Following are suggestions for using a Flickr library as a tool to enhance classroom blogging. The suggestions are divided into activities for group blogs and those for individual student blogs.
Group Blogging with Flickr - In the classroom, a group blog is one that is administered mainly by the teacher. It is meant to build a community of learners by having student work published in a single place so that other members of the community can view it. Integrating digital images brings a new dimension to the group blog as the information is no longer just textual, but is now also visual.
- Writing Prompts
- Problem of the Day (or week) - Having students solve a problem (or problems) on a daily basis is a routine activity for most math teachers. It helps teachers to assess, review, and enrich the math curriculum. In a group blog, a problem is posted for students and they post their solutions through the comment link. Adding digital images from a flickr account allows a teacher to ask a wider range of questions because they can then use details from the image to eliminate much of the verbal description that would be needed without it.
- Journal entries - Of all the forms of writing in math, the requirements of a journal may be the most ambiguous. Entries can be as diverse as you wish, from justifying solutions to describing one's feelings toward math. A possible use of Flickr might be to take photos from classroom activities, blog them, and have students summarize the activity illustrated in the photo.
- Inquiry projects - An excellent example of using a blogged photo to get students to research a concept is at the Pre-Cal 40S blog.
- Blogging Photos from Your Favorites - Because Flickr is an online community, you have access to the photos of all Flickr account holders (as long as they wish to make their photos public). As you browse others' photos, Flickr has a feature that allows you to add those photos to a favorites page. Once there, you can blog those photos and use them for all of the activities above.
If Kayla eats 1/4 of the pizza and David eats 2/3 of what is left,
how many pieces will there be when they are finished?
What would the next three squares look like in the pattern above? Describe the pattern.
(from misterteacher's photostream)
That's it for this entry. Next up, suggestions for using photos in individual student blogs.