Learning to Blog

Hello! My name is Mark Mitchell, and I am very new to blogging and using the Web 2.0 in my classroom. I just finished a PBS course, Communication and Collaboration Online, and have learned a lot in the past 6 weeks. For my Final Project in the class, I created a blog that I will use with my Photography 2 class next year. The blog is called The Alphabet Picture Project, and can be found at http://artmitchell.edublogs.org/. The blog centers on the project, which has students working in pairs, taking images of ordinary objects, composed in such a way that they look like a letter in the alphabet. The images are posted to the blog to be viewed and commented on by the classes involved. The images are to be shared by the students, so they can create a Final document that spells out their first name. A few of my PBS classmates served as my “students” for the project, and overall, I think I’m off to a good start. If anyone has a chance, could you take a look at my blog? Any comments or questions would be greatly appreciated. I have been having some issues with loading images, so no all the letters are up just yet. Thanks so much for your help!

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Permalink Reply by Ann Chappel on August 4, 2009 at 8:43pm

Mark,
I love the collaborative interaction of this project design and getting students to look at the world in a new way. I also love the fact that it is multi-age and can be enjoyed by young and older students. It's also a great way to learn the technical vocabulary because students have to do something to learn it.

Permalink Reply by Mark Mitchell on August 4, 2009 at 9:26pm

Thanks Ann-
I appreciate your feedback-I know when I did this project in the past, the kids really took to it, and it helped them to develop their own "photographic eye". Doing this online and collaboratively seems like a natural progression for this project.

Permalink Reply by jocelyne Lowe on August 4, 2009 at 9:19pm

I think it is a really cool project. I like that you have the students creating the letter of their names. I think that it makes the project personal and motivating.
Thanks for posting,
metrotchr

Permalink Reply by Mark Mitchell on August 4, 2009 at 9:27pm

Thanks Jocelyne. The Name aspect does help, and it gets the kids excited about finding "their" letters.

Permalink Reply by bryan plymale on August 4, 2009 at 10:58pm

namaste mark, love the alphabet project, sweet idea. nice blog. i'll fwd your url to our photography teacher. thanks!

Permalink Reply by Mark Mitchell on August 5, 2009 at 9:17pm

Thanks Bryan!

Permalink Reply by Kelly Reierson on August 5, 2009 at 8:42am

I am not a photography teacher but I think this is a great idea. Have you thought about having the students create an Animoto video as a way to showcase their alphabet. If you aren't familiar
with it take a peak at Animoto.com---and the videos can be inserted into a class blog. Just a thought...

Kelly

Permalink Reply by Mark Mitchell on August 5, 2009 at 9:20pm

Hi Kelly- I checked out Animoto.com, and it looks pretty cool. This could be something I could use with the kids. I know they would love the music and image interaction. Thanks for a great idea!

Permalink Reply by Candace Townsley on August 5, 2009 at 8:56am

I hope you don't mind if I steal your idea. I got a wonderful birthday present from a photography friend using this technique to spell out my name & framed it. People LOVE it! I think my students would LOVE doing this!!

Permalink Reply by Mark Mitchell on August 5, 2009 at 9:23pm

Hi Candace-Do I mind if you "steal" my idea? Of Course not! In fact- I encourage it! I don't even think of it as stealing. I like to think I am sharing. After all, we are educators, and we share our knowledge with our students, so, why not share with each other! Hope you and your students enjoy the project!

Permalink Reply by Patty Cantrell on August 7, 2009 at 3:23pm

Mark,
I love this idea. I am sure the project will be great for your students.

I do have some additional ideas I would like to share. You might have each team write up a brief reflection of the project. They could describe what worked and what didn't. They could mention if they were able to find a letter right away or if it took awhile.

Another possibility is to have outside photographers or parents (depending on the age of the students) post comments about the pictures. This would increase the learning community outside of your classroom and create a new dimension to the interaction.

Permalink Reply by Sue Waters on August 11, 2009 at 12:04am

Hi Mark, you have a couple of options for adding the photos to the post. If you want the photos aligned alongside each other - like you have in this post - you will struggle. One way is to make it look like they are alongside each other by making them into one image but looking like they are still separate images.

However the better option is probably to uploading some as a photo gallery into the post. Inserting photo gallery into your Posts is explained here.