EdTechTopia

Digitizing your photos is not only a great way, it is really THE best way to protect them.  Digital Cameras gives us both quality and the option of whether or not to print. But, since we take more and more photos, it becomes very difficult for us to store. Most of us store our digital pictures on our computer, but if it crashes .. oops .. everything is lost! Thus online photo storage helps “secure” your photos.

Online photo storage also makes sharing your photos as easy as pie.  In fact, since I never really found making a pie really that easy, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it makes sharing your images even EASIER than making a pie.  What do you think of that?

 Here’s a list of some of the most common photo uploading/sharing websites:

1. Flickr
2. Photobucket
3. Picasa
4. Photoshop Express

Which one is best?  It’s really up to you- Each has its own features and benefits.  For example, I use Flickr to store/share my work photos because many of my colleagues also use it (Flickr is compatible with Yahoo email accounts), and I use Picasa to work with my personal photos.  Picasa is a Google application and requires a gmail account to operate.  Since my personal email is a gmail account, Picasa is the easiest and most sensible tool for me to use to manage my personal photos.

I have never personally used Photobucket, but many people speak highly of it due to its large storage capabilities.  Photoshop express is the new, sleek kid on the block.  It may become a personal favorite to many people because it is basically a streamlined version of the very costly ($300 & up) downloadable softeare package: Adobe Photoshop.

Ultimately, the site you choose to store/share your photos online may be determined by:

• what type of email account you already have
• what type of image softeare you might already be comfortable with, and
• how much and in what manner you wish to edit your photos

Flickr is probably the most widely used of the photo-storing sites I’ve mentioned, as it’s one of the “oldest” Web 2.0 applications that still exists.  I’ll go into more depth in a later post about the wonderful things you can do with Flickr in addition to just storing your pictures there, but you can click here to take a look at just one of the many educational uses of Flickr- the NOTES tool. 

“Teaching Art History with the “NOTES” feature of Flickr: Flickr is a great way to open up an online conversation about art, and the Notes function allows you to comment on a selected feature or section of your image. In this example, you can see the various comments about specific elements of the Merode Altarpiece as you mouse over the image. More general comments about the piece are contributed at the bottom. Notice that both the notes in the photo and the comments below are contributed from a variety of participants. You can add notes by clicking the “add note” icon above the image.” -The Carrot Revolution

If you have any questions/comments about online photo storage/sharing, please feel free to comment to this post.  And, when using sites like Flickr with your students, if you’re worried about them finding inappropriate pictures on the web, why not use that as a teachable moment and bring them into the conversation about it, as suggested in this post by Steve Dembo.

My next post will discuss basic online photo editing, which may help you decide which storage site you choose to use.  Stay tuned!

-HAS