Photography as a Powerful Learning Tool #1
Posted by Lois on November 11, 2011
Blogging with Photos
Since starting my own photo blog as part of the 365 – photo blog project (a photo each day over the year) I have learnt so much. When I joined the project I was not expecting it to be a great learning exercise but I thought I would enjoy it. I decided that my theme would be “A Year in the Garden” so I’ve taken photographs of my mother’s beautiful garden and my “developing” garden throughout the seasons with a view to making a photo book at the end of the year. Taking the photos is usually done in batches but posted over the week that they were taken.
As I’ve done this I couldn’t help but think about using photography with students to help them learn.
- When I’ve posted my photos I always feel that I have to do a little bit of research and provide accurate information for my audience.
- When I’ve read the blogs of other people and looked at their photos I’ve discovered different ideas for content or new things to try with my camera – such as the macro setting
- When I’ve gone out looking for my next photo for the blog I’ve found interesting things in my garden that I never would have noticed before, which I’ve had to research and again I’ve had a lot of unexpected learning
And this is just about content to say nothing of the technical aspects of blogging, photo-editing or creating interesting presentations.
If students were to keep a photo-blog for their learning whether the subject was maths, science, art, literature or any other area surely all these things would come into play for them too…authentic audience, learning from each other and discovering new things.
Photography is quick, creative and enjoyable and worth considering as a way to personalise student learning.
I was interested in this blog post by Fixel Pix, Six Applications of Photography in Education, that has a similar idea to mine and supports my theory and experience that students would find using photography interesting and engaging if used in the curriculum.
This is another great post about why you should or could use photography in education 7 Reasons to Incorporate Digital Photography in Your Course
Do you have any great examples of students using photography and photo-blogs?
