Taking a look at image blogs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewiselementary/69461520/
What did you find?
A 3rd grade students representation of a camp in Africa.
What did you think?
This is an amazing demonstration of what creative little minds can do.
So what?
The mouse feature to give descriptions of each piece made it more meaningful.
What now?
The possibilities of image blogs are limitless.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/secretlife/pool/show/
What did you find?
A gorgeous slide show of plant and wild life along with many comments and suggestions to flickr users.
What did you think?
The pictures were unbelievable. It seems as though this project would be one to consume a lot of time. It was interesting how this brought on so many different discussions.
So what?
It is possible to do anything with collaboration and proper use of resources.
What now?
Don't put limits on what can be done.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/redrule/
What did you find?
Tons of pictures all having only one thing in common, the color red. Starting with one person's thoughts and representation of using one color to provoke something special followed by thousands of others finding the same.
What did you think?
Interesting concept. I would imagine this was not at all expected when it began.
So what?
Any simple idea can grow into something special.
What now?
Now, I can see why flickr has become so popular.
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/fliction
What did you find?
Posts of pictures with captions that are bizarre and unusual. The images seem to be unlikely to occur in real life, some of them seemingly doctored. Actually, these photos really did occur in life.
What did you think?
Great title and idea. Some of the pictures will make you laugh out loud.
So what?
This would be a great way to spark student creative writing. I can imagine some great fliction stories developing from these photos.
What now?
I will definitely bookmark this page to use in my class.
After looking around blog.flickr.net, constantly thinking "How can use this in school?" I focused on http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/06/
What did you find?
I found many great themes for photos, and particularly liked "Seeing Stars"
What did you think?
What a great way to add to curriculum involving the solar system. Students could easily access their own pictures of stars.
So what?
This concept could translate to other science curriculum like weather, animals, matter,etc.
What now?
Use web tools to enhance education. Any topic or idea can be used.
Now that you have investigated, explored, and researched image blogs and created two lessons with them, you might have noticed purposefully chosen images can convey a message. You might choose an image simply to decorate something or illustrate text. Images can be chosen to represent a concept or illustrate organization (flowcharts). An image can also be used to explain a system (think of the water cycle in pictoral form). An image or set of images can show transformation (an image of a tree with branches sectioned into four regions and each showing how it appears in one of the four seasons). The choice of image therefore, can send powerful messages as well as deliver messages.
ReplyDeleteOne issue in using photo blogs then is the ability to understand how to use images purposefully. This needs to be taught in advance of using images as a blogging tool.
I was imagining ESOL students that you might be working with developing an image blog to convey a message and then working towards using text to support their image blog.