Apr 02 2008
Thing 10 and a slap on the hand
Finding a quiet moment in my media center last week, I decided to begin my exploration of Flickr. Not long after, I received an email reporting on the bandwidth usage at our school, and my name was at the top of the list. Shame on me. I guess that I as explore possible applications of Web 2.0 in my media center, I will also have to consider who in my school building might be negatively impacted because of the bandwidth required to implement Web 2.0 activities — at least until I wake up from the nightmare of an antiquated network in my school system. Thankfully, we are making positive strides in that area.
On with thing 10……
Although Flickr was not familiar to me, I have used other sights like Photobucket and Slide to store pictures on line. Typically, though, my purpose in storing pictures on line is for the purpose of creating a slide show to add to a social networking page.
I remember reading in several places in the last week concerns about some of the images available on Flickr. Having subscribed to the Flickr feed back in Thing 6, I have seen images that would not hold up to the more conservative view of my school system — or me to be honest. Yet, I did see a myriad of wonderful photos that I would never would have seen had it not been for such a site or the RSS feed. As I sit now listening to a teacher discuss the economic situation of Israel, I remember seeing a photo from a fellow 23 Thing’er that was posted of a child in an Israeli store standing in front of a cookie display. Could such a photo be used to expand the discussion? I think so. Two weeks ago writing scores for our 8th graders were returned, and we were shocked over how low they were. Could vividly colored pictures be used as writing prompts to give students a more creative starting point to practice writing skills? Again, I think so. I can see me personally utilizing photos from Flickr to extend or enhance lessons that I will create for my media center. I have also realized how easy it is to spend huge amounts of time looking for that one perfect photo.
The photo of the butterfly above came from the Creative Commons section of Flickr.
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The photo of the butterfly really caught my eye. I would imagine that other writers could see it and become inspired as well!
Shanna
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