Flickr
Sweets!
Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll
Just to brighten up Monday morning, here is a shot of candy sticks in FAO Schwartz toyshop, NYC. They remind me of the “Toot Sweet ” scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I have been updating my Flickr page and checking out the visitor statistics, which show the numbers of people viewing each photo, Among my most popular photos are one of a New York fire engine, the village of Weisslingen in Zurich and the American cemetry at Omaha, Normandy. What I want to do this year is explore how to make the most of Flickr both for home and school. I like the idea of creating a Flickr group to showcase pupil work, and I propose to trial this. The idea is to take photos of jotter work, posters, etc and upload these on to a gallery, creating a virtual display board. My first year class made some great posters which I’d like to put on display. The great thing is that comments and notes can be added-properly used, this could be a very practical way of developing peer-related formative assessment. It is also a fun way of acknowledging-and celebrating- good work.
I think this is a wonderful idea, JMcD! Photography has become a universal language and tool – perhaps even a democratic one – and we should explore all the avenues of how to use it in school. I think one area that it could really help with is getting the students to narrow the home-school divide in their minds, and begin to see learning/education in a more holistic way. I was chatting to a parent about this last night, in fact, as she said her son saw ’school’ as an entirely separate part of life to ‘home’, and thought there were no crossovers. Perhaps social networking, flickr and 2.0 will bring them together?