GROUP+B+Web+Tools

Description: one of the best online photo management and sharing application for images. It is a global service that relies on a community of users for its contents. This makes it unfiltered which might make you use Flickrstorm to create Flickerphotos that you can bring into your school's filter.
 * Flickr**

Educational uses: You could use Flickr anytime you want to upload photos into a project. It could be a science project at science fair time. It could be service projects that your student council performs all year long, like visiting a nursing home at Valentine's day. It could be any special day at your school like Grandparent's day where you take pictures of students and grandparents. Digital story projects could also be done with Flickr. The list is endless.

How to Get Started: There is a basic account that is free. You can take what is called a magical feature tour with eight categories of interest. These are five of the eight categories summarized: photos and videos and a discussion board for talking. Other categories not covered here include maps, make stuff and keep in touch.
 * There are five ways to upload photos and videos. You can also use your cell phone to upload your photos by e-mailing Flickr.
 * Edit photos with Picnik, if its your first time, you will have to pass through steps of authorizing to load your photos. Don't forget to Save.
 * To organize you have sets of photos and videos that you can put together around a certain theme. You can make an album by highlighting certain pictures.
 * Sharing is easy with groups. Groups can be either public or public(invite only) or completely private. Every group has a pool for sharing


 * RSS Feed and "What the Heck Is It?"**

There is a very good video at the following location. View this video before reading below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

Put simply, using a tool like Google Reader (which I set up this morning using the above video) allows you to subscribe to blogs or news agencies. If you regularly read news on any major provider's site, you can subscribe and it will be sent to you whenever it is updated. This is a similar process to using iTunes to subscribe to podcasts (sort of an audio version of a blog OR a radio program you like but may not get to listen to) I use iTunes to subscribe to podcasts I enjoy. It's very easy in iTunes to search and pick, just like with Google Reader. Search for a topic you like, for example 'technology in education.' With Google Reader, I can just log on to my Google account, from any computer, and read the things I've subscribed to. In iTunes, I subscribed to a podcast with Moodle tutorials, since we began using Moodle at my school. There is also something called ITunes University where you can subscribe to college courses material online. I subscribed to iTunes when I got an iPod for Christmas, but you don't need an iPod. You can listen or view on your computer too.

Educational uses for such services are boundless. Subscribing to a news feed would be great in history classes. Students could use this to gather information for current events, or any particular topic. Teachers can use it learn about new trends, using technology, just about any topic known to man is available. I suppose if you have a Smart Board, you could share with the class as a whole too.

I am still not sure I could recite back to you what RSS feed is, but after viewing the video tutorial and playing with Google Reader and iTunes, I feel I can use it which is the end goal for now!