Blog post 18

Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

In an educational setting, Google Photos can provide students and teachers visual representations of what they are learning in class. There are only a few things to do in order to successfully integrate this online tool for students use. First, students must have a google account to be able to upload photos and videos to their account. One of the incredible features is for users to store, organize and create animations from photos. As a new user of this image hosting services, I am impressed about using Google Photos for my personal and professional social media use in the future. It is a good option to work across all platforms where I can easily have access to all my photos for sharing with others. It is a quick and easy way to organize and manage photos in one platform. Google Photos can benefit teachers and students because it provides a place for everyone to show visual representations. One of the main benefits of using Google Photos is that it offers unlimited storage for free. Then Google Photos gives users the option to share albums and provides options to choose to secure users’ privacy. This online tool can create collages, animations, search for people or things. Another feature is the having a personalized photo assistant that can put together slide shows, collages, and animations. However, I can also edit the photos and create my own animations from my images. It is truly how convenient Google Photos can be for teachers to use in the classroom.

There are three main applications for using Google Photos in the classroom:

1.      Grade level: Elementary-Middle school - Subject: Reading and Writing

a.      Teachers can have a “Photo of the Day” warm up activity for students at the beginning of the class period. Students need to think about who is this person/ people? What is the story behind this person/people? It allows students to develop their creative writing skills and truly explore their own creativity. It can be a less structured approach to typical writing exercises because students write what they want to write in their journals. Students are more likely to enjoy writing and develop their own voices. In addition, there are tons of places for teachers to find incredible pictures such as Humans of New York, Word Press Photo, NASA, even fashion blogs such as the Sartorialist.

b.      Google Photo assignments: Teacher can upload images and students can make comments on the album about their impressions. Students can also take pictures uploaded to this online tool and write a story that connects to the images.

2.      Grade level: Middle School

a.      Google Photos gives teachers the tools to create a shared album with parents and post it on the Edmodo, blog, teacher website for parents to see what are students learning in the classroom.

3.      Grade level: English – Subject: English

a.      For this activity, students will have about seven weeks to create this semester project using Google Photos. There are two general ideas for this project: Students can either showcase what they have done (significant moments, events, school activities, etc.) and learn in class during the semester or it can be a “This is all about me” where students share who they are, likes-dislikes, hobbies, family, and goals for their future. It is up to the teacher to choose between these two options. Students can also write a one-page essay about their learning experience or an autobiographical essay. Students must include about fifteen to twenty pictures in their collages. Students have to present to class their final project and share their collage link to the teacher.