Photo Sharing

Picassa is a desktop filing system that you download for PCs only. You can upload iPhoto docs to Picassa, but what would be the point? 

Flickr is web-based and allows you to determine the privacy level of your photos, but you can also make them public. I personally find it hugely time consuming to upload and the monthly limit is low for prolific digital camera addicts like myself. On the other hand, most bloggers I know are all over Flickr, but they pay for improves service. One thing I really like about Flickr is that you can identify your photos as copyright protected or creative commons.

I just created a little slideshow using Picassa thinking it would be fun to post on a blog. WordPress doesn’t allow this from Picasa, though it does allow you from other sites. Blogger, despite being a Google thing, also doesn’t support Picassa slide shows. Frustrating, but not as much as receiving a batch of emailed photos.

I take tons of photos, but I don’t use photo sharing sites often. I usually just post on Facebook in little albums so I can share with my friends. I guess the difference is that I am not trying to network with other photo takers. I do have a Flickr account, but I have only used it once to share photos I took at a new media conference.

In elementary school there are some serious concerns with using Flickr or some other photo sharing applications with your students, mainly to do with privacy. If I taught IT or Fine Arts or Photography in secondary school, then Flickr would be an important component. As for sharing photos of the children, I can see no reason to do this using Flickr, although posting on a private blog or wiki with parent permission would be valuable. I do post photos of student work.

Last year we had caterpillars that turned into butterflies. I photographed the creatures and my students through every stage. I would have been nice for the students and their parents to post these online in a private setting since many parents are unable to come by the school and see our displays. In addition, not printing photos is less costly to school budgets and the environment.

The same considerations are relevant to video clips of children. It is important to respect the privacy of each child and their families.