Over break I had some free time to leisurely peruse the internet. I enjoyed visiting Flickr, the online interactive photography site. Photographs can be uploaded a variety of ways, edited, organized, and shared. I am not one to post pictures and share them with family and friends. Why that is, I am not really sure. I just don't have the desire to do so. However, if I would post pictures on the internet I would put them on the Flickr website. I like the privacy settings so that I can control who is able to view my photos. One of the most interesting aspects of the site is the map function. Photos from my vacations and trips can be uploaded and dropped on the respective places on the map. It is also fun to type in various cities and states and access the thousands of photographs from the area. I even found some photos of my hometown (a small suburban community outside of Harrisburg)! Tagging various points of interest within the photographs is another great interactive tool. I liked reading what people had to say about the photos and they could do that with the tags and the comments. Overall, I had never encountered a photograph site that could be so multifunctional. Within a matter of a few clicks, photos can be posted, edited, mapped, and then used to create postage stamps or other memorabilia. Never before had I know a site to be "all in one." I plan on establishing a web blog when I travel to England in the fall. I will also create an account with Flickr so that I may post the photographs of my life and travels abroad (of course using the mapping feature!). I know that my family and friends will appreciate the photographs and it will allow us to communicate in a rather untraditional manner--through photographs.
Lastly, I was introduced to Google Docs in my art class earlier this semester. We had to complete lesson plans in groups and we used Google Docs to post our plans and information in a shared document. Over Thanksgiving break, a lot of students were concerned about not being able to work on group projects (my current LLED block section has four group projects to be completed by the end of the semester). The solution was easy: Google Docs. I created separate documents and presentations to be shared on Google Docs and then sent out the to-be shared invitations to the respective students in my groups. That way, we would all be able to communicate and collaborate on our projects via one portal. This particular web resource has been most useful to me and I will continue to use it on a regular basis. It is like having Microsoft applications (powerpoint, etc.) for free and it is easy to use!