I have had so much fun purusing flickr. There are so many possibilities for using flickr to enhance what we do in the school library. At our conference in November, I got a big dose of ideas for using flickr. Actually sitting down and doing it myself really brought home to me how much is out there in the etherscape waiting to be used and how little I ever have time to take advantage of. After we get through with the actual course I think I'll have to sign a contract with myself about using each technology in my school.
After hours of playing with flickr, I finally sat down to create a free account. I thought it would be fast and easy. After hours of getting familiar with what is available, how complicated could it be? Plenty complicated. It's not that I couldn't have done it the easy way, but I kept getting distracted. Finally, the new account was created, I chose the best of the mediocre photos I had taken last week and uploaded it. I can just hear the Staples commercial "That was easy." Then I tried to search for School Library learning2.0 to find my photo. While the photos which appeared in response to my search were inspirational (and so much nicer than the photo I submitted) I could not find my own photo this way. My photo is tagged and marked public, but, alas, it remains elusive. I'll try again tomorrow. Also, I couldn't figure out a way to make a link to this blog. So I will simply add the photo here. It is a photo of a story quilt we have hanging in our library.
The amount of time I spent on searching will be no surprise when you know that I had trouble passing by any of the mashups, special features, groups, extra. It is a whole new world for me and I felt like Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole.
I come away from this part of the course with two benefits. The first is a huge set of new tools and ideas for use in the library. The other is a new appreciation for what it means to be a young person today - the time involved in staying on top of things, for learning the things which make you stay current and in the loop, the enormity of learning it all, doing it all and making connections. I got lost in the geomap of noodles in Asia (highly recommended), I can't imagine how long I would have continued to search if other responsibilities had not called me away from my reverie. Wow!
What else did I think? I need to improve my photography skills. The vast numbers of breathtaking photos is really wonderful, but also somewhat oppresive for a beginner like myself.
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