Thing 03: Photo Fun

Thing 03: Photo Fun

This topic is a fun one and there are a ton of possibilities when it comes to creating and using images in education. There was a lot in this module, from the nuts and bolts of digital tools to the thoughtful instructional use of digital images.

I am an enormous fan of Flickr. I thought that they were on the cutting edge of image hosting back in the early 2000’s. Around 2010, I was able to secure a high quality Canon D-SLR camera for my elementary school. Since I was the webmaster, I made it a personal goal to take photos of events in classrooms and other school related events away from school. I would use Flickr as a place to organize & host all of the albums. For about $20.00 per year, I was allowed to upload as many photos as needed - storage was unlimited. What’s more is that Flickr provided a great HTML embed code & widget, where I could quickly upload an album to the school’s website. Parents & administration LOVED this! ((P.S. The Halloween photos ALWAYS get the most views and likes))

Outside of Flickr, I respect what Google Photos has to offer. Personally, I am in the Apple/iOS environment, so I don’t take full advantage of Google’s image backup & hosting capabilities. My girlfriend recently switch over to Google Fi for her cellular service and uses Google Photos to back up her camera roll and free up space on her device. It works seamlessly.

In regards to social tools, I love the way that I see Instagram used to promote services, events and books in school libraries. There are some amazing Instagram school library accounts that I follow that do an incredible job posting ‘books of the day/week/month’ and trying to engage with their followers - whether they are students or parents. Some of my favorites are:

https://www.instagram.com/epicreads/


https://www.instagram.com/mrschureads/?hl=en


https://www.instagram.com/dianalrendina/


https://www.instagram.com/teensatvpl/?hl=en


https://www.instagram.com/thedaringlibrarian/?hl=en


Tony Vincent is amazing, in many aspects of tech in education - he is one of my mandatory follows! Almost everything he publishes and promotes is gold.

As a middle school librarian, one of my most necessary lessons is the thoughtful use of digital photographs. Way too many students are comfortable going to Google, right clicking & saving a photo, then inserting it into their project. They are totally unaware that they could be STEALING someone else property/intellectual property! Beyond that, many teachers reinforce this bad habit and encourage students to just go to Google if they are in need of a photo. I often spend a ton of time on teaching the Creative Commons vs. Copyright and the ethical downloading of photos. Kids practice using alternate websites like Wikimedia, CC Search, and Pixabay in front of me but I know that Googling will always be the easier option for them and it’s tough to police!


My sense is that teachers need to thoughtfully create assignments that encourage students to prove that they are using copyright friendly images. Further, I can’t help but share my frustration how in the younger grades, these bad habits are built and then continued throughout one's educational career and onto adulthood. I really feel like it’s my responsibility to help teach this content and help students understand that they have options. Perhaps there’s no better way for students to learn this is to have one of their OWN photos used without permission. I’d be curious to learn if any other educators have a unit or experiential ways to walk students through this content.

**All photos in this post were some of my favorite student gifts over the years of being an elementary school librarian. I posted these to Instagram over the years to capture the memories**