Thing 3: Photo Fun! (Thing 2)

I decided to explore the Photo features a bit more. I am working with some teachers who want to do more with the photos they have to document the learning and community they facilitate in their classrooms. For this task I started with what is familiar. have been on Instagram for a while and I like how it is only photos and stories (and super positive) as opposed to Facebook that seems to be full of politics, opinion, and quizzes. I follow a middle school librarian who does a super job of promoting books and her library with her students. I think fifth and sixth grade teachers could do similar things to promote the daily learning in their classrooms. I recognize there is a level of dedication and time required to be successful with an Instagram campaign. I explored SnapChat for this assignment. I like how easy it is to take a picture and customize it. I can now see why kids like to use it. I found the information about SnapChat safety for parents and teachers to be good information. I have had a lot of questions about SnapChat including how a person would use it other than for connecting with close friends (showing my age here). I think the idea of using it for reminders to intermediate students is a good one. I could also see a teacher using it to send positive encouragement to a student about behavior and learning in a personal way. Taking a quick snap of a thumbs up or a phrase like, "You've got this!" or "Nice comment in class today!" They could also use it as a way to check in privately so a student can save face - "everything ok?" At the lower levels we are using Seesaw and Class Dojo. Not quite the same, but a good way to share photos with parents and the school community. I use these two apps with teachers already - so I did not explore them here. For this assignment I also checked out HistoryPin and it got me thinking that it would be a great way to use technology with history lessons. Many 6th grade students read Dragonwings by Laurence Yep about Chinese immigration and the 1906 earthquake of San Francisco. I would like to have students explore the 1906 earthquake on HistoryPin. I think there are a lot of possibilities for using HistoryPin to study architecture and local history as well. A third thing I learned in this lesson is that people have special apps on their phones to make the camera into an DSLR camera. Who knew??? I see some amazing photos posted on Instagram. Now I see the secret to getting better pictures. I am going to download ProCamera+ to my phone to see what it can do. I wonder how well an app like this works to improve iPad photos? Students could do a lot with taking photos on an iPad and improved image quality would be great. I am still wondering about what apps or web based features people like to use to compile end of year photo montages, especially with music. If anyone has a favorite they are willing to share I would really appreciate it!