Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

If you still see flickr as simple a photo sharing site, you’d be sadly mistaken.  The ways in which its users have crafted endless ways to leverage their photos continues to increase. The following is simply a few insights into my learning via flickr.

Thanks to D’arcy Norman’s inspiring work of 2007, a number of us decided to take on the challenge of shooting a photo a day. 48 days into it and I’ve certainly become more visually aware and I believe more literate.  Part of the power of joining a group in flickr is to be able to see how many are trying to achieve the same thing but in a myriad of ways. Amazing learning takes place.

Subscribing to the 366photo feed allows me to see everyone’s efforts. Today I was struck by a seemingly innocent photo of a child’s rocking chair taken by Alan Levine.

Flashback to the day before. Alan writes about his “pathetic” photo,

A photo of a corner of my roof makes my 366photos of the day? Could this be the most pathetic day of the year (that i always possible). No, this marks a spot where something was but is no more. Today, I sold the Hughes Satellite Internet Dish that sat here for 2 years. Since moving to Strawberry, I got more reliable (used loosely in a small town) cable internet service. I posted a few paper flowers down at the market and Post Office in Pine, but shazam, it was Craigslist that connected me with a family near Snowflake AZ (look it up actually named for town cofounders with last names of “Snow” and “Flake” and thus could have just as easily been called “Flakesnow”) that needed a dish to get to the net. So in a contemplative mood I am wondering- we typically focus on a photograph as a means to “grab” or portray something that is there– but is there room or a place to consider perhaps “negative space” photography, the portrayal of a place where something is not there? On a less philosophical note- proceeds of this sale have underwritten the costs of my new western footwear…

Every picture has a story. If you aren’t already aware, you need to understand that Alan is a master at this type of storytelling. Witness his efforts to tell the same story about his dog Dominoe using 49 different online storytelling tools. So now we move to today’s post of the chair. I won’t attempt to share the contents of the story, you need to read it for yourself,but I hope we begin to see how powerful and important it is to think about how we see the world. All of us have hundreds of these images stored in our memory filled with beautiful, sad, scary, disturbing, inspiring stories that are waiting to be shared. Yes shared.  Okay, keep some of them private but I as I commented to Alan:

What a privilege to be in a community where people feel vulnerable enough to share such depth. To think a seemingly innocent photo a a rocking chair could illicit such emotion and meaning….if your last photo was your most pathetic (I doubt if it is) this might be your most powerful.

Images: David’s Rocking Chair by Alan Levine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/2274055016

Technorati Tags: darcynorman, alanlevine, flickr

I published over 1600 photos in 2007 so choosing my top 5 is a bit of a chore. Using the new flickr stats feature, the interestingness tag and simply personal choice I chose these five:

	Great time on the cruise ship…Where’s Jakes?
	Just the fact that I can nap in the middle of Times Square is now a point of pride.
	Family Photo using Skype to complete the picture.
	Taken with my cameraphone on the golf course.
	My shot of the Golden Gate bridge and then I grabbed a screen shot of Google Earth.

Now if my favourite two edublogger photographers would display their favourite photos…that would be a worthy post.

From the “sharing continues” files, this just in,

Google now shows my friends shared items, my “friends” are my Google Talk friends. I just want more friends is all.

Also , I discovered that I can export my Jing captures to flickr. Sort of the Skitch for Windows alternative.  Unless there’s something else?

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Stupid title but that’s what is for me…pure fun.

By chance I happened to be Winnipeg at another conference and was able to invade the MB BloggerCon. The event was casually put together and turned out to be a blast. About 60 people showed up and Andy Mckneil the president of their provincial technology group, organized and paid for the event. (The gave us full use of the bar, free wireless, snacks) Andy also did a great job filming and recording the entire event.  There were 5 unpresentations. I had to stick my big nose into the mix and show off my network. Alec, Jeff and Brian were able to skype in and talk very quickly but clearly, how the network works for them.

I would have liked to connect more with the others but as a guest, I felt the need to lay low. Very cool to meet for the first time Clarence, John and Chris. Nice to see Darren again. It felt like meeting old friends…oh yeah they are.

At any rate, it was great experience and pure fun. Paul Hamilton has remarked a few times about the fun I have with my job. Brian says learning is messy. I say it’s fun.

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Alan inspired me to spend a bit more time with Voice Thread than I had a month or so ago. This is a test using images from Flickr and the movie being shot at our house. Might be a great way to ask questions, leave comments or whatever.

[tags]cogdog,alanlevine,voicethread,finnonthefly,movie,shareski,digitalstories[/tags]

Other than the few that I mentioned in my original post, no one else bit. I was going to try a little matching game but it would likely be too easy. So here are the results and my analysis as to why they are indeed their wallpaper.

	Tim Lauer …leaves twitter to play catch with Nando.
	Steve Dembo….corporate…claims he was doing a presentation at the time. I hope there’s a baby or Cub image now
	Alan Levine (uses a rotating image script of which this is one) seeking relief from the Phoenix heat.
	Stephen Downes…a true east coaster
	D’Arcy Norman …Mr. Maui…seeking warmth from the Calgary cold.

All have some other great images on flickr. As a subscriber to their photos, these come as no surprise. If you think you know who someone is by their reading their blog, try looking at their photos. What is that saying about a picture being worth…?

[tags]flickr,wallpaper,desktop,alanlevine,stephendownes,timlauer,stevedembo,darcynorman[/tags]

Summer time might call for less academic postings. It just seems natural.

A few people know our house is being used to film a movie for part of the summer. As a result, we’ve been out of our house for a few weeks, living in hotels and staying at family. Filming actually begins on Wednesday and after weeks of preparation, Moose Jaw got hit with a major hailstorm. Very isolated but as you can see in the photos, our house was hit pretty bad. The yard is a disaster. There will be some major work done Tuesday to get the yard back into shape. It hailed for almost 25 minutes straight.

[tags]hailstorm,hail,moosejaw,shareski[/tags]

I was perusing the EdubloggerCon photos and was trying to attach names to faces. Some were fairly recognizable but few names were tagged. This photo from Brian Crosby caught me eye. The gentleman in the bottom left has a large baseball for his wallpaper. I immediately figured it was Jeff Utecht and I was right. Jeff’s passion for baseball is revealed during his many twitter updates on Mariner’s baseball which he follows closely despite the time difference in Shanghai.

I commented on his blog and he let me know that it was a bit weird. This is part of the appeal of twitter as it tends to allow people to share more personal information among friends. (So maybe I shouldn’t be blabbing it here?…too late Jeff). It builds community and provides an opportunity to mini-blog without too much thought given its 140 character limitation. Many others have written much better stuff on twitter so I won’t go on too much here. Read Alan’s twitter stuff to understand it better.

So I thought it might be fun to play a little game. Email me a link to your current wallpaper or attach it and a link to your blog. If I get at least 5, I’ll set up a little matching game. I’d especially like these because they are major flickrites.

• Tim Lauer
• D’Arcy Norman
• Stephen Downes
• Steve Dembo
• Alan Levine

• Any EdubloggerConner or NECCer would be great

In case you had any doubt, here’s my current wallpaper:

[tags]wallpaper, edubloggercon,edubloggercon2007,necc2007,jeffutecht,flickr,briancrosby,twitter[/tags]