Fin de la nuit

This isn't a posting related to my teaching or PhD, but could perhaps be used as an example of 'real use' of Flickr. I've upload some suggestions for the EATAW logo to a Flickr group I created especially for discussing these with fellow Board members. I'll have to see their reasons - both to Flickr and to the logos.

The Flickr experiment has ground to a halt. O and I explored some features usefully but probably just scratched the surface. S requested membership and posted a photo but did not anything else. I doubt that much else will happen now - possibly because handling visual materials is not a core activities for most colleagues. I am also thinking that, for the next SIG thing I do, I'll give a tighter brief (eg request membership, post a photo, comment on a photo) and specify a time-frame, so colleagues don't feel they can put off participating. I'll also send reminder emails because if they want to learn about social media, they do have to use them! Overall, the SIG is going nowhere fast because there isn't a moderator following such principles. It's not because they are colleagues that they should know better (in fact possibly the opposite as so few have an online presence).

It's not a PhD related idea, but who knows, it might becomes useful... It is still about using social media in teaching. Another idea during my long train journey back home last night: to incorporate Flickr in the Visual Comm module. I'll set up a group in Flickr, upload some pics for students to annotate and analyse in a Flickr discussion; students could also/preferably upload similar images for the group. Would be good for 'semiotics' task. I would need to do a quick Jing demo, to show students what I have in mind. In turn, that Jing demo could be used as discussion point (video demos would certainly interest the tech comm students).

The first week on the ELLS has come to an end, and a requirement is to reflect on learning on this part of the course. This is a great idea, not just to reinforce learning, but also to track what needs to be done or thought about when starting the social media journey. The technical part of it was trivial, which is a mixed blessing. The ease of setting up various facilities (this blog, Flickr and Twitter, and before this, delicious and LinkedIn) obscures the bigger issues of identity and privacy (I haven’t hit copyright yet, but no doubt this will come). The Mason and Rennie book has a lengthy quote from Lou on page 57. This sparked off a number of ideas partly about my reluctance to use Flickr, but most importantly in terms of understanding the reluctance that some students might have in using social media. My reluctance to use Flickr are showing my visual work has several reasons. Because I am new to Flickr I see it as amorphous, or as I said elsewhere, as a kind of uncurated exhibit...

Following my own trend of thought, I inadvertently completed one of Week 1 task - the selection of a photograph to express my identity. I could have chosen Flickr, but I can't say I like this social software. Nothing wrong with it, and it is possible to add commentary, but I just don't respond to the lack of context. Flickr makes me think of an uncurated exhibition where images/artefacts are just displayed without some kind of thread. Fine for end-of-degree student shows (though even here, 'end-of-year' is the thread). All this to say that I'd rather have my pictures embedded here in my blog, where I can give them an 'inflection'. I can also kid myself that they are likely to be less public. I like the idea of using images as part of a self-introduction - something to adopt in my own practice as a tutor :-). Using a picture that is not one of oneself is also an interesting idea. It has to be something with some kind of meaning, and as the meaning is not nece...