Students love to have their work put on display. Think about it-a kid goes through 3 hours making something awesome, only for one person (the teacher) to see it. That doesn't seem right! Have students share their work with their class in real life--that's easy. But I also think it's a powerful thing to share their work online. Students think it's cool to be able to see their work on a class website. They can show their parents. They can see other classmates' work, etc. The question is, "How do we do this?" With technology, we can do this in a very fast, efficient way. I have done this many ways in the past, always looking for the fastest possible way to share student work online. One of the fastest ways I have discovered is to use Google Drive. Here's how:
Create a folder in your Google Drive. Label it "Photo Journal 15-16"
"Share" the folder to get the link for view only.
Post/share the link on a website or some place students can easily access it.
The efficient part is how to get the images into the folder.
Get the Google Drive app on your smartphone. Take a picture of their work or whatever you want to add to the photo journal. With the Google Drive app, open the folder you created for the photo journal, and simply upload the image(s) from the camera roll. Once this is done, the images are instantly in the folder and instantly available for viewing.
Students constantly asked me when I was going to update the Photo journal. It was a good motivator because they would ask if a certain project or task was going into the photo journal and if specifically their project was.
Picasa allows you to share student work quick and easy. On my website, I have a"showcase" page which I use to share student work. I use Picasa because it is synced with my Google account and I like how you can post a slideshow right on your blog/website. Students constantly ask me when I'm going to add more stuff to the showcase page. They like to have their work shared. They take pride in their work and try harder knowing other might see it. Since I started showcasing student work on my website, I have seen an overall increase in effort of my students. With my iPhone, I take pictures of student work and easily upload them to my picasa web album. Having an iPhone makes this easier, but if you don't have an iPhone, you can still share. You could scan the student work with a scanner and upload the images that way. Whether you share student work online or hang it on a wall, I think its a great thing to do to get the student excited and proud of their work.
