My 48th podcast is brought to you by the letters “S,” “N,” “O,” “W,” “D,” “A,” and “Y.” The snow wasn’t the problem today, but the trees and power lines that the snow took down were a bit of a hinderance.
Show Notes:
I had a great post written on Flickr’s 200 image limit and my debate over whether or not I should switch to a pro account. I reasoned that by switching I would get rid of that limit and my need to resize my images (that 20 MB/month limit can be a killer…), but that I’m so much of a cheapskate that it might not be worth it.
Then I noticed that I could see all 309 of my pictures, even if I wasn’t logged in.
So much for my rant!
… I think Flickr needs to update it’s FAQ.
-= UPDATE! =-
And now I can only see 200 pictures again. Why is Flickr turning the limit on and off? In light of this I’ve added my original post below.
-=-=-=-=-
As I’m sure you may have noticed, I’ve integrated my Flickr account into my blog and my RSS feed. Flickr is a great way to share photos, and it even has a Creative Commons section where you can find pictures that you’re allowed to use for other projects.
They offer free and paid accounts, and therein lies my problem.
You see, while the free account offers many useful services it will only display 200 pictures for you at a time. It won’t delete the old pictures, and if you’re already showing them on a blog they’ll still be visible there, but you won’t be able to get to those pictures from the Flickr site unless you pony up for a pro account.
As I’m typing this I’ve already uploaded 200+ pictures this school year. That means I can’t reference any of the artworks I uploaded last year.
Unless I get a pro account.
Which I wouldn’t mind having.
The question I need to answer is: “Is the pro account worth it?”
The geek in me wants to say yes, because the removal of an upload quota would let me post larger images and I hate resizing. The cheapskate in me is happy with the free service.
This is something I need to work out. I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday nbc4.com posted this story on their website. I recommend that you go and read the whole article before you continue with my own ramblings. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
All done? Good.
I’m sure the author of that article wanted his or her thesis to be that there’s a growing problem among today’s youth where they think that the rules in the digital realm are different from the rules in the analog realm. The solution of course is to more thoroughly educate students about plagiarism and to also know how to look for it.
At least that’s what I think the author’s take was on it, and two years ago I would have agreed with it completely.
Let me first preface my own thesis with the following statements:
I don’t have any problem acknowledging any of those points. My contention is with the point of view.
Allow me to elaborate by quoting two sentences from the story itself.
I would propose that the solution would be to look at that part of the problem in a new light. Remember, when the Industrial Revolution put many farmers out of work they saw the change as catastrophic, but at the same time those unemployed workers were hired in droves to work in the factories. (Thanks for the history lesson, Bob!)
At the risk of sounding too much like Mr. Warlick, we’re in the thick of a digital revolution. The farmers who couldn’t bear change suffered, starved, and in the worst of it started riots and rebellions. Those that changed had a chance.
It’s sad that all that free information out there is seen as a disadvantage for students. With our current teaching methods (at least in most schools) we’re still pretending we’re in the 1900s or even 1800s. “Memorize this, quiz on Thursday” might have worked well when we were kids, but let’s be honest here.
How often do you encounter problems where you cannot check a reference if necessary. They make those teachers’ editions for a reason, after all!
I currently do not have textbooks that I can use in my classrooms, and frankly I don’t want them. I have a few reference materials I can use in and out of the classroom, but it’s so much easier to use the internet that sometimes O don’t even crack a book open to plan a lesson. As someone who is required to use his art lessons to teach all the other subjects, I think that’s really saying something.
If we’re supposed to prepare students to survive in the “real world,” (That is our job, right? Right?!) then we should show them how to use references the same way we do.
What if a teacher assigned a project where the report wasn’t even graded, but the responses to other students’ reports were?
I’ve rambled on long enough, so how about one of you wrap this up for me?
My 47th podcast is tale of how some special needs students are showing lifelong learner skills. Yes, beleive it or not we’re not failing all our students!
Show Notes:
Art, Education, Netcast | theartguy | 
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