Chapter 7 and 9 in Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

In Chapter 7, I learned all about a new photo sharing site. It is called Flicker. Flicker allows photos to be shared, found around the world, talked about and tagged to other things. It's like a mix of a delicious account, a blog and a social networking site. It also allows photo journalism to take place. People are able to find photos on anything and write a story about them, combine them, or simply just comment on them. It is a tool growing fast in popularity and it can even be useful in the classroom. It's like it's own little society where students can learn about different ways to see things or learn about others' ways of expressing themselves. It is very interesting, but I am afraid I do think it has some flaws. I think that although there is a filtering system, students could see images that are inappropriate, or have photos tagged of them that could prevent them from looking professional or getting a job. It's a very useful tool, but I think teachers need to stress the correct way to use it and ways in which it can be harmful instead of just jumping right into it. I'm also curious how this site can be used in an early childhood classroom. Most of the examples in the book were for older grades and the knowledge students would have to know to use it may be too advanced for such a young age.

Chapter 9 talked about the world of Social Networking including sites like Facebook and Ning. These sites need to stop being seen as threats or something we should (as teachers) ban and should be studied and applied in the classroom. Teachers need to teach students about the affect on the internet their students postings have. Imagine how great it could be if teachers and students worked together to socially share information via the internet. Homework could be submitted through these sites, or even art projects. A teacher used Ning (which is a similar sharing site like facebook) to have students express their views and art through the resources of the internet. I think it is important for teachers to know what they are up against and to check out these sites for themselves.