Photo sharing is an important part of the 2.0 interactive world, but it is not always easy to find the right picture to use. It also is hard to know sometimes whether you have the right to use a picture. Flickr is one of the available photo sharing sites on the web.The Flickr Creative Commons site makes using photos a little easier, and maybe even more fun!
Individuals have uploaded their personal photos and assigned one of six Creative Commons licenses to the photos. By choosing one of the six categories, you and your students will know for sure how you can use the photos you select. You will also have fewer problems with inappropriate photos by using this type of photo sharing site.
The folks that upload their photos add tags (or keywords) that describe what the photos represent. In looking for photos, you will use tags to find photos you want.
When you select photos to use there are a few things to remember:
1. The size of the photo file is important. Very rarely will you want to use the thumbnail size. The file is too small and when it gets stretched, the quality is very poor. On the other side, the largest file size can be a memory hog and make loading slow! The average size of 400-500 dpi is usually a good all-around size file to use.
2. The best format to use in saving pictures is jpg. The next most popular and easiest to use format is png. Try to save photos and other visuals in these two formats.
3. Here is some help in downloading pictures from Flickr Creative Commons and saving them to your computer so you can use them.
Ok, you have found a great place for you and your students to select photos. Now what kinds of things can you do with the photos? What results happen when you mash up two or more pieces of information?
IMAGE GENERATORS & MASHUPS
There are so many sites that allow you to upload pictures and create products with those pictures. Check out these sites and have some fun:
Big Huge Labs
Image Chef
Kid-Friendly Image Generators
Comic Strip Generator
Dumpr
Mappr
Bubblr
Logo Makr - currently not available in district.
iMapFlickr
Flickriver
Spell with Flickr
How about creating a word cloud?Wordle
WordItOut
Wordshift
Make a book from Flickr pictures and your own words
Bookr
Make a movie out of pictures, a few words, and some music.
Animoto Help
How about trying a virtual poster or digital bulletin board full of pictures, hot links, and even videos?
Glogster/edu
For your Tool #3 Post in you blog:
1. Choose two different image generators or mashups and create a sample of each.
The samples could represent something important to you personally, classroom-related needs, or ideas for student projects.
If you have used any of these resources, please select two new (for you) choices.
2. Post your samples on you blog. You may add them to your Tool #3 post or your side bar using a gadget. There are directions for saving your creation on each site. Be sure you credit any photos you borrow!
3. Briefly explain how these samples would be used and how they might add to the learning process in your classroom.
Have fun generating your own images!
Using Flickr, Comic strip generator, and Wordle, gives me plenty of options to teach my kids how they can create vocabulary, put words to pictures, upload photos, and create word bubbles. So, using all these components gives my students the opportunity to create a mini story on their own, and to be creative with their own ideas. Using it on my blog was really fun! Cool!
ReplyDeleteI agree....wordle and comic strip generator were a fun way of creating word play pieces and writing pieces!!!
ReplyDeleteMy son helped me simplify importing the finished product into my blog. Go to new post, put the product into your "my pictures", click on the picture icon and import it to your post. So simple!!
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ReplyDeleteI log into bighuglabs.com I had fun seeing all of the different things that I could do with pictures that I can find on the web to old family photos that i might want to play around with.
ReplyDeletehttp://bighugelabs.com/photos/5eff91414472954f9bf57fd50597611c/jigsawa7501dcd10e6217eb83e155d93a97cdf22168379
I had difficulty with the software for some, but ended up finally getting it once I was on a better computer. It just goes to show how much you really need to keep up ith technology lol. I loved going through each generator and mashup and can't wait ot teach my students and use it in the classroom. I mostly see myslef using Wordle and Spellr for my Language Arts pieces fo learning...I think they will be great visual tools for my students!
ReplyDeleteI had so much fun with this section . I'm hoping to get more ideas on how to wordle for my math classes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. C. I really liked this section. I always wonder how 'animoto' worked. I'll use this to make a video after a field trip or an experiment. I also liked the 'Comic Strip Generator'
ReplyDeleteOk, while I was a little skeptical of how to apply some of the concepts we've discussed so far, this one has my interest. Using pictures and captions is a great way to increase awareness and captivate their interest.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun an creative way for students to do word clouds.
ReplyDeleteThis is time consuming but well worth it because it is another visual manipulative for students to use.
ReplyDeleteWow, so many cool features! I wish I new how to use them all. done with tool #3.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible how we can manage so many tools to create or modify existing pictures to better communicate ideas to the students.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed using both these tools and I will try and be creative in implementing this 3rd tool
ReplyDeletein Health/Fitness.
The 3rd tool was rather fun, after I got the hang of it.
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