nex·us
A means of connection; a link or tie

(www.thefreedictionary.com)

The notion of connection is intrinsic to every aspect of humanity. So vital, in fact, that our very lives depend upon it as every breath, every thought and every action is preceded by millions of synapses connecting, transmitting and communicating important information.

This network of thought-and-action-determining connections don't stop inside the confines of skin and bone. In a mysterious way they link up to a greater network where, in some instances, our thought-processes are absorbed into the minds of others, while, in other instances, we take on the thoughts of others and somehow allow it to shape our own internal matrix.

This is the wonder of communication and learning.

With the advent of the internet, we've been provided with what could almost be described as a visual representation of the "human internet" - that macro-network where the ebb and flow of thought and action in society at large shapes the individual's downloads and uploads, learnings and expressions.

From an educator's perspective, that, of course, changes everything. Learners no longer have to rely on teachers to be their only source of "information downloads" , but can now access a world which offers thoughts, ideas and perspectives far beyond their own or even that of their teachers.
The role of the teacher is then to provide learners with opportunities to partake in this macro-network - to guide their "uploads and downloads" in ways that would best benefit their futures.

This blog investigates websites, applications and internet functions that can serve as powerful "connection-points", or tools for transfomative learning in the classroom.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Creative Commons and Flickr

With the advent of the Creative Commons licence, we have been given a great deal of visual freedom: When someone publishes a photo online under this type of licence, we can download it, re-use it(with some restrictions), and in some cases even edit it before re-use. (If you're scratching your head at the words Creative Commons, then click here to get some more information on the topic.)

Just for the sake of exercising my Creative Commons rights, I downloaded two pictures from Flickr, (both of which were available for re-use and edit), and I edited them using Adobe Photoshop.
Flickr is an online photo database and contains over 73 million photos. This formidable photo sharing community, along with its design tools, makes Flickr a compelling tool that has amazing potential for education.
Below is a list of ideas as found on the website www.educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com
Models.jpg
To document models made by the kids
external image spaceball.gifMindmap.png
Take photos of mind-maps to publish
Classroom_Displays.png
To document your classroom displays and find great ideas for displays from other teachers.
external image 508144756_1c0b7f7f67.jpg
To document an activity such as creating animations. Note the use of a hyperlink under the pic to take you to finished animations.
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Publish instructional writing.

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Using the comment feature to write about images in a sequence such as this example.

Note feature built into FlickrAdd_note.png

You can add notes over your different parts of your image once loaded up into Flickr. To do this, you click on 'Add Note' above the picture. A box will pop open for you to type your note into. You can click and drag the square that will mark where your note will be placed to the desired location. When you have finished typing your comment, you click 'Save'. From then on, anyone that puts their mouse over the square on the picture will see the note you typed.

There are a number of excellent examples of how you can use this idea in education. You do need to be aware that the comments will only be able to be seen when in Flickr. You can 't embed them with working comments on a wiki or blog.

Mihi_Comment.png
Stories - year one kids.
Pt_England_Stories.png
Rock Our World - Music Project at Pt England School (instructional writing)
Rock_world.png
Labeling diagrams for science like this spider diagram.
Labeled_Spider.png
Adding labels to photos such as this Parts of a book series by Hey Milly.
Parts_of_a_book.png
To share information about a group of kids as in this example from Summerland School.
Summerland.png

Flickr for Digital Storytelling

While the note feature above allows for digital storytelling, you can also have a series of images to tell a story using Flickr. There are a number of dedicated sites on Flickr for this type of storytelling. Not all the groups on Flickr set up for Digital Storytelling are designed for education but Hey Milly has added one specifically for kids to use. The examples below are from her 'tell a story in five frames' group.
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external image 1738345974_1fa7860c99_m.jpg
external image 1738345988_f2898cd7f6_m.jpg
external image 1738402416_9fd3e911ab_m.jpg
external image 1738346052_d15c2c49bc_m.jpg
external image 1696931615_8db0d97365_m.jpg
external image 1696931645_6283c477ce_m.jpg
external image 1696931657_5c2e3225b0_m.jpg
external image 1736154732_4005b2404a_m.jpg
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I would certainly be able to incorporate some of the above ideas into my classroom, especially considering the fact that the classroom where I'm currently doing my placement has an interactive white board, which further expands the usability of Flickr. The only idea I would not use is the one where you can use Flickr to provide information about learners. I feel that Flickr, or any other weblication for that matter, should never reveal information about learners. The privacy and safety of learners need to be of utmost importance to teachers, and they should therefore think twice before posting photos or information of students online.


Resources/References

Jakes, D. (2010). Using Flickr in the classroom. Retrieved online, August 25th, 2010, from
www.jakesonline.org/using_flickr.pdf








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