The lights are "flickr" ing in my head!

Learning about flickr...

This week’s Blog is very much a point form, note taking format as I jumped back and forth between experimenting with flickr, and writing for my blog. My apologies if it seems very disjointed!!

I have only uploaded photos to Facebook before, so I am not completely new to uploading, but Flickr is new for me. I was a little hesitant to sign up for ANOTHER account (yahoo) as it seems there is an account and password for everything!!

So once I was signed in, adding photos was relatively easy, and I think I figured out how to put captions under them. I am surprised, however, how long it takes to upload only 5 photos. I did have to chuckle at the little message on the screen, “Hold on there, tiger” as I was waiting for the pictures to upload.

Okay, I think my first attempt was a fail, as it is taking WAY too long I think.

So I tried dragging photos from a different file, and this time uploaded only 2 photos to see if it would work. Voila!

I have to admit, going through all the Privacy & Permissions Settings, and Personal Information settings is overwhelming to me. I have a hard time figuring out what it all means, and am usually uncertain if I have set my privacy settings the way I would like them to be.

I am wondering if every time, before I upload photos, if I have to modify my “owner settings” or if it is taken care of in my other Privacy and Permission settings?

Okay, so uploading 2 photos was almost instant. So now I am trying to upload 8, and it just isn’t working again. Maybe there is something I am missing. I have had enough for tonight!!…

So back at it today. I read that we had to provide a link to our flickr, so decided to delete the photos that I didn’t want to be public. I still haven’t quite figured out how to upload multiple photos at a time. I tried one at a time, but there must be a quicker way.

I think I may have figured out how to create a set, and add photos to the set. I like this because it is a way to organize photos into a particular theme.

I found that by following along in the text by Berger and Trexler (2010) was helpful. I usually like to just play around and try to figure things out for myself through trial and error, but it was nice to have some simple instructions on how to get things started.

Reading on in the text, I also liked that I could create different groups. I decided to create a private group that I could invite only family and friends to view the photos. I guess I didn’t have to delete the photos from earlier! Oh well! I thought I would try a “Highlights of 2013” group, so I will see how that goes throughout this year!

When it comes to using flickr in schools, I appreciate that there can be privacy settings. I was concerned about the photos becoming public, and anyone having access to them. It looks like there are a few different group settings, so that would be helpful for deciding how to organize who will see the photos/video and who can’t.

While reading through the Richardson text, I was amazed at the description of how to incorporate flickr with Google Maps and Google Earth (Richardson, 2010, p.106). This is something that I found very interesting, and would like to learn more about! Students could post pictures of various places, and be able to view other photos that have been taken near that place. I do wonder, however, what the privacy settings would be for that? Being able to add these photos to their own Blogs is another component that students could learn, and would also be helpful for checking/learning about citations and credits.  

Another great idea in the Richardson text is the “photo field trip” (Richardson, 2010, p.108). There are so many fascinating photos of different places in the world that students could do research pertaining to the photos of the places they find, and it makes it more personal and meaningful for them. Many great ideas, but I do realize that learning all the facets of privacy can be a bit overwhelming for me, as I discovered early on while learning about flickr.

Well, the Berger and Trexler text says that I can embed my photos from flickr right in my blog, so I will give that a try! If it doesn't work, my username is nsauer.