Blended Edu

Monday, August 20, 2007

Technology & Learning Digital Photography Contest


"Technology & Learning invites K-12 students to participate in the sixth annual digital photography contest.

The competition, open to all K-12 students, challenges you to capture - and share - your unique vision of the world in a "Digital Diary - Through My Lens."

If you have an artistic side, you also have the option to digitally enhance your photos with your favorite imaging software.

The best digitally enhanced photo wins a special prize from Adobe. Other prizes include a digital camera, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and more!"

More Info

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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Yahoo! + JumpCut

Big news! JumpCut is joining Flickr, MyWeb, and del.icio.us as the newest member of the Yahoo! family of social media and community tools! Yay!

If you aren't familiar with JumpCut, it's like a web based version of iMovie, with easy (and free) video editing tools and a healthy dose of sharing, tags, and community thrown in to make it extra fun.

This is a great tool for teachers and students alike. And since it's web based, students can work on their projects at school or home. Pretty cool, eh?

You can create movies from pictures, audio, or video. You can even grab video from other members of the JumpCut community and remix it into your own original production.

But don't worry, just like Flickr and MyWeb, you set the privacy level of who can see or use your creation. So go ahead and try JumpCut in your classroom!

Web Resources

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Thursday, September 28, 2006

Anousheh Ansari + Flickr: Live from the ISS

Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-born U.S. entrepreneur recently paid $20M for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS), is posting pictures from her adventure on Flickr!

Very cool. Talk about a moblog...clear from outer space!

Web Resources

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Saturday, September 23, 2006

techLearning + Yahoo! for Educators

Yahoo! for Educators: "Sixty-five Bay Area educators stormed Yahoo!'s Sunnyvale, Calif. campus this summer for the first annual Yahoo! Teachers of Merit Summer Session. During the seven-day "teacher camp," Yahoo! held working sessions on how new tools such as Flickr and blogs could be harnessed for curriculum activities.

The company also involved campers in discussions about common ed tech challenges and product development. "We talked to them a lot about what they need and what they're not getting," says vice president Lorna Borenstein. "It was like rapid prototyping using industry experts."

Could Yahoo!, which first jumped into the education fray with Yahooligans, be gearing up for a product launch? Borenstein did not say. However, she notes they want to make educational search better. "There's a great opportunity with Web 2.0 tools for education to jump ahead," she says."

Web Resources

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Thursday, September 21, 2006

K12 Online Conference 2006


Announcing the first annual K12 Online 2006 convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice.

This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme “Unleashing the Potential.” On the K12 Online conference blog you will also find the web form for the submission of proposals. Everyone is encouraged to submit a proposal.

Web Resources

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Sunday, September 03, 2006

HackEdu Toolbox: Flickr Slideshow

"flickrshow provides you with the simplest way of displaying your Flickr photosets on your own website.

It is simple to install, completely free and doesn't require Flash or any server side programming knowledge. Generate your own code and install your own flickrshow now!" via FlickrShow

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Pics4Learning, Copyright, and Community

Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The library consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers.

Unlike other sites, permission has been granted for teachers and students to use all of the images donated to the Pics4Learning collection.

Need a photo for that lesson on California Mission, sloth, or dinosaur fossils? Then Pics4Learning is the place for you! Members of the education community can upload and share their photos in the Pics4Learning photo archive for other educators to use. In addition to photographs, Pics4Learning has lesson plans created by and for the community.

Pics4Learning is a partnership between Orange County Public Schools Technology Development Unit of Orlando, Florida, and Tech4Learning, Inc.

Web Resources

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Flickr + Yahoo! Maps= Flickr GeoTags

Check out this new Flickr feature: How to geotag your photos & Exploring the Flickr GeoTag Map.

These new Flickr GeoTags can provide you with a fast and easy way to find (or share) photos you can use in your geography curriculum. So take a peek at this new Flickr Hack---it's pretty darn cool!

Any thoughts on how you might use Flickr GeoTags or Yahoo! Maps in your classroom? Share 'em here with the rest o' the BlendedEdu community.

Web Resources

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

FlickrEdu: Flickr Hacks for the Classroom

Here are some of the latest and greatest Flickr hacks created by members of the Flickr community for you to try in your classroom!
If you find one that's not on the list.....share it with the rest of us!

Enjoy!
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Delivr: "Digital postcards for the people by the people...just select an image from the most recent displayed on the home page, search all 600,000+ images, or lookup your own pix to create a unique custom postcard."

Slide+Flickr: Create a slideshow for your classroom, website or desktop using your Flickr tags and Slide.

FD's Toys Slideshow: "Create a slideshow from images anywhere on the internet. Then share it with your friends. Works with your photos hosted on Flickr or anywhere else."

Tag Man: "TagMan is a game that combines the classic hangman game with tags."

Flickr Firefox Search: " This is a simple search plugin for your Firefox browser, that allows you to quickly search the public available Flickr tags."

Bubblr: "Add comic strip bubbles to Flickr photos of your choice."

Findr: "Find photos on flickr by browsing and refining related tags."

Flickr Kaleidoscope: "A Flash-based Kaleidoscope using recent thumbnails from the Squared Circle group."

and another kaleidoscope hack:

Flickr Wildflower Guide: "Wildflower Field Guide, North America. Use it to identify a flower by searching the group pool for other flowers of the same color and shape."

And just for fun...

Tag Fight

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Flickr Spelling Bee

LEARrrNIiiNGold 2full stop0 O

Pick a word, any word and this nifty tool will spell it using photographs from Flickr!

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Thursday, March 02, 2006

FlickrEdu: Flat Bobby


via Amber: "These are the adventures of Flat Bobby. Flat Bobby is a close cousin of Flat Stanley. Flat Bobby has been sent out to several people all around the world.

If you would like to invite Flat Bobby into your home, please read the Bobby's letter and let me know. This is my school project.

If you would like to participate by downloading a Flat Bobby clone and taking him on a journey, please feel free to do so. I got the official rule that Flat Bobby is allowed to travel through the internet. Thank you! "

No Amber, thank you! This is a fantastic idea!

There are so many skills being utilized in this type of project. First and foremost, kids are able to utilize several types of social media to learn about world geography and different cultures.

In addition, children are getting the opportunity to develop writing, vocabulary, problem-solving, and technology skills all while engaged in a situated and active learning environment.

What other types of social media tools can students use to document Bobby's travels? There are so many possibilities!

Students can use Yahoo! Trip Planner to plot out Bobby's next adventure and learn more about the museums, parks, and other cultural sites in the countries Bobby is visiting. Once Bobby sends his pictures to the classroom, students can create a Flickr photo album in the Trip Planner!

As Bobby meets kids in other countries, teachers can use collaborative web tools like YackPack to provide students with opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and friendship. Students can use PowerPoint and ProfCast to create and publish a podcast of Bobby's adventures!

Thanks again Amber. Best wishes to Flat Bobby for continued safe travels!

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Saturday, February 25, 2006

Digital Geography

Digital Geography is an UK-based website for teachers focused on using ICT and social software resources in the geography curriculum.

Noel Jenkins, the brains behind Digital Geography, uses Google Earth and Flickr, along with his own model curriculum (including animation), to make geography a fun, interactive, and active learning experience for students.

This is a perfect example of a teacher using ICT to support instruction and student-centered learning environments. With so many resources, Digital Geography (and its former incarnation Juicy Geography), it's no wonder that teachers from every corner of the world are flocking to this treasure trove of resources.

Brilliant! Just brilliant!

Links

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Friday, February 10, 2006

Torino: It's All About the Journey


The Journey: A blog for Olympic athletes and fans to share their thoughts and experiences on the road to the XXth Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy.

The site also includes athlete podcasts, video, and a growing collection of photographs over on Flickr. And be sure to check out snowborder Seth Wescott's Flickr photoblog too!

The USA Olympic Team website includes team podcasts, interactive Winter Olympic sport guides, pictograms, and winter athlete bios.

Buona fortuna a tutti gli atleti che partecipano ai 2006 giochi olimpici di inverno in Torino!


Links

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Thursday, January 12, 2006

Giraffe Surveys the Sydney Skyline


via PictureAustralia on Flickr

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Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Flickr+PictureAustralia

PictureAustralia, in conjunction with The National Library of Australia (NLA), has invited members of the community to "...contribute to the contemporary archive of photographic images depicting the people, places, and events, which make Australia unique by photographing Australia as they see it and then uploading the images into Flickr..."

The images collected in the PictureAustralia Flickr groups will be added to the NLA photo archives which contain 1 million historical images documenting life in Australia and Australiana.

PictureAustralia has created two public groups in Flickr where "citizen photo journalists" can upload their photographs and show the rest of the world what it means to be Australian in the 21st Century: Australia Day and People, Places and Events.

The PictureAustralia project has lots of potential as a techno-constructivist learning activity in the classroom. A teacher could develop a project-based lesson plan around history, photography, computer skills and software, or social history. Who knows, you might discover the next Kevin Sites or Dorothea Lange in your classroom!

The PictureAustralia Project is an excellent example of an organization using social media to provide opportunities for collective reflection of shared reference points, goals, experiences, and civic enagement.


Links

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Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Flickr Diorama

Tim Lauer recently shared an example of a student who used Flickr to create a diorama for a science project on Jane Goodall. This is a pretty brilliant idea and kudos to Sophie for thinking of such a creative use for Flickr!

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Monday, January 02, 2006

Learning Activity: Flickr & Yahoo! Audio Search

Have you thought about using Yahoo! Audio Search along with Flickr to link relevant audio files to pictures in your Flickr group page? Listening to content in its original context is also an effective situated learning tool that provides an avenue for students to actively participate in their own learning.

This activity provides both audio and visual elements, thereby appealing to the differing and multiple learning styles of students. Better yet, let your students combine elements from Yahoo! Audio Search and Flickr into a project-based learning activity.

For example, an American Studies teacher with a series of Mississippi River photos can post an audio link in a Flickr discussion thread to a dramatic reading from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.

Or a history teacher can start a discussion thread in a Flickr group about the Civil War, providing a link to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in her pool of Gettysburg photographs. Instead of reading about Albert Einstein’s scientific contributions in a textbook, students can use Y! Audio Search to actually hear Einstein himself explain his Theory of Relativity.

Moreover, having students listen to period news reports about the fiery crash of the Hindenburg, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Robert F. Kennedy’s news conference announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King, or Eleanor Roosevelt’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights speech helps them make emotional connections to shared cultural experiences.

More importantly, as students incorporate different types of social media into their collaborative project-based learning activities, they develop the critical problem solving, web, knowledge management, and technology skills they will need to succeed in the 21st Century.


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Saturday, December 17, 2005

More on FlickrEdu...

Many thanks to BlendedEdu readers for such a positive response to my article on using Flickr as an educational social networking tool.

Since its publication in the November 2005 edition of techLearning, I have received email and feedback from educators from all over the world.

I'm thrilled that so many of you--from Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, U.S, and elsewhere--have found the article a worthwhile addition to your arsenal of curriculum and teaching resources!

Thank you, again, for your feedback!

db


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Wednesday, November 02, 2005

World War I Photo Archive



Flickr community member Jens-Olaf has posted a remarkable archive of black and white WWI photographs in his photostream. Jens-Olaf also provides some historical context for his stunning photographs:

"It presents an ‘anatomy of an occupation’, charting the ambitions and realities of the new German military state there. Using hitherto neglected sources from both occupiers and occupied, official documents, propaganda, memoirs, and novels, it reveals how German views of the East changed during total war..."
These 132+ photographs would be a great addition to any history or political science curriculum. You can view the photos by clicking here.

They are truly amazing!



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Tuesday, November 01, 2005

FlickrEDU: The Promise of Social Networks

FlickrEdu: The Promise of Social Networks
TechLearning, Derek E. Baird

"While not originally developed as an education tool, Flickr, and other social networking technologies have the ability to play an important part in student motivation, retention and learning—especially in distributed learning environments.

Social networking technologies and media are important tools because of their ability to foster interaction and communication between students. This is especially important in online learning communities, where students may have limited face-to-face time to build a support network with their peers."

How do you use Flickr in the classroom?

10/5/06 Update: Be sure check out all things Flickr and more over on my new blog: debaird.net

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Thursday, September 22, 2005

FlickrEDU

FlickrEDU is about the different ways educators are using Flickr in their classrooms. Feel free to share curriculum ideas, student feedback, add photos from student Flickr projects, or anything else you think will contribute to our discussion.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Education, Web 2.0, & Yahoo!

The recent announcement that Yahoo! and the University of California, Berkeley will open a joint research facility-Y! Research Labs Berkeley--is one of many signs that Yahoo! is rapidly creating "the place" on the web for the education community.

As Yahoo! points out, the agreement with UC Berkeley, “expands scope of research in Search Technology and Social and Mobile Media; [and is a] first step in establishing closer ties with university campuses.”

Yahoo! + Social Software & Education


  • Yahoo! has donated hardware, hosting, bandwidth, as well as financial resources to support the expansion and ongoing development for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

  • FlickrEDU: While not originally developed as an education tool, Flickr, and other social networking technologies have the ability to play an important part in student motivation, retention and learning—especially in distributed learning environments. Social software technologies and other Web 2.0 media are important tools because of their ability to foster interaction and communication between students.

  • My Web 2.0 is a new Yahoo! Search product based on social networking, tags, folksonomies, and group collaboration. This new "social search" engine allows users to save their links and then share them with people they know and trust by placing them in a community knowledge pool dubbed, My Community.

  • Y! Search provides a stripped down version of the Yahoo portal, providing students with a “distraction free” zone to conduct research, WebQuests, or other collaborative web-based projects.

  • Yahoo! 360: One of the key benefits of Yahoo! 360, in terms of educational blogging, is that it provides the user with the ability to manage who can view their personal information based, in part, on user-defined criteria. In other words, the user controls who has access to any and all parts of the content on their blog. Now open for public beta, Yahoo! 360, features integration with several Yahoo! products including: Flickr and My Web 2.0 (via RSS Feeds).

  • The Open Content Alliance is a collaborative effort of several organizations to build a permanent archive of text and multimedia content. The content archive will be available exclusively via Yahoo! Search.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

FlickrEDU | Art History 101

I recently ran across this example of an art history teacher who used the social networking features in Flickr---groups, comments, and notes--to discuss the Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin.


Great idea!



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Monday, August 22, 2005

Viva Papert! And Kyle too...

I’m fascinated by the different and innovative ways people tweak and tinker with technology to meet their needs. Recently I posted an idea to blend Flickr + BlinkList to create an online tutorial. Then just last week the My Web 2 blog posted an excellent “real life” example of a student utilizing his blog and online photo software to create an on-demand presentation about social bookmarking for his classmates. Great job Kyle!

Dr. Seymour Papert, co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, stresses the importance of bricolage (tinkering) as a pathway to creating concrete knowledge. Bricolage is a French word which (loosely translated) can be taken to mean "trial-and-error," learning by poking around, trying this or that until you eventually figure it out.

According to Dr. Papert this is one of the best ways to approach learning on the computer and very significantly, widens the range of opportunities to engage as a bricoleur. “If you do something wrong," he states, " the sky won't fall, you won't get shot. Just try again...Soon you will come to enjoy this process, becoming a true bricoleur.”

So (and here's the big tie in) when thinking about integrating technology into your curriculum, you must allow yourselves (and your students) space and time to experiment with new technologies, and web tools in an authentic context. It's during this process of 'tinkering' that learners will be able to 'construct' new knowledge.

Moreover, utilizing web-based tools not only provides students with an opportunity to design their own learning experience through self-directed projects, but also allows them to work in a collaborative matter in an authentic context, using the technology as a tool to facilitate and support their own learning!

Tres cool, no?


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Saturday, July 23, 2005

Flickr + BlinkList | Dynamic Duo

Do you need to create a technical help sheet or “how to” guide? Here’s an idea that provides an avenue for users with multiple learning styles to utilize two social software programs-- Flickr and BlinkList--to meet their learning or training needs.

The Flickr Part: Use Flickr to create a (private) group, and then place a series of instructional screenshots in your group pool to assist users learn a new software program (for example Dreamweaver MX). Members of your group can use the Flickr group threads to discuss the configuration process, troubleshoot, and leave tips for others.

The BlinkList Part: Tag Dreamweaver MX articles and/or other web-based resources with a specific BlinkList tag, which now becomes an URL of resources related to that software (in this case Dreamweaver MX).

The Social Part: Now post the tag link in your Flickr group and the BlinkList tag list becomes a specialized, organic, shared knowledge pool--a vital component for any online community of practice. Members of the learning community can also search the global BlinkList community tags for additional resources.

The Learning Part: What you have created is an (online) community that is able to draw from multiple social web resources to meet a learner’s intrinsic needs, while still providing opportunities to participate with their peers in a collaborative, social exchange of information. In a variation, you could use both ideas and link to Flickr and BlinkList from a course webpage, weblog, or learning management system (LMS).


, flickr

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Friday, July 15, 2005

FlickrEDU | Social Software Goes to School

Flickr, the popular online photo sharing and social networking community, is popping up in lots of classrooms as teachers find interesting and creative ways to integrate its many features into their curriculum.

Why is Flickr so popular in the classroom?

Perhaps the June 2005 Adaptive Path newsletter said it best: “Flickr recognized that people wanted a better way to share their photos. They also recognized that people might have myriad ways of doing that. Flickr lets people derive their own value from sharing photos…Instead of attempting to define your experience, they simply provide a sandbox, and give you the means to create a meaningful experience within that.” Sounds like social constructivism to me.

So how do you use Flickr in your classroom? BlendedEDU has started a Flickr community group where educators can share curriculum ideas, make suggestions, share student Flickr projects, or learn more about using social software in the classroom. So please join the discussion!

And for a more ideas how to use Flickr in your classroom, be sure to look for my article, FlickrEDU in the Nov 2005 issue of TechLearning.

[ 11/05 Update: The article has been published! You can read it here.]

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Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Stewart Butterfield | Gaming & Learning as a Social Activity

Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Ludicorp, is a pioneer and visionary when it comes to designing for and understanding the social structure of web-based environments and communities. In this 2003 Mindjack interview, Butterfield discusses how his multiplayer gaming environment, Game Neverending, was a "social space designed to facilitate and enable play."

As Butterfield explains:

"The secret is, even though it's called Game Neverending,it's not really a game at all. It's a social space designed to facilitate and enable play. The game-elements are here to provide both the constraints and the building blocks of interaction - since the thing you'll notice about the kind of play I'm talking about above is that it is the kind of thing that goes on between people."


In other words, a well-designed multiplayer gaming environment should provide users with the tools and leave it to them to construct their own meaning and level of interaction within the (virtual) community.

Moving beyond online gaming, this interview is important because Butterfield hits on a key element of online course design that is often overlooked: designing opportunities (both synchronous and asynchronous) for students to create social bonds (through interaction) is equally as important as the course content.

In short, it's about relationships. Not technology.

Whether it's an online game, or an online course, more attention has to be paid to the social interactions taking place in the online classroom. Social interaction is at the heart of any effective constructivist-based learning environment. This is probably even more important in an online space, where students may have limited opportunities for face-to-face contact.

While Game Neverending is no longer an active product (Ludicorp, along with their photo social network product Flickr, were acquireded by Yahoo! in March 2005), online instructors, course designers, and educators could learn a lot from Stewart Butterfield and should look to the world of online gaming for ways to improve the social architecture of online learning environments.
  • Read the entire Stewart Butterfield interview



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