Grade 7 Classes Go Paperless

I opened an email from a teacher librarian colleague this morning. She had been to the ECOO (Educational Computing Organization of Ontario) Conference. I followed links to the site and to this video created by a paperless grade 7 class, Social Media in Grade 7. Although the videos are from 2010 I have subscribed to recieve updates through the site.

My 3 digital image sharing hats (with respect to Joanne deGroot's 500 hats)

Personal:

-share family event photos

-share personal event photos with absent family

-share photos of paintings with the world

-join Flickr watercolour artist groups 
-reference photos for paintings

Learning:

-building (PLN) learning networks with T-L Flickr groups

-studying the work of watercolour artists

-share comments with artists in my groups

Teaching:

-use to develop background knowledge with flickr visuals

-virtual shared experiences

-introduction to biomes, aboriginal peoples environment, country studies

-sharing school events

-virtual yearbook photo collection

-reference photos for electives watercolour students 

Note: I offer a watercolour painting course to grade 8 students in the library. As a result of my exploration of Flickr I created a gallery of pictures including a colour wheel, a palette of colours with paint tubes, and examples of watercolour paintings I found in the Flickr groups I follow. I was able to show slides of my own paintings and suggested we might create a gallery of student work. A collection of Flickr images of iris' and poppies helped students visualize the flowers for their floral paintings.

Grade 8 Watercolour Elective Flickr slide show

Moving Forward with flickr: Step Three

I am developing some comfort with flickr and its associated tools and I can see myself sharing my paintings with the world (I can’t believe I wrote that). I found I am able to easily upload photos, store them online and manage the photos with the available organization of sets, collections, favourites, tags and groups.

Flickr tags

There are many books and web sites available to help me get started and help me explore ideas and more I am sure to come across in my ongoing learning.

•  Choosing Web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
• ·The Digital Diet: Today’s digital tools in small bytes. Churches, A., Crockett, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). Kelowna, BC: 21st Century Fluency Project
• Technology Resources for Schools 
•  Classroom Uses of Flickr 

Tomaiuolo (2011) identifies Flickr uses by librarians. “For example, the Librarian Trading Cards Group is an area where librarians frequently display their whimsical side to colleagues. The Libraries and Librarians Group at Flickr connects 3,700 information professionals spread across six continents.” (para.10) I added these two groups immediately.

I may be almost as hooked as PC World’s Nikki McDonald. McDonald writes: “After just over a week of using Flickr, I'm hooked. I've gone from checking my e-mail account every 2 minutes to checking my Flickr account instead.” (McDonald, 2005,para. 7) Using Flickr has encouraged me to share not only my paintings but also my personal photographs online. I am interested in the Libraries and Librarians group and the connection to the world of libraries it offers. I was surprised to find this group and others connected to librarians and libraries and look forward to further exploration.

In my school I would like to encourage teachers to use Flickr to develop Flickr sets and introduce students to digital images as part of Geography and History units. I might add a photostream link or set to the library blog for easy access. I need to investigate if my sqworl visual bookmarking pages will accept photostream links from Flickr.

"Registered users can comment on photos, create image "pools" and users around a central
theme, and actually select favorite pictures." (Stephens, 2006. p.58) I am excited by my exploration of Flickr. I hadn’t realized the scale of possibility for flickr use for me personally, professionally, or in my role as a teacher-librarian.

As a result of this exploration I am excited to try the Google image sharing tool, Picasa and begin collaborating with my colleague to add photos to the blog Paths to the Future: 21st Century School Libraries.