Flickr

Wild Horses at Chincoteague
August 2009



Using Flickr seems very simple.  The site is self explanatory and walks users through step by step.  It is convenient because on the first page after registering the list of steps to add photos is given first.  It is also helpful when trying to pick out photos to post because Flickr automatically leads users to their saved photos, where they just have to click the photos they want to add to Flickr and they are loaded to the site.  This website is very user friendly and helps people create photo pages that look well put together, but are done so easily. 

Flickr would be a great resource for the classroom.  Teachers could load pictures of what their class has been doing for parents to see as a means of communication.  The article also suggests that students use the site for finding pictures on a certain subject instead of using magazines.  This would be much more convenient for teachers because they would not need to gather magazines and hope that what their students need to find is included in them.  The possibilities of Flickr are endless in the classroom setting.             

What to Learn

Over the course of this class it would be helpful to learn about different ways to incorporate technology into regular classroom activities. Knowing how to use the functions of the smart board or regular computer would help give better, interactive examples to students. It would also be valuable to know how to prepare students to use technology in their daily life as they get older.

Engagement or Enragement?

The article “Engage Me or Enrage Me: What Today’s Learners Demand” by Marc Prensky describes the difficulties teachers are experiencing when it comes to engaging their students in learning activities. Prensky writes that the only way to engage and interest students in their learning is to provide them with technology, such as computer games, to teach the content. This is a drastic statement because teaching and learning cannot be done totally with electronics. Everyone needs to learn how to interact with each other in order to gain knowledge. This is not to say that technology is detrimental to teaching, however, when integrated into lessons it can be very helpful. Electronics should be used in the classroom setting to enhance what is taught by the teacher and to act as another mode of explanation. One example of this is creating a classroom blog. Students should be asked to post to the blog their ideas about what is taught in class, as well as respond to their classmates ideas. This would act as motivation to students because using computers is usually seen as a privilege when compared to using plain paper. Students are also interested in reading each others work and would learn from each other’s ideas. Technology is important to incorporate into daily classroom activities in order to enhance student learning.