Sunday, August 2, 2009

Fun with Flickr


Baby Hedgehog
Originally uploaded by kell-step

Until now I have not been confident to access many online programs for fear of obtaining viruses and crashing my computer. Over the years I have been constantly bombarded with comments like "Don't use anything on line, you'll wreck your computer", and "Don't complain when you get a virus and your computer crashes".

Prensky (2001) refers to the fact that Digital Immigrants typically have very little appreciation for new skills that Digital Natives have acquired. It is possible that some of these immigrants feel this way due to the sheer fear of learning something so seemingly complicated and uncontrollable after many years of living an industrial life with very little reliance of knowledge era technologies. Unfortunately this sector of Digital Immigrants are missing out on something quite special, such as Flickr and Picnik. Knowing that I fall into the Digital Immigrant category I am proud to say that I am enjoying the challenges of my technological journey so far.

When entering the Flickr site I was quite confused about what was to be achieved here. It was only after experimenting in the site for approximately 30 minutes (because I seem to be allergic to reading instructions) that I began to feel more comfortable, and before long, another hour had passed. Picnik was a great tool for editing photos, and not unlike programs I have used before. This is a basic program, however there are capabilities and effects which I have not used, such as the effects for photos, these would be great tools in the classroom.

After searching the Internet for one of my favourite photos, 'The Baby Hedgehog.' I imported the photo into Flickr and used the Picnik editing tool to reduce exposure and crop most of the human hand cradling the baby hedgehog. Time was spent using the other editing tools and changing the photo effects, just for fun. During this time I found myself wondering how this photo was going to embed into my blog and was expecting the complications of finding the Html and pasting it into my blog posting. To my surprise the process was as easy as following the prompts and the photo was waiting for me on my blog.

There is still much to be enjoyed within Flickr, and I will challenge myself with the future task of navigating all areas of the site. Already I can see great potential for finding engagement material for the classroom.

Kellie

References

Prensky, M., (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

2 comments:

  1. Hi Kellie,

    You are so right. There is much to be enjoyed from Flickr and i am sure we will gain some great classroom resources along the way.

    It really is a case of gaining the confidence to access and play with these tools. Once upon a time i would not have even considered opening up a photo editing program, but now.......well let's just say i am on the way to being a 'digital immigrant techno geek'!

    Chat soon,
    Kerri : )

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  2. Hi Kellie and Kerri,
    Although I have not been in to Flickr or Picnik yet, as another digital immigrant you guys have given hope. I have to agree that it is just a matter of overcoming the fear of doing something wrong, I'll keep you posted with how I go.
    Regards,
    Nari

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