Online Photo Sharing

Online Photo Sharing:

I might use the one of the online photo sharing websites to help my students study science and social studies since we do not have textbooks. I would use the core standards to help me decide what I should be teaching based on my grade level and then I could create lesson-using picture that would teach my students about that topic. I could label through out my picture important part of the picture or history of the picture or place.

After reading and listening to all of the ways to use photo sharing it has definitely peaked my interest.   I like the idea that you tag a photo by its location and then you could locate that place on a map for your students to get a bigger picture of where the place is located.  I know that I have used the web to talk about space and the space shuttle, but I had not thought about how much more I could bring to my students by using the photo sharing system.

Another idea is that I try and take many pictures of my class and everything that they do throughout the school year. I could use the program to make an on line scrapbook for parents to see what there child is doing in class or all of the fun activities that we are doing that the parents are not able to come for all of the time. The online photo sharing could be limited to parent viewing only with their child. I could write captions with each picture of what was being taught or the event that we where participating in.  The students could help in the wring process when we document our activity.. 

I know that they are many more ways that I could use photo sharing in my classroom, but this could be a good start. Photo sharing has great possibilities on how you could incorporate it in to the classroom. I will have to look into this process on how I would use this to help my students with their academic achievements. 

Social Network Sites

Social Networking Sites:

1. What was the target audience for this social networking site?

   Sixdegrees.com was the first networking site. It was developed so that people     could reconnect with old and new friends by sending messages to each other.

2. How long was the site in existence? The site was created in 1997 – 2000 when in shut down.
3. Why was it popular? What was its demise?  It was popular. Millions of people set up profiles and had a few friends but they where not expand on the network like we are able to now. People did not have back then the network of friends that they are able to have now.
4. Is/was there another competitor in the same market that was more popular?

When Sixdegrees.com first started these was no other social networking site. 5 other ones came along during the time frame.  As the years have gone on with Social Networking sites they have become very popular and many people use them for lots of different ways of communicating. 

5. Would you ever consider creating an account and using it?  I do use a Social Networking site. It took me a long time to try one. The one that I am using has been around since 2006 and I did not try it until 2010. I am not one who even uses it to its full potential, but I do enjoy keeping up with family and friends.

After reading this article I never new that there were so many different sites to choose from. I had no idea that Social Networking had been around for so long. I am not sure if I am ready to explore any of others ones, but I do know that I have a lot more options in the way I communicate then just through an email.

Classroom 2.0 ning

 Steve Hargadon who developed classroom 2.0 Ning talks about” It turns out that you are especially dependent on early adopters for the success of the network” in his six points to consider.

I do feel that this point can be beneficial in the classroom. I see how you can really create with this network page. You are able to add lots of topic, blogs etc that will interest many people and that is what Mr. Hargadon talks about in his 6 points to consider. You need to make your network page friendly and appealing so that people will continue to post and come back for more ideas. This could be very beneficial for all teachers to look at and for great feed back. I also thought that the picture posting was great. To me this looked more like a blog and a networking page combined. 

The idea of getting other educators to contribute is what needs to be done when you are creating a network for educators. They need to share that great lesson that just worked or the do not try this with a 1^st grader because this is what might happen.  Posting great pictures of field trip ideas that you can implement into a lesson is also great. 

The idea of early success in a network page I can see this as being a big bonus of making something work with these types of web pages.