Using Instagram to Share Experiences In the Classroom

I've been in Belize during the reflection period for a course I'm taking about mobile learning. During this time we were asked to experiment with a mobile app we were planning on using in a course assignment. I've started experimenting with Instagram since I teach a course in digital media and social networking. The activity I'm working on will have students share experiences in their class blog using Instagram. In their class blog the students write about a hobby or some topic they are interested in.

By adding an Instagram photo stream to their blog they can easily add a visual journey about their topic throughout the semester. By using a class hash tag, all pictures can be centralized on our class website. Instagram will also provide another level of student-student and student-instructor interaction through the ability to comment/like each others photos.

Being out of the country is affording me a way to test the app without the convenience of easy and fast Internet connectivity. I take my photos with the native camera app and send them to Instagram when I get to a wi-fi area. I used a note taking app to jot down details to paste into Instagram when I returned. Even on a slow Internet connection Instagram has not given me any problems adding my images to the stream. The Instagram interface is very easy learn and provides you with a few editing and effects tools.

Assessment of the Instagram part of the activity will be easy to track since all activity is timestamped. I'm working on the assignment rubric criteria for the Instagram portion. Things to consider will be the frequency and timeliness of posts, level of comment details, interactivity generated and proper tagging.

Snapseed test

Today I tried out Google's Snapseed app. Snapseed is a non-destructive image editing app available for iOS and Andriod. You can take a picture with your device and edit it or import one from your gallery. The app has enhancement tools, filters and a variety of methods to share. In this instance, I imported an image, cropped it, applied a retro filter to it, and shared it throught the Blogger app (which I'm using to write this post). This is a picture of me and my oldest daughter, who was 2 at the time, using our tablets. I'm grading papers while she is stomps in muddy puddles with her Peppa Pig app. I look forward to more experimentation and sharing with Snapseed.

ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2014

Just finished reading the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2014 located at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ss14/ERS1406.pdf. This study investigates undergraduate information technology experiences and expectations and help higher education leaders make effective decisions in technology support and investment. The study has 11 years of data presenting technology trends and emerging technologies. #OLCMobile

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