I think photo sharing is a neat idea for the classroom. I can think of many ideas for incorporating it in to an educational activity or unit. In Sociology there are many topics including some about childhood and growing up. Teaching topics where students bring in their own items, such as anticipatory socialization, students could really benefit from photo sharing. Instead of having kids bring in a favorite toy from when they were children they could share the photos with and attachments. The kids get more time to look at and analyze the items. While would it lack the ability for the students to manipulate the item, by the secondary level hopefully some of the students would have experience with them. I also think it would be a great platform for video. One could use it as a class video resource site and this would also give kids the ability to contribute by finding pertinent video to topics.
Of course once again when there is any social networking involved there are problems that can arise. While sites like flickr allow you to manipulate the text and photos, they may still not offer a security to give parents that “comfort feeling” while their children use the internet at school. It seems like there would be more of an issue at the secondary level, because many students are familiar with these sites and can try being creative outside of the schools ability to protect it internet services. I am also not sure that this resource is completely inventive in that it is not really one stop shopping. There seem to be other resources out there that can handle all classroom needs.
There are some advantages and disadvantages to using photo sharing sites. I really like the portability factor. Instead of having to source your photos from your home computer, they are available at all times anywhere. No matter where you are, as long as there is internet available, your photos are available. The security factor is always there, but as professionals this has always existed even with text and other pictorial items, and videos we share and limit with are audience based on appropriate content.
The chapter on instructional design conceptually reminded of the many educational programs schools use. As described in, Trends and Issues in Instructional design and Technology by Reiser and Dempsey, instructional design is as follows, “organizing a system of procedures for developing education and training programs in a consistent and reliable fashion. This description alone reminded me of the professional learning communities we use at school. PLC’s are a systematic way to approach best education practice in collaborative departmental teams to meet educational, learning, and building goals. They so focus on providing the best teaching and outcomes from each team. I felt the chapter made it somewhat sound like an instructor is not needed for all students, which is an idea I do not subscribe to. If education is going to be customized for each student then someone need to be there working with them, because I do not believe computers can measure this completely. I have worked with many students while they are taking Michigan Virtual High School classes and they struggle left on their own. They have problems with the technology as well as the format. PLC’s also remind me of the “design models” the chapter talks about. As a visual communication tool ID brings to mind many of the intervention models I am familiar with like RTI. Each of these programs are multi tiered and each level reflects the prior as the chapter cites.
No comments:
Post a Comment