Sunday, April 25, 2010

Using flickr

As part of the ICT course requirement, I have taken this photo from someone else's collection on flickr and posted it onto my blog.

I chose this photo to give an example of how photos from flickr can be used in an educational format. I am currently designing a learning experience that would require students from my year 6/7 class to design and develop a Wiki and a brochure. These two products will be used to present demographic and geographic data, common interest stories, historical information and so on about Childers to perspective residents. The photo of the Palace Hotel could be used in one or both of the formats as this building has both historical and modern significance and is part of Childers identity. By enabling students to use photo libraries such as flickr, the students not only have an increased range of resources at their disposal, but it also provides the teacher with an opportunity to discuss the ethical and moral responsibilities of being a part of the online world.


Using pictures as part of the learning experience also encourages retention of information, and as a result, makes the experience more effective. As illustrated in the Learning Pyramid (Albiline Chrisitan University), use of audio-visual results in a doubling of retention of information than that of just reading text. By requiring students to find the pictures/information themselves so they can then pass this data on to their peers or to other individuals in an authentic product, the students retention rate will jump up to between fifty and ninety percent, depending on the project they are working on. This data alone should be enough to encourage teachers to use these types of resources whenever they have the ability to do so.

Image courtesy of Abiline Christian University

Reference

Abiline Christian University (2000) Why use active learning, retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=44470


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