It appears that most teachers today underestimate the amount of learning that is happening among youth outside of schools. Since this informal learning sometimes dubbed “hanging out”, “messing around” or “geeking out” happens outside of the classroom and doesn’t look like traditional learning, it’s easy for educators to miss. The quality and quantity of learning, the process by which it occurs, and the way authority is established in these informal environments, should be something that teachers become familiar with. Will Richardson, who writes extensively on these matters, believes that, “One of the biggest challenges educators face right now is figuring out how to help students create, navigate, and grow the powerful, individualized networks of learning that bloom on the Web and helping them do this effectively, ethically, and safely.” (see article)
Gia DeSelm on 07 Jun 10My idea consists of creating a class Flickr account and allowing students to upload their photos and descriptions. Students could then view all of the photos and comment on the work of other students. If I give the students enough time to work on the project, about 1 week, they should have plenty of time to take and upload pictures to the site. Once the images are on Flickr, I could do many different things with them. I could take them and make photo mosaic using Big Huge Labs and post it to the class website for everyone to see
