Photo Sharing: Building a community of images and stories

Reflections: Flickr Vs. Picasa

I like something I can dive into and start using immediately. While exploring the concept of photo sharing I have been experimenting with two of the most popular sites, Flickr and Picasa. A quick search provided many links to multiple “Top lists” which consistently noted these two sites in particular. With thanks to www.wikipedia.com , my search also provided me with these little bits of “geek-ish” knowledge: Picasa is the combination of “Picasso” (as in Pablo), “mi casa” (Spanish for “my home”), and “pic” (as in pictures); and Flickr was originally created by a Vancover based company that launched the site in 2004, but the it was later purchased by Yahoo.

Wishing I could be more patriotic about this, but once again, I have been seduced by the simplicity and ease of another “Googlized” product and prefer the more intuitive (for me), and self contained Picasa (photo editing and organizing software), and the Picasa Web Albums over the Yahoo supported Flickr product.

Although Flickr is very effective and efficient for doing photo searches (the Commons is very other websites a simple task (a quick push of a button and built in programs automatically work with your blog to post the information and image to your site), the combination of Picasa and Picasa Web Albums make photo sharing and editing an easy “one stop shop” process.

I love the functionality of having an editor and organizer that will allow me to edit either on the Web or on my laptop and then make the changes (if I choose to do so) to both the original and the “shared” pictures. This feature is a big time saver and an easier way to keep a handle on the multiple versions and copies of files that tend to proliferate over time and become “scattered” to various locations on your hard drive (you maybe much more organized than I am, but I find this feature very useful).

Blogger Pictures

Personally:

Photo sharing is not just about sending photos to your friends and family. Email can and has been accomplishing that task for years. What makes photo sharing sites different is the ability to publish your images to a publicly accessible forum for interaction.

I think of it this way: Sharing photos on these sites is like hanging a picture on a wall, but you get to choose who will and will not see it. No matter what you choose to do in the end (keep it for private viewings or open it up to the rest of the world), that picture is always “out there” hanging on that wall. By hanging my picture on that wall, rather than storing it in a shoebox in my closet, I am announcing to “the world” that this picture is important and meaningful to me. In doing so, I am literally putting my life “out there” on display.

And here is the best part:

Not only am I posting a picture, but I am also prompting the viewers to respond to what I am showing them. I am engaging in and becoming part of a community that also engages me. The reaction from those who see it, whether positive or negative, allows me to participate in conversations with them and creates the catalyst for interaction and possibly building deeper relationships as the conversation ebbs and flows between us. This type of connectivity, community, and socialization is a key part of what makes photo sharing a true social media (Martino, 2008).

Professionally:

Free sites and the high quality but relatively inexpensive digital cameras make photo sharing an easy to use and accessible way for students and teachers to begin exploring the communal potential and collaborative possibilities of Web 2.0 tools (Richardson, 2010). Assuming that you have been able to address safety and appropriate use issues with your administrators and students, these sites can be used to not only locate images for presentations or illustrations in student projects, but have the potential to become the projects themselves.

Using these sites to establish a forum for students to present and discuss a wide range of topics through imagery they are able to produce themselves makes photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa Web effective vehicles for promoting communication and the potential to expand conversations literally beyond the physical classroom walls. I could envision my students publishing their photo assignments online and creating the opportunity to participate in class critiques and discussions of each others’ work, (something that cannot always be done in class, but by making the work accessible “outside” of class might also give some students an opportunity to really think about what they want to say and provide a “voice” to say it with).

In CTS we are always looking for new ways to connect student learning with the community at large. I could also see enlisting the help of professional photographers to comment on student projects and share their own work with the students. Using tools like the “hot spot annotations” available in Flickr could provide students with the means to explore an image more thoroughly literally through the “eyes” of the photographer.

This technique is demonstrated at  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-learning_20.php and explains how a teachers and students could use “hot spots” to visually discuss through annotation the details and points of interest of an image. (O’Hear, 2006)

The Wrap Up:

Both professionally and personally, the power of using Photo sharing sites as both a teaching and learning tool is their ability to leverage communication and collaborative social media aspects that allow the users to not only draw on the insights of others, but also use their own voice to tell their stories, contribute to meaningful conversations and ultimately become an active member of a growing community.  

Text References:

Martino, J. (2008). Catching the wave: Social Media in the classroom. In N.Yelland, G. A. Neal, & E. Dakich (Eds.) Rethinking Education with ICT: New directions for effective practices (pp.139-147). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.