Reflections on Online Photo Sharing

I think that these online photo sharing tools have a lot of potential in the classroom, but could be slightly hard to use and could possibly be costly. I would probably use bubbleshare and flickr above photobucket and zoomr, mostly because they make more sense as far as students sharing photos with each other. I liked that there was the possibility of creating books, calendars, and so forth with these programs. I think that the children would love to see their work in a hard bound form, especially young children who have a hard time with abstract concepts. All of these programs would could be used with any grade, but would be better suited for older children I believe. Of all of the programs, I think that I would use flickr in my classroom. I would use it by having students post pictures of things or ideas that they have been studying. They could post comments on the pictures, and share more about themselves through their pictures. I would also use the program to do the same thing we did with the cameras, but instead of making iphoto books they could use the program to do their assignments. That way they learn how to use more and more technology.

Geometry iphoto Assignment

This assignment was very interesting and insightful. I had never really thought to have the students use cameras to find things in the environment that they are studying. The assignment was fun to do, and got us really thinking about geometry. As a teacher, you could use the cameras to do a lot of assignments, and integrate the technology into all kinds of subjects. I definately think that third or fourth graders could do this assignment, and they would learn a lot about using camera. To be honest, I think that a lot of these kids probably know how to use a camera. They would mostly need to be taught how to import everything and arrange everything. If you spent the time to teach them the technology first, the assignment would go very well, with all the focus on the geometry. I, personally, would balance the time by explicitly teaching the technology, and then spend the bulk of the time on the geometry. The technology should enhance the curriculum, not overshadow it.