Tuesday, June 24, 2008

#6 online image generator

Image hosted @ bighugelabs.com
ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more
What fun! The image generators take the word template to a whole new level. Students could make country "trading cards." Libraries can make trading cards for special "books of the month."
I'm still not sure how much about me that I want on the web. Professionally it is fine, who I am, where, etc. Personal information and photos are another level, and I'm working on overcoming my reluctance on this.

Monday, June 23, 2008

#5 more fun with Flickr

My Presentation
Here's where I've been so far!
Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com
Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Flickr is becoming my new favorite website. I enjoyed the mashups and see lots of potential. For this post I've included the maps option from Big Huge Labs and a desktop collage from splashr. Be sure to click "my presentation," too. I wish that mashup had shown up as an image rather than a link as did the map.
There are many options for kids to use photos creatively and produce profesisonal looking results. Since Flickr is blocked on school district computers, it's really a moot point. In the meantime I may use some of these mashups to enhance presentations.
In the library, poster size mashups could be used to point out certain sections of the library. Another option would be a group of photos about an author, a book setting, and the like. As tools become more available for display and presentation, our expectations of ourselves rise significantly!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

#4 Photosharing with Flickr

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Flickr is an experience that could easily take many hours of each day! What an exciting way to share places and spaces. I really like the geotagging feature. This quickly allows you to see places around the world and a variety of sites within each. Sometimes ones that don't belong get in there during the map search, and that is just a good reminder that with any social site the viewer can't put 100% faith in what they see. I also ran into some trouble using the add image to post feature of Blogger.
This photo is found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/22519250/. It reminds me of my time in New Zealand neary 4 years ago. This fern represents new life, new beginnings, and growth. It is found in many Maori carvings.

Teachers will enjoy the tag search feature. You could create a lesson comparing McDonald's around the world. Math teachers could easily use this to explore geometric shapes. Students could also gather photos for a project and share them easily by having a group created for the class. There's a lot of potential for digital storytelling using images. As always, having students credit the source remains a struggle. A media specialist in the school can help guide this process.