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!