Digital Images: flickr - mobaphoto - picasa

Storing Saving Sending Editing Digital Images

The beauty of digital images (as stated in a previous blog) is that it allows the students to construct knowledge using visions of photos in context with learning. The images open up the world outside the classroom and invite them into the learning environment. Although photographs have been around for decades, digital images for everyday use have only recently become popular in the last ten years. In that ten years, the options of what can be done with those images has changed considerably. Taking a digital photo, printing it out and putting it in a photo album is just plain boring today. With all the other options of digital enhancement, storing, saving, editing, downloading to facebook, twitter, blogs, emailing to friends and family, escrapbooking pages not to mention saving to i-pods or phones, the old days were simpler. Systems like flickr (http://www.flickr.com/ ); mobaphoto (http://mobaphoto.mobatek.net/en/ ) and picasa ( https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin? ) where you can download your digital images into files and then broadcast them through the internet to the world through various on-line communities is astounding. It is interesting to note however, that this technology is only as useful as the person to whom you are sending the images. There is no point in sending photos of your travels through Europe by email through picasa, if your grandmother thinks picasa is a spam email and deletes it, or can not access the file. So again the technology is only as useful as the user and the recipients ICT skills allow.

Although this technology is available world wide, and would be invaluable for sharing images with family and friends around the world, I would hesitate to store or retrieve images of children on the internet outside of a restricted area like a school database. As it happens now, most cameras come with a storage and editing package to download for home use, and most computer systems have a picture editing facility.

PLUS

1. Excellent tools for sharing images around the world.
2. Excellent tools for storing, editing photos.
3. Allows students to modify or edit photographs or digital enhancement for projects or inclusion in blogs, powerpoints or wiki's etc.

MINUS

1. Photos are only as safe as a password.
2. Would not store or retrieve photos of students or children on these websites due to security concerns.
3. Any images of children on the internet are open to abuse or re-use no matter how 'secure' the websites proport themselves to be.
4. These options are available on software already on school computers through microsoft and can be stored on a school database. Why re-invent the wheel?

INTERESTING IMPROVE IMPLEMENT

I have seen Year Seven students take photos of themselves then edit and crop them and place onto backgrounds to make a 'fake' magazine cover for an assessment. The students loved doing this. I think the idea of teaching students to edit and crop and manipulate photos is excellent, however I would do this, as stated, within the confines of the school database and with the systems already available through microsoft or whatever software comes with the cameras. Education Queensland now has to have signed permission to reproduce a students image onto a website (including a school webpage). As most photos taken at a school are of students or include students, a teacher must be very careful where and when these images are stored and retrieved.

WHAT I THINK

Mobaphoto, picasa, flickr all have a place in the community and it is up to individuals how they choose to use their personal photos. I, myself, and my family are very against using our images on the internet including facebook or blogs, and I do not like other people putting images of my children on their facebook page. My concerns are justified in that I will do whatever it takes to protect my children in todays world from the criminal element. I take photos of my children, I however choose not to share them via the internet with the world. I would take this same philosophy into teaching, and teach students to be aware of what images they are taking and where they are putting them on the internet for all to see. This is basic 'child safety' rules, and as teachers we need to encourage our student to protect themselves. I may be off the mark here, however once an image is sent out over the internet, it can be deleted but it can never be retrieved. This is simply my opinion, feel free to comment.