I was hoping to be able to insert a table to compare/contrast Picasa Web book vs flickr, but I don't see one in this compose page. Due to the challenge of cutting and pasting from Word into an earlier blog post and finding out I had to import images individually once again, has made me gun shy to create a Word table or spreadsheet and try pasting that in. Dear more experienced peers - can either be done?
Onwards ...
Thank you LIBE 477 for encouraging me to try flickr. If I was a photo hobbiest, this site would have grabbed me long ago. Not having high quality camera equipment, and poor photography skills, well I didn't think I had much to offer flickr. Will Richardson's "Fun with Flickr" chapter was a real eye opener. The potential to link youth around the world discussing images and their learning is very exciting. To share daily events &/or highlights with parents, colleagues and learning commons communities about "field trips, speakers and visitors, special projects, and much more ..." (102), "integrating with Google Earth" (104) sounds like strong ways to build connections and engage students. To have students take images from the Creative Commons and try such projects as "random writes" and "Make it Mine" (108), sounds so creative. And yet, when I went to post my library "Year-End Slide Show" images, I couldn't do it! I couldn't bring myself to post those pictures of young kids to the expansive internet audience. Hence the quick switch to our cats.
I realized at that moment how since having kids, photos have been mostly about capturing people, and especially kids. I'm protective about sharing those images to unknown viewers. Flickr has made me rethink taking pictures for teaching, as well as the potential of using images of animals, places, ... the world as a spring board for learning.
Despite my interest, however, I didn't find the site as easy to navigate as the Picasa one. First of all the personal info flickr/Yahoo wanted in order for me to create an account was annoying (I was routed to the Yahoo home page and didn't even know how to get to flickr from there; thus, I opened a new tab for flick and signed in). Once in the editing window, double clicking on each of the images to make them bigger rather than being able to scroll to the next one while already in the enlarged viewing state was frustrating. Albeit, I'm wondering if I simply need to change some settings. I found I wanted to go back to Picasa on my laptop to edit with greater ease and then upload the completed images.
In comparison, I found the Picasa software on my computer and the Picasa web book much more intuitive and it appeared to offer more edit capabilities from a side bar or a click on a tab. Further the no need to work on the account within 90 days before images and work are deleted is a real plus of the free Picasa web book. The $25/year flickr fee will be worth it if the students and I begin using it well, however.
Thus, for now, I'll keep using picasa on my computer to store, sort, organize, and edit pictures, as well as to create albums. Picasa web book I'll use for my people photos, but I'll begin experimenting more with flickr for such projects as animal, cultures, countries and more. As educators start moving towards more learning commons, I see flickr and web sharing products like it to be a "go to" place for images and videos. As a newbie to flickr and photosharing, I'm going to look at the various examples Richardson lists in chapter seven, and then hopefully get a colleague on board to try a class project out.
On to video sharing ...
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