Thursday, January 25, 2007

EduFlickr: A good year for the poses...

{Sorry about the weak attempt at a pun in this post's title!}

I noticed that a couple of my blogging chums (Gordon and Ruby to be precise) were attempting to document the year by taking a different picture every day. (Have a look at Gordon's and Ruby's photo sets to see what they are doing.) I thought it looked interesting and decided to have a go - so, Johnny come lately, I started my set on the 19th of January 2007. I have not been going a week, but already I'm surprised at just how addictive it is.

Not only is it interesting (so far at least) trying to come up with an idea for a picture but it is strangely fascinating looking at what other people post. There are a number of Flickr groups you can join to share your photos but the two I've been watching are Project 365! and Project 365. (No, I'm not sure either what distinguishes one from the other either... so I've been posting to both.)

Someone in one of the groups (Project 365) had the idea of setting a weekly challenge and that made it even more fun. Here for example is my entry for the week two challenge: breakfast!

I began to wonder if this would be a good exercise for schools - a photo for every day of the school year. Would that be an interesting record of the school's life? Perhaps different classes/groups in the school could each take a picture to compare the experiences of different pupils. Or even better, two or more schools could share their photos and set each other challenges.

Does anyone know of schools that are doing this already? Do any other educators think it's a good idea? What sort of safe photography guidelines would the children need?


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14 comments:

  1. I think this is a great idea! It has really got me thinking!

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  2. There was something like this in last weeks TES magazine, more than just a photo each day though - a teacher was challenged to wear different clothes each day, she kept it up for 18 months. The photo set is over on flickr.

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  3. You should try and read the book

    Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blogs-Wikis-Podcasts-Powerful-Classrooms/dp/1412927676/sr=8-1/qid=1169725319/ref=sr_1_1/203-5974533-7097519?ie=UTF8&s=books

    they have a chapter on flickr

    strucure of the book is here
    http://weblogg-ed.com/book-info/

    davidhc - flickr

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  4. This is an excellent idea and I'm thinking to do two versions for my classroom this year - one just for my class only that can capture any situation and one for the web that is identity safe (i.e.respects privacy) but still shows an aspect of the classroom. Maybe a new group for this venture?

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  5. Ollie: Glad to be of service. If you can't do something imaginative with it, nobody can.

    Stuart: Thanks for pointing this out Stuart. As a lecturer in an Education Faculty, am I allowed to admit that I don't always read the Times Educational Supplement?

    David: Thanks for the reminder about Will's book. I've been meaning to order it (and a couple of others) for some time now. I'll try to get on that this afternoon. I have written a draft of a chapter on Flickr for the next edition of the Coming of Age book. Haven't heard anything for a while though... I must chase that up too.

    Graham: A private and a public level project sounds like a good idea. Perhaps there could be some sort of internal vote to decide which of the class photos gets chosen for public display. If it gets off the ground, I'd love to watch it develop.

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  6. Hi David,
    We've not quite managed a photo a day, but our blogs at Sandaig Otters have had about 800 photos of school life posted over the last 3 years.
    Unfortunately we would not be able to join in a Flickr group, but if there was a self hosted/blog alternative I'd be very interested.

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  7. Before I got to the end of the post I had already though about how this could be used at school. I love the idea and we are just about to start our second semester...so why not start now. I do not know if we have the energy to do public and private but I want to do this.. the public aspect appeals to me the most...especially if we can connect with schools around the world..We Pre-K (3 year olds) to 8the grade (aprox 13 year olds). I will post this to my blog so if you are interested come on over and leave me a note.
    Thanks for this great idea.

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  8. Hi Barbara

    Looks like John's in... and I guess Ollie could come up some more pupils.

    I've made a longer reply over on Barbara's blog.

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  9. Oops... and Graham too obviously.

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  10. It looks like we have the interest and now need to work on the logistics..(see comments on my blog).
    Graham and Ollie do you have flikr access?

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  11. Hi everybody...

    Okay..let the fun begin! Well almost. I created a wiki to help us move from idea to reality. Add your input on the wiki so that we can see who is in, as well as collaborate on the guidelines.

    http://photoaday.wetpaint.com/

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  12. You could also use Microsoft's Photo Story 3 or Windows Movie Maker to make a video which could be posted via Youtube to their blog.

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  13. Barbara, this is looking great. I'm going to play with the wiki now. :-)

    Mr Dude, an animation of the year in pictures... cool idea, although my preference would be to do it in iMovie. :-)

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  14. John and others may find it difficult to take part in a Flickr project... but are there ways around the block? For example, you can post pictures to Flickr by email and see the posts to a particular group in an RSS feed. Does that get around the block or are the images still blocked even in an RSS feed?

    Can anyone out there suffering from a block let us know?

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