Using Flickr as an online classroom - Case study Video Lecture | Teach Online: A Comprehensive Approach for Teaching Online - Professional Skills

in this episode we look at how teachers
can use Flickr as an online classroom
flickr is a free website that can be
used for storing and sharing of images
Lynette Zheng uses flickr to support her
face to face photography classes within
the communication design and film and
television degrees at Swinburne
University of Technology in this episode
we look at the structure of the course
we look at why Lynette chose to use
Flickr and how she's incorporated
student feedback and student submission
into her online teaching practice I'd
been teaching photography for a number
of years and it was quite important that
the curriculum remained the same but it
was taught in a way that would benefit
student teachers and beyond course I
sent in a sense with the new age student
I looked at how I was teaching and how I
could adapt what I was doing but to the
new technology of Flickr we used to show
each other work and we were restricted
to that group so only the people in a
particular group saw a particular amount
of work but I looked at Flickr and I
thought it had the things that were
suitable it was visual it gave me the
metadata they could comment on the
visual they could interact with each
other through the discussion board well
the main point is to upload our own
photos but also to look at other
people's work and to interact with other
people so this is my Flickr site so we
only log in it comes up with my personal
site so like any social network each
person in the group has their own Flickr
site what I do each time i start a new
group at the start of a semester i give
them a different name so that i know
which group it is and you get a choice
of having a totally public group a
private group where you invite the
students to participate or a
semi-private group where they asked to
join the group and that's what i do i'll
go to administration just explain
this is when once I've started my group
these are all the rules of my group it's
g-rated so they can't put moods up and
they can't put offensive words up or
anything like that I make myself the
administrator which means I'm in control
of the group so I can ban people if
they're offensive or add people or
basically check on everything the group
pool so you can see there's 8570 items
that means how many photographs there is
in that semester that have been put into
the pool further down here there's a
discussion board and we talked about
that that's where students can start a
topic on any photographic subject and it
can be something that's within the
curriculum or it can be something that's
extending the curriculum so once they've
started or joined the group then they
start their own page which they're in
control of so every time I give them an
assignment or a task they would put 30
images up on their manes photostream but
then they have to start what I call a
set and the set will have the task for
that particular assignment and that will
get marked I'll just click on the set
and it shows me all the photos that
she's done for that particular
assignment and if i click on detail it
gives me a slightly bigger image of them
all so i can quickly look at her work
and see or comment on it if i see that
there's one that I think could be
improved or if she had one that was on
her flickr the whole photostream that's
better I can email her and go back to
that so this particular set has already
had one comment and I've said excellent
start the semester so she can read the
comments I've made she might get a
comment saying well look you haven't
really covered this part of the
assignment I suggest that you do more so
they would flicker mail me and say well
I've taken heed of what you've said or
I've gone and done some more photographs
can you have a mother look at my set if
I want to find out more about the
photograph and this is really handy for
me as a lecturer but also for other
students they say that's a fantastic
shot how did she take that photo and if
I click on more properties it tells me
it was taken on the 18th of august at
541 eastern standard time and it was
posted to flickr on august the 22nd they
can up
pode their images at any time that suits
them they can comment on work any time
that suits them any interaction the
students do it's dated and Thailand
which is fantastic for me as a lecturer
and it gives me all the metadata that is
in the camera so it tells me that she
used a 115 hundredth of a second her
aperture was 6.3 and all the things that
as a photographer I need to know another
way that is really good and helpful is
if I go into my mail for instance I've
just might choose work and there was a
problem with some of his work he's
changed set so rather than have to try
and find him through the student thing
I've got into here and he said to me
I've changed my movement in depth of
field sets plus renamed the images which
are things I've told him to do when I've
sent him the flicker mail so could I
have another look at his work he can
have a look at it and see who's
commented on his work and if he says oh
I think I like what she said if he
clicks on her name he'd go straight to
her side as well so he can look at her
work and then comment on her work as
well so it's fairly connected that way
since the introduction of Flickr the
students just love it in general terms
they just think it's the best thing and
often you get comments like what on
other lecturers use a tour this is great
and well done Swinburne for using it
it's really easy to use and it's very
engaging it means that all the students
know about each other's work and really
easy to handle way if we are in a class
of 20 I'm not going to talk to everyone
face-to-face but online were kind of a
bit less scared to have our opinions and
it might be more may be more open to
discussion they feel that it benefits
them and it actually extends their
ability their work is improved by seeing
everybody's work and also the way that
I've set it up where I've made it
compulsory for students to comment on
other students work they feel that the
benefit has also been by the critiquing
of their peers not just their lecturers
they love the fact that they don't have
to continually give out prints or give
me Prince to look at and the other
benefit going back here to the students
is the not out of pocket nothing costs
them anything that said the original
purchase of their camera so they don't
have to print out images that I don't
have to use chemicals all those sorts of
things so it's beneficial that way as
well
I had a technician set with me for a
couple of hours in the 30 years I can do
this and it was actually the Friday
before classes started I thought I can't
do this and I felt very daunted by the
prospect because I thought I don't
understand this at all but I persevered
I think it's important that they have
the face to face where they're learning
how to use their cameras we go through
thoroughly the tasks that are expected
of them and how to get the best out of
the tasks that they have to do I think
the combination of face-to-face and
online is really well managed I think it
was purely internet-based that it would
feel really cold and odd learning like
that the first class I sit with them we
go through it how to start a flickr
account how it's all going to work and
navigate through the site on how to make
your sets how to tell when your
lecturers mark so it's a very clear
guidelines for them and for any sessions
that i have on how it's all going to
work originally a sessional is if they
wanted to mark would have to come into
the university and pick up huge folios
of work and I'd see them lugging folios
home or back again looking at 25 images
or more each couple of weeks whereas now
they can do all that online
it just opened a whole new way of seeing
and teaching photography that was just
unbeatable so it could be used for
anything that needs some sort of visual
commenting or not visual commenting that
commenting on a visual so in any any
area of Education where there's a need
for that
you