sale, flee market or garage sale they tend to be drawn to finding random family photos of complete strangers.

How can someone sell a framed family photo?  Isn't that a keepsake?  

Because my parents feel bad about a family selling their "history", they purchase the photos and hang them in their cottage.  Mom and dad now have a collection of random photos to decorate their cabin walls.  Although this sounds strange, I find great pleasure in looking at the photos and trying to imagine the stories behind the strangers pictured in front of me.

Who are they?  Where did they live?  Are they alive today?  How would they feel knowing that their photo was sold to a complete stranger?  

Often times, when visitors come to the cabin, they look at the pictures and assume we know all of the subjects.   When they begin to ask questions, we explain the collection and they begin to understand the fascination. 

Photos tend to take on the role of the "story of our lives".  Through photos, we can bring back memories of the distant past and share them with loved ones and even strangers.

Part 1: Learning About the Tool (Reflections of the Process)

Since our photography habits became digital, I've come to learn many different photo sharing tools.  Picasa, Deviant Art, Facebook and Piczo are just a few of the programs that I've sampled for this class.  Will Richardson recommends Flickr as a useful tool for photo sharing.  Knowing that it's always a good idea to try something new, I created accounts on Shutterfly and Flickr, and will try to compare the two in terms of their usefulness in a classroom. 

What do they have to offer?

SHUTTERFLY - photo books, cards & stationary, prints & posters, calendars, photo gifts, classroom website creation and photo sharing

FLICKR - photo sharing, add notes and tags to the photos, connect Flickr albums to other online accounts such as Facebook and Twitter, explore a database of images, join groups and read blogs

Who has used them?

SHUTTERFLY - After asking around, some of my close friends have used Shutterfly to order prints and make photo books, but no one had used this tool simply for posting photos for the purpose of sharing with others.  My fellow teachers had also never used this site in their classrooms.

FLICKR - Many friends and family members have used Flickr to upload photos, but didn't know much else about the possibilities with the program.

How did you find the setup?

SHUTTERFLY - I found the process of creating online albums to be fairly simple.  The site is very simplistic, with clear prompting boxes and well displayed screens.  I was able to create 3 albums in a short period of time.  Uploading photos took time, as it would with any program, but once they were up, it was easy to organize albums, add captions to photos and even tag people, if you so choose.

FLICKR - There was a lot of information required to setting up an account.  It walks you through step by step but it was a lengthy process.   I uploaded several photos and had some troubles organizing them. There are several online tutorials and many helpful tips. Once I got comfortable with the process, I was organizing photos in no time.

Part 2: Tools for Personal Use and Learning

SHUTTERFLY - It would be a great tool to use while traveling.  It could serve as a place to upload photos to free-up memory cards while on the go.  I would find it useful for making photo albums and other gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and other events.  The major downfall though, is that there isn't an opportunity to view public galleries of photos.
FLICKR - I could justify using Flickr as my main photo sharing web-site.  It becomes a global community where people can view galleries of photos that have been tagged with a variety of topics.  There are opportunities to create photo gifts as well.   

Part 3: Tools for Teaching and Learning 

Through a discussion at work around the lunch table the other day, a friend suggested using online photo sharing for classroom use.  I have come up with some opportunities for photo sharing in the classroom (regardless of which program you decide to use):

1) After field trips, classroom crafts or other important events and projects, you can add photos to an online album where parents can view them.  

2) Families could log in and upload photos for family history projects or autobiographies.

3) Students and teachers can photograph students demonstrating classroom rules and post them into an online album.  Students can review the rules and photos from home.
4) Use public photo galleries (Creative Commons) to select photos as visual prompts for writing, to teach art projects, etc.
5) Use tags as tools for teaching themes and searching techniques.
6) Students can upload pictures or use Creative Commons for digital storytelling.

In his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009), Will Richardson also suggests using Flickr not only for putting photos on the web for sharing with local audiences, but also for inviting people from around the world to see (p. 102).  This could start many discussions of similarities and differences in other communities. 

I came across a blog about using Flickr in the classroom.  It lists several interesting ways to incorporate this program at school.  Click here to view the blog!
I also found a great .pdf file that outlines more uses of Flickr in the classroom.  Click here to view the file!

Regardless of which tool you choose to use, the possibilities are quite amazing!  You can be simple with the organization or get more complex with designing and sharing.  I have yet to try one of these tools as an educational tool but I'm excited to find out how others use photo sharing in their classrooms.

References
Richardson, Will. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.