Flickr for the Art Teacher

     Here is what I find with further exploration of Flickr. It was very easy to sign up using a yahoo account. There is an opportunity to establish a profile and a set of friends, or create albums that are totally public. It was easy to download images from my computer files, although a purchase would make the download quicker. And there, as far as I could find, is the end of the free services. You can purchase Picnik, which is a web-based photo-editing program. I do not need this, since I have a very fine editing program in iPhoto on my Mac at school. I see that short video clips can be included in the albums. I do not see any gallery templates, which I was hoping to find. I have spent many, many hours looking at Web 2.o tools that can do all kinds of things, yet this one is very basic. It seems that when I follow up on the tools I usually run into the "purchase" button sooner or later.

     As far as creating web-based galleries, I can see the usefulness of sharing our student art with parents on the school website. I could use it for sharing images between classes, over time, inspiring students with other student work and connecting with other schools and teachers. It can be used as a promotional feature. It can store individual archives. Students could access their own work from home, put it on their Facebook or into their own blogs.

    I realize that these are fundamentals that most people who are even a little savvy with technology probably already are familiar with. I wish to express my mind-blowing experiences looking at blogs and websites that are filled with practical applications for technology in the classroom. I am really excited about a site called iEARN, at http://media.iearn.org/ that contains fabulous ideas for collaborative projects that integrate online global project work into the classroom. I think that I need to look closer at these types of websites, learn what other educators are using, and THEN explore the tools as they apply to lessons. It is not that I can't be creative with this new plethora of technological tools, it is just that my time is limited and I have been down a lot of facinating roads, to the point that I can barely get a breath, and school has started. 

     I am going to set a goal to continue to post on this blog, though it may not be weekly, and I will not stop my inquiry. I have a big toe in the 21st century! 

Photo Management

     With further investigation it is clear to me that I will have better luck working with Flickr than with the tools available through Photoshop.com. I enjoyed looking at tutorials and examples from Photoshop tools likeLightroom3 and Adobe Illustrator CS5. I sent myself a dynamic "peek" at the vector artwork and perspective drawings that a student could create using this program, so that I can show it to my students and let them get excited about perspective and the possibilities of drawing on the computer, but I doubt that my school would be able to afford the price tag of $599. 

     I will be looking at Flickr, since it is free--at least some of it is free. I see that there are many applications within Flickr, and some of them do require a fee. I understand that I can create groups so that I control who views the web galleries of student artwork, or images of other groups of artists' work (or cultural exemplars). I can connect my high school with galleries from colleges, so that they can get a glimpse of what kinds of projects are done at the college level. I also noticed some little photo-editing games that I think would be a lot of fun for my students, such as "Photoshop Tennis," which has participants taking turns editing one image until it is completely transformed. I plan to try some of the apps to see what we can do in our "digital" art room this year. 

Surveying Educational Web 2.0 Tools

     I have been looking at some interesting Web 2.0 tools that other art teachers might like to know about. One of the most popular, and one that I have been curious about, is Wikipedia. Did you know that "wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian? I have used this resource, but admit that I had misgivings about the validity of the information offered there. I love the ease with which students can look for clarification, clicking on terms and other data for quick understanding. I remember long Sunday afternoons lying on the living room floor as a girl, looking things up and going from one fat volume to another from my parents' set of Encyclopedias...what? kids don't like to do that anymore? Well, I will not go into my love for reading books (their pages, their smells...)but you can tell I am not of the tech generation. I worried about who was going to rewrite history on the computer, since wikis are a collaborative effort of anonymous, unpaid contributors. Upon further investigation, I am reassured to see the "5 Pillars" that guide these contributions, and that submissions do need to be referenced. I feel safe allowing my students to use this tool, which gives research an "edge for engagement" in the modern classroom.
     As an art teacher, I am looking for ways to archive and manipulate images. There are two photo organizers that I am checking out for my classroom and for my personal use. One is Flickr and the other is Photoshop.com. To be honest, I feel like I should be looking at more creative tools like Voicethread or something....there are so many new and different things available...but I really need to be realistic about what I can do at this point. I know I can use a new management system for the student  artwork and portfolios. I plan to dig deeper and to see which of these organizers has the best options for me. If you would, please let me know what experiences you have had with either of these--or other offerings that you find superior.