Visuals have always been an important part of the instructional process in my ITV ECE and EDU classes. Since I am only physically present on one campus and the other campus is viewing a screen, visuals add to the experience making it more vivid and real. I also find that many of my learners are visual learners, it being their preferred mode of taking in information.
Photo sharing Web 2.0 tools can make the teaching and learning experiences in my classes even better. My first idea of how photo sharing could be used involved students creating learning materials. I created a slide show of young children’s faces showing different emotions as an example. This could be shown to children when helping them learn the words for the feelings they have. Recognizing emotions is an important social skill that enables toddlers to use words for their feelings rather than striking their classmate in the head with a toy when they are upset. My students could develop their own slide shows to provide other learning experiences for their classes such as slide shows on colors, classifying objects, foods, shapes, learning the alphabet letters, etc., etc.
Another way that students in my class could use photo sharing would be to create portfolios of different learning activities they’ve developed. In the ECE 120 class I teach for one credit, students are required to develop a learning activity as a final project. Taking photos of these and placing them on a class Ning or Wiki would give students access to the ideas after the class has ended. They could start or add to their own E-portfolios as well. I found some preschool groups in Flickr that have good ideas on how one could take such a photo. A picture is worth a thousand words!
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