I too love the quote you mentioned from Richardson’s book. The technology that is available to educators and students today is beyond what could have ever been imaginable for educators and students from the past. With Flickr you can bring a world far away right to your front door.

In response to your question:Will this type of writing cause traditional writing to become even more of a fearful subject for students? Are you asking whether or not students will begin to withdraw complety from the traditional pen and paper writing? If so, I would have to say yes. Students today are completly submerged in text messaging, instant messaging, blogging, etc. that when and if writing on the web becomes a part of a daily/weekly school assignments that traditional may become not only a feared subject, but a foreign subject.

In response to using Flickr in my classroom, right now it is not possible. With the strict internet blockings, I cannot access Flickr. However, if allowed access to Flickr, I would use it in one of two ways. When introducing a new topic or concept I would the TVator, which allows for my students to see what is on my desktop screen on the classroom TV screen. Together we may go through a slideshow of pictures as I point out different items to them. Secondly, in regard to students using Flickr, it would have to done in the computer lab during computer time once a week. Here there are enough computers for all students to use and there are also two adults monitoring the students.

Peace,
I agree with what you said. I find this new technology to be fascinating and a wonderful tool to use in the classroom. I support your statement about not allowing young students to search on the website with out supervision, but what a daunting task. If you have 25-30 students in a room, what a job to have to monitor all of them. I think for younger grades (k-3), it should be considered to work on these projects in small groups where there is a controlled number in each group to supervise. Also, media center specialists would probably love to get involved in this type of project and could possible an extra set of hands, if not leading the project. Some other ideas for this website could be, a creative writing project, simple sentences, phonics, and show and tell. How do you foresee managing this type of project in your classroom?

I found one quote in Richardson’s book to say exactly what I thought. “That is the power of the READ/WRITE web: being able to create and connect content through publishing in ways we never thought possible” (Richardson, Ch 7, pg 109). I think being able to take a particular content area such as Science or Social Studies and let students make it their own by using pictures they find or take themselves to be a truly inspirational idea. Also, being able to write about their pictures to create a different type of “paper” and then allowing people to comment and add to the work will give students ownership and excitement about writing “reports and papers”. However, this does cause some worries for me as a teacher. Will this type of writing cause traditional writing to become even more of a fearful subject for students? Also, how does this new form of writing effect time allotment? If students in the classroom do not have internet access in the home, to complete at least some of the work outside of school (whereas, in traditional research a student can check out a book from the school library) do we as teachers then provide valuable class time for this research?

As a first grade teacher, there are so many new things I introduce to my students. With young students there are so many things they are not and may never be exposed to. I agreed with Steve Brooks when he stated that, “The thing I like about getting images from Flickr is the students can see that there are real people behind images, not some generic, faceless website.” (Brooks, 2005) Going even deeper than having students realize that websites are real, but they can can also realize that the ideas, themes, and pictures are also real. How many times have you felt frustrated because the topic you were teaching was difficult for your students to picture or understand? Using Flickr in the classroom would greatly assist educators when discussing topics that are beyond our student’s grasps. Flickr can be used as a great introduction to many lessons, especially in science and social studies. The tool I thought most useful was being able to annotate certain parts of a picture. As I teach nouns, verbs, and adjectives now, I would love to use this feature to provide my students real life examples. Locating actual persons, places, and things in pictures, creating a slideshow of verbs, and having them use as many adjectives as they could to describe a picture on Flickr would give them a better understanding of these new topics.

Though Flickr seems pretty simple to use, I would not have my first graders do any searching of images alone. How can educators of younger students involve their students in the use Flickr? How else can an early childhood educator use Flickr in the classroom?

I agree with your post completely. In this climate of standardized testing, getting a school to approve using Flickr in the classroom would be difficult since several of the activities listed could, fairly easily, be done without a computer. While the site has some great photos and great potential for cooperative learning, the potential for abuse is huge, and I doubt the merits would outweigh the drawbacks.

The photo annotation tool struck me, too! I see so many possibilities for using that as a journal or as way to update others on progress with projects. It is so much more innovative than a boring caption. I also loved the idea of photo field trips. I see the potential for an English class when reading about a specific location or time period. What other ideas do you have regarding the two tools mentioned?

I can see a possible roadblock as being students getting distracted by searching for entertainment personalities and risqué photos. While strict guidelines for using the site would be implemented prior to any online project, the temptation for veering from the topic at hand would still be great. I would be really interested to hear from other teachers who have already used Flickr in the classroom to identify ways student use can be policed.

While I see so many possibilities for Flickr, my students will not get the opportunity to use it with/for me any time soon. Unfortunately, my schools’ server blocks Flickr. I would like to know the process for having a school system evaluate a website. I fear, however, that even a few questionable photos would keep the site blocked from our school. I did a generic search of “naked” and guess what I found, a whole lot of naked people! Most were posted within the last 2 or 3 days, so they may be removed soon, but that will not help my case for making this site legal at school.

I completely understand your concerns for our students to use this site and share photos because there are so many phonographic photos out there as well. Unforntately, when using the internet there will always be a chance to be exposed to such inappropriate content. However, as educators, we need to be cautious and work as partners with the student’s family to assure that the web is used for the educational purpose we intended it be. And I think you are aware of that because you said you would approach it with caution. Therefore, we all have a responsiblity, (teachers, students, parents), and us teachers need to make sure that we work collabortively to assure the safetly of our students.

However, it also lead me to think of the dynamics/diversity of students. And that if I were to incorporate technology in my classroom I also have to provide the students with time to access the internet and NOT just assume that they have it at home. It seems as thought the teachers described the in readings were able to depend on the students to use flickr at home. Yet, if your a teacher in a low SES area or any area, then it is important to NOT assume that all students have access to the internet.

What are your thoughts of providing students access to the internet outside from home? Would you automatically provide it or do a survey to see if all students have easy access?