Task 1d: 2d Images

I already use ‘Instagram’ although not very often but ‘Flickr’ was a new thing to me. I wanted to keep my BAPP work separate so decided that I would sign up to ‘flickr’ rather than just use my ‘Instagram’. For some reason I seemed to have difficulty getting on as it was telling me I had to merge my google account? I didn’t really understand but eventually I got there! (Like I have said in a previous blog - I’m a bit of a technophobe!) Anyway, once I got it up and running, it was pretty straight forward with regards to actually uploading the photos.

The photos I’ve put up are mainly of myself and friends in various shows and also my graduation. Unfortunately I could only upload a couple of my work due to safeguarding. For the pictures I have got of my students, I had to ask permission and even though the children and signed consent forms, I still had to be careful of the images I chose and use ‘distant shots’. This raises an ethical issue of the use of Web 2.0 and affects what you can and can’t put on these kind of sites. These can real risks to both yourself and the people in the pictures so you always should check with whomever it may concern.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/104458618@N03/

As you can see, there is the link but when I looked back over past students blogs on this task, some of them had managed to get the pictures up as thumbnails on their actual blogs which I just thought was really nice and a small insight into what was there before clicking onto the sight.. Does anyone know how I do this?

When I think about the use of images in todays social media, I would usually just think about advertising and the little pictures that seem to pop up when using sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The majority of us now will easily spend several hours per day, of not more, using a computer and with that the internet (which again links back to the expanding world of ‘Web 2.0’) this is why the use of online adverts; whether that be a still image or an audio-visual; is growing so rapidly and is also so important. Also, a good picture can so easily grab your attention or entice your target market so having a picture that once you click on will take you to a full site, is a very clever and modern way of marketing and could not be done without the technologies of Web 2.0.

Due to the fact that I am wanting to do a PGCE and become a teacher after completing this course I wanted to focus on why the use of images and audio visuals is useful with in teaching as well as just online and in social media. I did some research online and found a very good website from which I quote; “The importance of audio visual (AV) technology in education should not be underestimated. There are two reasons for this; one, learning via AV creates a stimulating and interactive environment which is more conducive to learning; two, we live in an audio-visual age which means that having the skills to use AV equipment is integral to future employment prospects. Therefore exposure to AV technology is imperative.” 

Personally, I very much agree with this entire statement, a good picture, or even a bad one, will always grab your attention get you talking and debating about one thing or another and as far as the technology is concerned, I can say that I have learnt more about using online networking (e.g. Blogging) in these past couple of weeks than I have my entire life and everyone can accept that technology is rapidly advancing in this modern society so learning how to use it can only be a positive thing. 

I struggled to find negative views on the use of online videos and images - other than for obvious ethical reasons but would love a counter argument so all comments, good or bad, are welcome!