23 Things @ UL lunchtime talk on using various photo sharing websites to manage images, and using Rypple a software tool for teachers which provides instant feedback from students.
At the beginning of each semester or commencement of courses within P&ER I take photographs of all of the students in and host them on Flickr ( http:// www.flickr.com ) so that students can easily identify each other. This has also made it easier for lecturers to familiarise themselves with students and learn their names. To use Flickr you must sign up to a Yahoo email account if you don’t already have one. Once this is done you can being uploading photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upload/ You have the option of creating ‘tags’ for your photos. This makes it easier to search for images related to particular concepts. More information here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/
Similar to academic conventions concerning referencing material, any image taken from sites such as Flickr should be given due credit when the owner of the image has granted permission. Permissions and usage policies are covered under Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Flickr also has the facility to use ‘geotags’ – tags associated with a specific location: http://www.flickr.com/map/
One of the particular benefits of Flickr is the number of applications that can use the Flickr interface: http://www.flickr.com/services/ For example, you can integrate Flickr with your Facebook profile: http://www.flickr.com/services/apps/72157622992365366/
Other similar sites include: http://imageshack.us/ - for hosting images http://photobucket.com/ http://picasa.google.com/ - may be more useful if you have a gmail address and don’t want to sign up to a Yahoo/Ymail account.
The 23 Things blog mentions sites such as http://www.imagegenerator.org/ where you can create images such as the one above. Personally, for image manipulation, I prefer to use Photoshop, but it takes some time to master. https://www.photoshop.com/
For an easy way to clip images from the web, take screen shots of specific parts of web pages, save links, etc I would highly recommend Evernote: http://www.evernote.com/ This can be installed on your laptop, desktop, Blackberry, iPhone etc and it will synchronise your profile wherever and whenever you access it. The screen grab utility is far more useful than the standard “print screen” button in that you can select the exact portion of the screen you want to save.
Since January 2009 I have sought weekly evaluations from students on all my modules using an online feedback tool, Rypple ( http:// www.rypple.com ). The feedback I receive on weekly basis has allowed me to address any concerns or change my approach accordingly, rather than wait until the end of semester to solicit feedback, by which time improvements are too late for the current students.
Rypple allows end users to provide feedback anonymously and rank various specific criteria on a scale of 1-5. This data can be output in chart form as above or exported to Excel.
Feedback is limited to 140 characters (like a text message) so end users can provide very specific feedback, saying what they like and what they didn’t like.
The application is also available on iPhones, Blackberrys etc at: http://m.rypple.com