To put it simply, Google Picasa is a free online web photo album management tool. With an application that you can download, you are able to edit and share pictures. These pictures can be uploaded from your camera, taken from your computer, or found on the web. In addition to editing photos, you can use these photos to create a slideshow, collage, add text and tag both people and places. If you choose not to download the application, there is the option of a web-based editing tool called Picnick. You have the same options as before without being limited to the application being downloaded on the computer you are using.
While exploring this tool, I found it pretty easy to use for the moderately knowledgeable. It is not as intuitive, or user-friendly, as I would have liked to see. Someone with prior experience in photo editing tools would have an easy time finding their way around, but those without this experience would be recommended to use the tutorials and online help that is available through Google. The site for the tool was easy to navigate, making it relatively quick to find the basic information needed to decide whether the tool would be useful. The creation of the album was painless, as was uploading, tagging and editing the album.
When my group talked about the benefits of this tool, we looked at how it could enhance the learning experience both in the classroom and beyond. With a tool like this, a teacher and their students can build an online album that is accessible to the student while at school and while at home. Teachers can load photos that are “safe” and approved by their school and/or school district, as well as engage students in creating this album by allowing them to add to it. Students can use the pictures in this album to enhance projects, link content with real-world application, and share their class work with their peers as well as their parents. These albums can kept by students as a portfolio of their work in the class, and can come back to it year after year. They can look at past years to see what has been done before, and find an inspiration for the current years work.
Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to explore this tool. I found ways that I can use it personally as well as professionally. The accessibility to the tool, as well as the price (free), are two benefits that are hard to beat. I am so excited about Picasa that I am already planning ways to incorporate it into my future classroom!
For a summary of our groups work on Picasa, please use the following link:
Thanks for the great reflection and linking to your groups project. I shared your project with the new MAT-A group.
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