Friday, February 21, 2014

Thing 7


I have no prior experience with Flikr.  I have heard of it, but I have never used it.  I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to navigate.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted to look for as far as a picture to write about in this post.  I typed in “Spain”.  I was immediately taken back to my year there through a barrage of wonderful images.  The one I chose was from the city where I studied abroad in during college.  Santander is located on Spain’s northern coast, and it is a beautiful city.  I immediately recognized the place in the photo, along the bay, in the heart of the city.  My roommate and I spent a great deal of time in this downtown area of the city because it was so close to our host family's apartment.  I had a bit of trouble uploading the photo.  It took a few tries to finally get it on my blog.  

I picked this photo because it brought back so many wonderful memories of my time abroad.  I think the possibilities that photo sharing websites offer in the field of education are endless.  Imagine learning about a place and getting to see actual pictures from there.  Children may have a difficult time conceptualizing the idea that our country could be so similar to another country.  However, pictures like these show students how similar places around the world actually are.  Providing students with these types of photos can make learning more meaningful.  Perhaps seeing photos of other places and cultures will inspire young children to learn new languages and dream of traveling to those faraway places one day. 

Using this type of website could be useful in the classroom to show parents what their students are doing in the classroom, on field trips, etc.  However, this would have to be approved by the district or school since the posts would involve pictures of minors  Sharing classroom happenings with parents may give them the feeling that they are more involved and aware of what their children are learning, in turn, making them be more hands-on with their children’s learning at home. 

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