Online photo sharing sites such as Flickr (a Yahoo! product) and Picasa (a Google product), are excellent Web 2.0 tools for reasons: 1) they allow you to back up your photos onto the Internet, and 2) they allow you to share your photos with whomever you wish.
Let's go back to our friends at CommonCraft for a simple explanation:
Aside from viewing your own photos or photos of people you know, you can also use these sites to search for popular, interesting, or tagged photos from people around the world. If you're looking for a photo of a particular place or object, chances are there are several of them in Flickr or Picasa. You may even find a particular photographer that you enjoy and will continue to follow. I would recommend clicking on Flickr's Explore > Interestingness links to view some really cool pictures.
Aside from hosting your images, you can also edit them (remove red-eye, crop, etc.) in both Flickr and Picasa. You can also order prints from both sites.
Both Flickr and Picasa gadgets can be added to your iGoogle page. Play around to see which ones you like the best. Some gadgets place the focus on YOUR photo stream, while others highlight random photos from the masses.
Our Challenge to You:
- Set up an account with either Flickr or Picasa.
- Some things to consider: If you're an iPhoto user, photos can be shared with Flickr with the click of a button.
Or, by downloading the Flickr Uploadr, you can upload multiple pictures at a time -- it's much faster than the uploader that's embedded in the website. You can set up your Flickr account to access/send to your Blogger account by clicking "Blog This" above any photo and setting up the connection. Flickr's partnership with Picnik allows for some fun add-ons to your pictures, like frames, stickers, or text. - Because Picasa is a Google download, they've made it easy to send photos to your Blogger account and to upload to YouTube. Upon opening, Picasa will search your entire computer for images to add to your Picasa Web Albums upon your command -- this may or may not be desirable to you.
- Upload some photos to your chosen account.
- Share a photo to your blog using the share tools in Picasa or Flickr.
- Do you think Flickr would be of any use to you in the classroom? Why or why not?
- Will your photo storing habits change as a result of this challenge? Why or why not?
- Was this a difficult challenge for you? Explain.
- Add a Flickr or Picasa gadget to your iGoogle page.
- GeoTag your photos in Google Maps or Google Earth to search by location.
- If you find a photo stream you'd like to subscribe to, add it to your RSS so that you know when pictures have been added.
There are a huge number of tutorial videos available in Google Video: Flickr or Picasa.
Newbie's Guide to Flickr - by WebWare
Flickr Tutorial Series - by MediaMazine
Picasa Help - by Google
Getting Started with Picasa - by Learning Electric
Flickr in the K-12 Classroom - by LearnHub
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment