Photosharing - The Journey Continues

Reflections on the process of learning about photosharing:

Every week I spend reading and exploring the required web 2.0 tool I feel a kind of apprehension and excitement. This was true for this week’s tool, photosharing. I assumed that it meant that I share my photos with the world. I never had the desire to share my photos with people I did not know. After watching the video, Photosharing in Plain English, (http://www.commoncraft.com/photosharing) I began to understand there is so much more to this tool. While reading Will Richardson’s book, I decided to explore Flickr. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to join Flickr and follow all the directions. I still have an underlying fear of having my children’s faces on the web. I chose to upload some photos where my family is not in the pictures. I did make these pictures public which is a big step for me.

Discussion of photosharing in terms of my own personal learning:

I am beginning to realize, I am underestimating the impact web 2.0 tools could have on my life. My photos of my children are my most prized possessions. I would hate to lose them. In discovering Flickr’s many attributes the most appealing to me as a parent is the back up feature. I would never have to worry about my photos again. I could upload all my photos and choose which ones are family viewed and which ones could be made public. I could easily share entire holiday photo collections with family and friends who I have persuaded to use Flickr.
After uploading some of my photos I began to explore other people’s work. I got caught up in looking at their albums. The breathtaking photography made me want to do more with scenery, because most of my photos over the last thirteen years have been about my kids and telling their life story. As the fall colors immerge, I am going to take my camera out and try to capture some of Nature’s beauty.
I could learn more about photography by viewing and engaging in comments. I would enjoy the social participation that this would give me. Given more time, I can easily see myself becoming an active member of the public photosharing world.

Discussion of photosharing in terms of teaching and learning:

The good old days of collecting pictures from calendars and postcards to use as discussion prompts and picture collections are long gone. Flickr can be integrated into the classroom at any level to do this and so much more. In my Kindergarten class we have started talking about the seasons and were able to use Flickr and the smartboard to make a Venn diagram comparing Fall with other seasons. The students loved all the pictures and were impressed by the slideshow I showed them in the end. I will share this activity with my Kindergarten Action Group at our divisional meeting. I know some of the more technological keeners will try to expand on what I share. In my grade one fine arts class I have planned to integrate Flickr photos into our discussion of line. After exploring photos we will comment on some of them. I am also going to have my students take photos depicting line and we will upload them and follow the comments. The photosharing social implications for this activity will only compound as we continue to add photos for other art elements. Sharing these lessons with my school colleagues will encourage some of them to try Flickr. For some I will need to show them how using Flickr as a public site will help their students become better 21st century learners. They will need to change their way of thinking to embrace this Web 2.0 tool as I am starting to. I agree with Wesley Fryer, “the possibilities of open content in a school setting are truly exciting. But to embrace this concept requires a whole other mind-set on the part of educators.” I know my feelings have certainly changed this week. Again I ask myself, where will this technological journey lead me over the next few days?


Fryer, Wesley. (2006). "In praise of open content.(TECHNOLOGY Up CLOSE)." School Library Journal.. Retrieved September 17, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28776234_ITM

Richardson, W., (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. United States: Corwin.